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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 204-3 Filed 04/16/21 Page 61 of 348 Lourie opined that the government could argue “that over time [Epstein] set up a network of illegal high school massage recruits that would be difficult to duplicate anywhere else,” which supported the conclusion that the massages must have been a motivating purpose of his travel, if not the sole purpose. However, Lourie expressed concern about “getting to the jury” on this issue and noted that he had not found a legal case factually on point. Villafafia told OPR that she disagreed with Lourie’s analysis of the purpose of travel issue and had discussed the matter with him. Villafafia also recalled that there were aspects of the defense submissions she and her colleagues considered “particularly weak.” On June 26, 2007, Sloman, Menchel, Lourie, Villafafia, the case agent, and the West Palm Beach squad supervisor met at the Miami USAO with Epstein attorneys Dershowitz, Black, Lefcourt, and Sanchez. Dershowitz led the defense team’s presentation. From the USAO perspective, the meeting was merely a “listening session.”°* Echoing the arguments made in Lefcourt’s letter, Dershowitz argued that the USAO should permit the state to handle the case because these were “traditionally state offenses.” The case agent recalled being uncomfortable that the defense was asking questions in an attempt to gain information about the federal investigation, including the number of victims and the types of sexual contact that had been involved. Villafafia told OPR that when Epstein’s attorneys left the meeting, they appeared to be “under the impression that they had convinced us not to proceed.” But Menchel told OPR, “[T]hey obviously did not persuade” the USAO because “we . . . didn’t drop the investigation.” According to Villafafia, Lourie, and Menchel, during a short post-meeting discussion at which Lourie expressed concern about the purpose of travel issue and Menchel raised issues related to general credibility of the victims, the prevailing sense among the USAO participants was that the defense presentation had not been persuasive. Villafafia told OPR that she “left [the meeting] with the impression that we were continuing towards” filing charges. IV. ACOSTA DECIDES TO OFFER EPSTEIN A TWO-YEAR STATE PLEA TO RESOLVE THE FEDERAL INVESTIGATION USAO internal communications show that in July 2007, Acosta developed, or adopted, the broad outline of an agreement that could resolve the federal investigation. The agreement would leave the case in state court by requiring Epstein to plead guilty to state charges, but would accomplish three goals important to the federal prosecutors: Epstein’s incarceration; his registration as a sexual offender; and a mechanism to provide for the victims to recover monetary = Villafafia also told OPR that Lourie had, at times, expressed concern about the prosecution’s ability to prove Epstein’s knowledge of the victims’ ages, particularly with regard to those who were 16 or 17 at the time they provided massages. “4 In his written response to OPR, Menchel indicated that he had no independent recollection of the June 26, 2007 meeting. In his OPR interview, Menchel said that although he had little memory of the meeting, to the best of his recollection the USAO simply listened to the defense presentation, and in a contemporaneous email, Menchel opined that he viewed the upcoming June 26 meeting as “more as [the USAO] listening and them presenting their position.” 35 DOJ-OGR- 00003237