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Unfortunately, he made the offer to an undercover cop, and was subsequently charged with “obstruction of official proceedings” for withholding information that could have advanced the criminal investigation of Epstein—which by that point had been settled in a plea deal. Rodriguez was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison (Epstein was allowed to serve 13 months in the Palm Beach county jail), and now awaits an additional sentence on Aug. 24 in federal court in Miami for transporting firearms, another deal he says he made to pay the bills after he lost his job. In a deposition given for the civil suits, Rodriguez testified that he was instructed to always have $2,000 in cash on hand, so that he could pay both the girls who gave massages and recruiters such as Haley Robson who brought them to the house. He also testified that Epstein made large contributions to the Palm Beach Police Department, and in return was given PBPD baseball hats to put on the dashboard of his various cars to avoid being stopped or ticketed by local police. Retired Police Chief Michael Reiter, in his own deposition, acknowledged that, in addition to earlier donations to the police department (which are fairly common in well-heeled Palm Beach), Epstein had recently given the department $100,000 for some sophisticated equipment. The police were still researching the purchase when Epstein came under suspicion, and Reiter ordered the money returned. (Guy Frostin, one of Epstein’s local attorneys, told police that Epstein also gave $100,000 to the Florida Ballet for massages, because he was “very passionate” about massages being “therapeutically and spiritually” beneficial. Yet victims told police they had no massage training.) Perhaps most disturbing, in terms of possible sex trafficking, was Epstein’s relationship with Jean Luc Brunel, owner of the MC2 modeling agency. According to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, an alleged victim said that Epstein, Maxwell, Brunel, Rodriguez, and Marcinkova “deliberately engaged in a pattern of racketeering that involved luring minor children through MC2, mostly girls under the age of 17, to engage in sexual play for money.” (Which would amount to trafficking.) Brunel is a 50-plus French playboy who was formerly part owner of Karin, a Paris-based modeling agency. He lives in New York and South Beach, Florida, and owns 85 percent of MC2., which has offices in New York, Miami, and Tel Aviv. (The remaining 15 percent is owned by his partner, Jeff Fuller.) Brunel has been observed as a house guest at Epstein’s Palm Beach home and may well have had contact with him also in New York, where Epstein owns a lavish home, and in Paris, where Epstein keeps an apartment on elegant Ave. Foch. CBS reporter Craig Pyes, who investigated Brunel for a 60 Minutes broadcast many years ago, is quoted in Michael Gross” book about the modeling industry, Model: The Ugh: Business o Beautiful Women. Pyes told the author that Brunel “ranks among the sleaziest people in the fashion industry. We’re talking about a conveyor belt, not a casting couch. Hundreds of girls were not only harassed but molested.” Now The Daily Beast has learned that Epstein had made a $1 million wire transfer to Brunel’s offshore bank account in September 2004, just as he was setting up MC2. Whether this was a gift or a loan or a backdoor investment in the new venture is unknown. A French citizen who managed to avoid giving evidence in the Epstein investigation, Brunel declined to comment on any of this, as does Fuller. Asked in April of Brunel's activities, 20 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011931