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Daily Business Review: Jeffrey Epstein's attorneys fight to keep plea discussions private Page 2 of 3 served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. He resurfaced recently in New York and has become the subject of news reports about socializing with Britain's Prince Andrew. Personal Inquiry The women say the nonprosecution agreement should be scuttled and Epstein should be open to federal charges because they were not adequately consulted as required under the Crimes Victims Rights Act. They seek disclosure of all correspondence between Epstein's attorneys and the government, claiming it would show prosecutors failed to meet their obligation to keep them and other victims informed. The U.S, attorney's office argued in a 54-page response April 8 to the women's lawsuit that the law does not apply because no federal charges were filed against the financier, only a state charge. The women were denied access to the letters in their civil lawsuit against Epstein, which was settled. The motion by Black, Lefkowitz and Weinberg said there is "no doubt" the women aim to disseminate the material to news outlets. They urge Marra to “decline the invitation to fuel the media campaign against Mr. Epstein." Epstein has had plenty of trouble avoiding the media of late. Reports about his friendship with Prince Andrew sparked a March 20 three-page letter from Alex Acosta, U.S. attorney when the agreement was reached, to the Daily Beast online news site. Acosta said the federal government intervened in Epstein's case at request of police because the Palm Beach state attorney's office was going to offer him a deal with no jail time. Acosta said his office secured, through the nonprosecution agreement, jail time for Epstein, his plea to a sex crime against a minor and his designation as a sex offender. Acosta's letter said Epstein's defense team was not happy with these conditions and tried to hire private investigators to delve into the personal lives of prosecutors assigned to the case as a way of undermining the office's insistence on conditions that went beyond the state case. "Defense counsel investigated individual prosecutors and their families, looking for personal peccadilloes that may provide a basis for disqualification,” Acosta wrote. Sources say the efforts targeted Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey Sloman and Ann Marie Villafafia. Acosta refused to remove them. Acosta, now the law dean at Florida International University in Miami, said he had no comments beyond his letter. The U.S. attorney's office also declined to comment. Sloman, who took over as acting U.S. attorney when Acosta became FIU's law dean, later joined the Ferraro Law Firm in Coral Gables, said only, "Alex's recollection is correct." Black, in an interview with the Daily Business Review, denied Acosta's assertions that the Epstein defense team examined the prosecutors. "We don't investigate prosecutors,” he said. "As far as I know that wasn't done." http://www.dailybusinessreview.com/PubArticleFriendlyDBR.jsp?id=1202490901297 4/21/2011 HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_012705