Twelve accusers of Jeffrey Epstein filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), accusing the agency of failing to protect them and covering up the crimes of the billionaire sex offender.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened,” the complaint text reads. The victims, using “Jane Doe” pseudonyms, allege the Bureau failed to pursue interviews with victims or share its knowledge of Epstein’s sex trafficking operations despite the numerous credible tips they received beginning in 1996. Further, it claims the FBI had specific information about Epstein that it neglected to move forward with.
The suit was filed by Merson Law, a New York-based firm that specializes in sexual assault cases. “The FBI has turned its back on survivor victims, and this lawsuit seeks to hold the FBI responsible for failure to act when it absolutely should have,” said Merson counsel Jennifer Plotkin. It also seeks to prove the US federal government is liable for damages.
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Victims point to the 2006 probe that ended in 2008 after Epstein’s guilty plea to a prostitution charge in the state of Florida. They allege that the FBI routinely ignored tips up to his arrest in July 2019, just a month before he mysteriously died. When asked in December 2023 why his agency did not expend more effort in investigating the tips about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring, FBI Director Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee he would “get with [his] team and figure out if there is more information [they] can provide.”
It is thought that over 100 individuals were victims of Epstein’s crimes. It is not known if these twelve plaintiffs were compensated from a previous settlement with Epstein’s estate, JPMorgan Chase, and Deutsche Bank—which netted a total of $500 million before legal costs.
“Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom—once and for all—of the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring” the complaint affirmed.
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics, economics, and culture for Valuetainment. Follow Shane on X (Twitter).
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