Relentless Pursuit

by Bradley J. Edwards

  Rather than proceed with the bail hearing, Epstein’s attorneys requested a postponement so that they could more thoroughly prepare their argument for why their client deserved to be released. The court agreed to a few days’ delay, and with that, Mr. Epstein was escorted out the side door of the courtroom, back to his cell.

  Courtney had seen what she thought she would never see—Jeffrey Epstein in a prison uniform. “It still doesn’t feel real,” she kept saying as we moved from the courtroom to the courthouse lobby.

  When Courtney, Michelle, and I tried to leave the building, we realized that there was no way to get to our car without encountering the press. As soon as we exited, cameras were put in our faces and questions started flying fast, at all three of us: “How do you feel now that he’s in custody? Do you think he’ll stay? Will the government let him off again this time? Don’t you think he’ll buy his way out of this? Brad, how did you finally get him arrested?”

  We had a plan to get to our car, which was parked around the corner. Courtney and Michelle walked ahead of me while I stayed back answering as many questions as I could while walking. The reporters and cameramen, moving backward in front of me, occasionally tripping, were frustrated that I didn’t hold a press conference and brief everyone. Some, of course, were downright mad. Reporters continued stacking up in front of me, still walking backward while I walked faster, trying to make it to our getaway driver. One reporter backed into a light pole and fell down, and like dominos, two cameramen fell on top of him, cameras and mics flying. Once I saw that no one was hurt, I used the pileup as my chance to get to our SUV, now waiting at the corner.

  In the ensuing hours after getting away, we got constant media calls and emails demanding our reaction. Rightfully so. The public had a legitimate interest in the case. It was crucial to us that everyone understood the importance of the event. At the same time, Courtney and Michelle did not want their privacy invaded. We decided to do a brief interview with ABC News, to be aired on Good Morning America and World News Tonight. It was the right idea because it gave Courtney and Michelle a long-awaited chance to share their feelings with the public on their own terms.

  Courtney was happy with the day’s events, and seeing her finally feel some satisfaction made me happy, too. On somewhat of a high, she agreed to do one live interview the next day, this one with Gayle King on CBS This Morning, a show she loved watching.

  After the ABC taping, Courtney and I got into the SUV and went back to the hotel. The day was a whirlwind, so this was the first time we really got to talk. I explained that, in reality, nothing eventful had actually happened. Epstein appeared in court, but the issue of whether he would get bail and be released was yet to be resolved. There would be another hearing where the court would make that determination, and I thought the likelihood of bail was a close call.

  “Does it matter whether he gets out on bail?” she asked. “They’re putting the case together anyway. And he had so many victims—the government can’t lose.” As the words were coming out of her mouth, I could see the wheels turning in another direction. She was, rightfully, second-guessing that thought.

  I finished it for her: “Bail is a make-or-break decision for the case. His ability to do what he has done for so long is contingent on his ability to control everyone around him. He has this immense, nearly absolute control over his victims, his employees, his co-conspirators, and his friends, many of whom are rich and powerful. Everyone is afraid of him. If he stays in jail, he loses his control. He’ll be as powerless as you or me. More victims will come forward and the case will get stronger. His employees and co-conspirators will turn on him so they can stay out of jail. His friends will distance themselves and likely help the prosecution. Stripping him of his freedom deprives him of his greatest asset: his total control of everyone. Plus, if he gets out and sees that things aren’t going his way, he’ll escape from New York one way or the other. One thing I can tell you for sure: he will never go to trial.”

  She was concerned. As she thought more, for some reason she had second thoughts about doing the Gayle King show. “Do I have to do it? I thought it was a good idea, but I really don’t want to now,” she said.

  I told her, “It’s your choice. If an interview helps get something done you want to accomplish and you feel comfortable with it, then do it. Otherwise, don’t.”

  Despite her affinity for Gayle, she decided not to go on, so I canceled. The producer was not happy with this, to say the least, and asked if I would go on alone.

  I thought it through. Epstein is in jail, but maybe not for much longer. Once he’s out, everyone is going to hide. We need the case to get stronger, and fast. More victims need to come forward. I need to invite them to call the FBI. I called the producer back and said, “Okay, I’ll do it.”

  The next morning, I was live on CBS This Morning with Gayle King, Anthony Mason, and Tony Dokoupil. It was the right show for the task at hand. I got four minutes on air to lay the case out generally and call for other victims to come forward, which resulted in many more victims almost immediately contacting the FBI.

  When I got back to Florida that night, Courtney called and said, “I want to go to the bail hearing. When is it?”

  “It’s Monday, July fifteenth. Brittany and I will fly back up to New York with you,” I told her. Brittany Henderson had been working with me on Epstein cases for five years.

  * * *

  The scene at the courthouse in Manhattan on the fifteenth was similar to the scene a week earlier. The media presence was maybe even greater. I sat between Courtney and Annie Farmer, a victim who was represented by David Boies. During the hearing, the government revealed that another safe they had opened inside Epstein’s New York mansion contained loose diamonds, stacks of cash, and an expired Austrian passport with Mr. Epstein’s photo but a false name and Saudi Arabian address. This was a bombshell. When that was announced, I happened to look over to the reporters in the jury box and saw one mouth, Holy shit, recognizing that this was evidence that Epstein had a decades-long, premeditated getaway plan.

  Epstein was offering to put up $500 million as collateral, which he claimed was his entire net worth, although those of us who knew him believed that amount was grossly understated. Regardless, it was a lot of money and a sign that he desperately wanted out. There was only one known circumstance in life he couldn’t cope with, and this was it. Extended time in prison for him was impossible. He knew that this bail decision by the court was a matter of life or death.

  The hearing was coming to an end and Judge Berman asked if any victims were in the courtroom and wanted to speak. Courtney and Annie, who had never met before that moment, briefly conferred across me, only a few feet behind the chair where Epstein sat. They both decided this was their time to speak. In fact, each saw it as her duty. Neither had come to the hearing to say something, but they both stood up. Epstein didn’t turn around. He had effectively silenced his victims for decades. And now, when he had no control over them, and no warning, they were about to give the court their opinions on whether he should be released.

  Annie spoke first. She leaned in and explained that she “had the misfortune” of meeting Jeffrey Epstein when she was very young, alluding to his assault on her at his New Mexico ranch. Her message was clear and powerful. She told the judge that Epstein needed to stay in jail because his wealth, privilege, and notoriety would make it difficult for other victims to come forward if he was free.

  Then I introduced Courtney. As I stepped up to the podium, I glanced at Epstein. He stared straight ahead.

  Courtney came forward next and was even more direct: “I was sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein starting at the age of fourteen. It’s a public case, and he’s a scary person to have walking the streets.” She urged the judge to keep him in prison “for the safety of any other girls.”

  Judge Berman did not rule on bail that day, which indicated to us that he needed to carefully deliberate on the decision.

  We walked o
ut of the courthouse and were mobbed by reporters. David Boies and I approached the microphones staged on the steps of the courthouse. We answered questions while Courtney, Annie, Brittany, and Stan stood behind us. One of the photographs that would be most widely circulated in the days to come was one of all six of us at that short press conference. Brittany, who was roughly the same age as Courtney, was even mislabeled as an Epstein victim rather than a lawyer for the victims.

  After a few minutes, we walked down the steps, hoping our impromptu press availability would stave off a swarm. It didn’t. Courtney had not come to New York to appear before a distrusted media. She was there to see that justice was served, and in that respect, she had already done her part. She and Brittany pushed through the crowd of reporters and Brittany hailed a cab. We all essentially dove inside. Because we had just dodged a huge crowd of paparazzi who were still calling out to us and surrounding the car, the taxi driver just assumed that we had to be important, maybe even famous. He spent the entire drive back to the hotel asking questions and trying to take selfies with us to text to his family and friends.

  By the time we got back, my email inbox was full. Each television network was pushing for us to appear. Going on one would mean the others would get offended. After all, that’s what had happened the week before, when Courtney only spoke with ABC.

  Stan said, “You guys have been fighting this thing for ten years and nobody in the press wanted to listen. These events have turned that around. You can’t complain that they don’t get the facts right when you are the team who has the facts, but you don’t want to make the media rounds. I understand your philosophy about not wanting unnecessary publicity, but we are at a crossroads here. The case either gets stronger now or it weakens. The press is key. If you hold a press conference and invite the media in general, you can satisfy everyone at once.” His words were convincing—now that Jeffrey Epstein was behind bars, we had a real shot at getting victims to contact the government and help them win their case. It finally felt like the right time for the world to be told about the journey we had taken over the past decade.

  I agreed to a one-hour press conference the next day at the Andaz 5th Avenue hotel in midtown Manhattan. The room was wall-to-wall reporters. “Just be careful what you say, Brad,” Stan warned. “Talk about what you know. The press can be tricky.”

  I said, “I’m just going to try and answer their questions.”

  There was no script. Brittany, Stan, Courtney, and I sat at a table. I then spent more than an hour laying out the summary of the history of the case, dispelling false rumors, setting the record straight on certain commonly reported mistakes regarding the current case, and making a plea to the public to call the FBI with any information. The press, accustomed to lawyers speaking in meaningless sound bites and avoiding answering real questions at all costs, seemed pleasantly surprised by our candid and thorough presentation. Before we left, Courtney read a letter she had written to other victims, again urging them to call the FBI. It could not have gone better. We, as a team, did our part.

  * * *

  In the same way people remember where they were when JFK was shot or when the planes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11, I will never forget my exact location when the court ruled on Jeffrey Epstein’s bail. On July 18, two days after our press conference, Brittany and I were sitting at the Starbucks on Glades Road in Boca Raton, where on more than one occasion I had secretly met with Jeffrey Epstein. Knowing that the judge would be making his ruling any second, we were anxiously going back and forth with predictions until finally the first article popped up on our phones. Epstein’s bail had been denied. It was a surreal moment. Throughout the years, we had become conditioned to the wrong decisions being made, in favor of Epstein.

  In making his ruling, the judge cited, among other things, the heartfelt testimony given a week earlier by Courtney and Annie. Epstein would be in jail until trial, which would be at least a year away. But I knew he’d be in jail much longer—and, more important, I knew he knew that, too. Epstein was never getting out.

  When the hearing ended, we were still sitting at the table when Stan called to debrief us on the reaction from the courtroom. I put him on speaker, and he asked us, “What do you think?”

  In that moment, I reflected on what many victims had told us about the importance of sex to Epstein’s survival. As one of those victims, Johanna, had said, “He needed to have three orgasms a day. It was biological, like eating.”

  I knew the answer immediately: “He’s dead.”

  Three weeks later, he actually was.

  TWO THE HEARING HEARD ’ROUND THE WORLD

  ON JULY 23, 2019, I was on a Disney cruise in Alaska with my family when I got a series of text messages from Brittany telling me it was urgent that I call her back. I did. She had just received a call from a trusted source of ours that Jeffrey Epstein was found in his cell, semiconscious, with injuries to his neck. “He [speaking of our source] is saying either Epstein attempted suicide or his cell mate tried to kill him,” Brittany told me.

  “What’s his cell mate saying?” I asked.

  “He’s apparently saying he never touched Jeff and that he just tried to help him when he saw that he was hurt,” she explained.

  “Tell me about the cell mate,” I inquired, wanting to know more before I could form an opinion with the little information we had available.

  “He was a cop. Arrested on charges of kidnapping and killing four people during a drug deal he was involved in,” she explained, exhausting the details she had been told.

  “Sounds like a suicide attempt to me. If he tried to kill him, Jeff would be dead. At the very least, it would be obvious that there was an attempted murder. The biggest threat to Jeff is himself. If everyone lets him use this cop roommate of his as a decoy, he’ll be gone before we know it.” I paused between thoughts. “Jeff isn’t going to make it in there. He doesn’t want to,” I reasoned. “Has it been reported yet?”

  “No, but it will be any minute,” she said, repeating what our source had told her.

  Shortly after we hung up, the reports came in, with mixed suspicions of suicide and an attack by this muscle-bound dirty cop. Epstein was being placed on suicide watch where he would be monitored around the clock, further confirmation of my belief that he tried to kill himself.

  I called Brittany back. “He’s already made up his mind. It’s just a matter of when he will try again. He’ll make sure he doesn’t fail twice. But he’s going to have to wait until he gets off suicide watch, which could be never.”

  On August 10, 2019, the same source called me as I was stepping onto an early-morning flight home from New Jersey. I answered and he didn’t even bother with hello.

  “He was just found hanging in his cell, he’s gone,” he said in a melancholy tone.

  “You’re kidding. How did this happen? I thought he was on suicide watch,” I came back.

  “I don’t know the details. I’ll let you know when I hear more. It won’t be reported for another hour or so,” he finished before we hung up and I boarded my plane.

  It turned out that Jeffrey convinced a psychologist to let him off suicide watch. Of course he did. He could convince anyone of anything, although this one was tough to swallow. He was the most notorious child molester on the planet. He had fallen overnight from a jet-setting billionaire who controlled everyone around him to a caged animal at the mercy of prison guards and lowlife inmates. All signs indicated a high risk for suicide. And if the circumstantial evidence was not enough, seventeen days after his arrival at the Manhattan Correctional Center, and five days after he was denied bail, he allegedly attempted suicide. Yet, just two weeks later, he was found hanging in his cell with a bed sheet tied around his neck.

  How was I going to explain this to my clients? I called Courtney. She was as in shock as I was. It was a short conversation, as I was taking off. “How did they let this happen?” she asked over and over.

  I sat back in my seat, trying to think b
ack to the many conversations I had with Epstein. Many emotions came over me. Sadness was one. Anger was another—at him and at the correctional facility. They had one job; keep him alive. How difficult is that? I thought. My clients had been robbed of justice. Again. This is not how it was supposed to end. It took eleven years to get here, and one month for him to escape, this time forever.

  On the plane, I hooked up to Wi-Fi and around mid-flight the articles starting coming in.

  Rumors began to fly almost immediately about whether he was murdered or committed suicide. The general public was quick to call foul, stating the obvious in news articles, blog posts, and tweets. As more information poured out about Jeffrey Epstein every day, it became increasingly clear that Epstein’s many powerful friends might be at risk and would have had reason to off him. There were even memes of Hillary Clinton dressed as a prison guard sneaking in to “check on” Mr. Epstein, implying that the Clintons played a role in silencing him. That particular theme got increased traction when it was revealed that among the items found during the search of Epstein’s New York mansion were a large painting of President Clinton wearing “the blue dress” and red heels and a personalized note from Clinton to Epstein. Still, the autopsy concluded Epstein’s death was a suicide.

  The debate didn’t end there, though. Epstein’s brother, Mark, hired a private medical examiner to provide an opinion, who concluded that Epstein’s injuries were more consistent with murder. Epstein’s lawyers highlighted some suspicious evidence, such as the video cameras that should have captured those going in and out of his cell, which just so happened to not work on the day Epstein died. The security guards were allegedly both “asleep” and therefore neither heard nor saw anything.