Ex-FL Police Chief Suspects Jeffrey Epstein Was Tipped Off To Raid, Had Case Against Him Leaked to His Defense

[...] NBC News has spoken with nearly two dozen women who allege that Epstein didn’t operate alone. [Former Palm Beach police chief Michael] Reiter said the investigation identified adult women who had sexual contact with underage girls, and in some cases performed sexual battery on children. “This was a financially successful, smart, capable, well-networked and well-financed individual who built an organization around him that supported his criminal enterprise,” Reiter said.

But as the months wore on with the police building their case, odd things began to happen.

When detectives armed with a search warrant entered his home with a video camera, what they found made them suspect he had been tipped off.

“The place had been cleaned up,” Reiter said.

It wasn’t completely devoid of evidence but a computer that contained all of the home’s surveillance camera footage was gone. “And all the wires were left hanging there,” Reiter said.

After six months of investigation, Reiter said, the local police department noticed a shift in attitude from the state prosecutors.

Reiter said the prosecutors told him the witnesses were not credible. The prosecutors, Reiter said, suddenly seemed dismissive of the case, and were uncooperative in approving critical investigative techniques that hindered the Palm Beach police department investigation.

Epstein, who had a massive bankroll and extensive connections, had assembled a high-powered team of lawyers, including Kenneth Starr, Alan Dershowitz, Jack Goldberger and Jay Lefkowitz. Around this time, Reiter said, the investigation took another strange turn; Epstein’s defense team seemed to know details about the probe before they were made public.

“We believed that the content of our probable cause affidavit eventually, some time after we presented it to the state attorney's office, ended up with the defense attorneys,” Reiter said. “Because minute details that nobody else knew that were in those documents were being refuted and contrary information provided by the defense.”

“This,” Reiter said, “never happened to me before in my career.”

Reiter was so frustrated that he took the unusual step of asking the state attorney, Barry Krischer, to remove himself from the case, citing the office’s “highly unusual” treatment of the investigation.

When that didn’t work, the police chief turned his evidence over to the FBI.

“And they said, ‘This is an easy case. This is a horrific situation. We’ll put him away for the rest of his life,’” Reiter recalled.

“That’s what the U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorneys, told us as well.”

But Reiter’s renewed enthusiasm didn’t last long. In time it became clear that the federal probe was also stalling, though he believes the FBI agents were invested in the case.

Reiter arranged to meet face-to-face with the prosecutor in charge of the case, U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. Acosta would go on to be named U.S. labor secretary under President Donald Trump.

The conversation, Reiter said, did not get off to a promising start.

“He basically said in a very measured manner that the defense in this case has successfully delayed and frustrated their investigation and their prosecution of the case,” Reiter said.

But Reiter left Acosta’s office hoping for the best after the prosecutor told him they were moving forward with the investigation.

“I left that meeting thinking, ‘This guy hopefully is going to do his job,’” Reiter said.

It didn’t turn out the way Reiter had hoped. In 2007, Acosta made the decision not to charge Epstein in federal court. Instead, he sent the case back to the local prosecutors.

Reiter was crushed. The same office that had seemingly refused to pursue Epstein aggressively was now back in charge.

Acosta agreed to sign a non-prosecution deal that ended the federal sex crimes investigation and spared Epstein the prospect of serving several years in prison. Instead, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months at Palm Beach county jail. Epstein was also required to register as a sex offender and pay his restitution to his victims.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Reiter said. “It was extremely unusual and disappointing.”

Reiter said he believes the result would have been different had the victims been underage boys.

"That would have shocked the senses more," Reiter said. "Somehow this hit a different place — that they were young women on the way to being women."

Epstein was released from jail in the summer of 2009. The case seemed behind him until 2018 when the Miami Herald published an expose highlighting the government’s kid-glove treatment of a man accused of preying on dozens of underage girls.

Acosta defended the way his office handled what he described as a complicated case. “We believe we proceeded appropriately,” Acosta said during a July 2019 press conference. "We did what we did because we wanted to see Epstein go to jail."

But Acosta resigned as labor secretary two days later amid mounting criticism.

Krischer, the former state attorney, didn’t return a request for comment from NBC News. But he released a statement in July defending his office and pushing back against Acosta's suggestion that state prosecutors were driving the case.

"If Mr. Acosta was truly concerned with the state’s case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 53-page indictment that his own office drafted," Krischer said.

Best-selling author Vicky Ward reported Tuesday that Alexander Acosta told the Trump transition team when asked about his handling of Jeffrey Epstein's case that "I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone."https://t.co/DgU7ByVrPp

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) July 9, 2019

REPORTER: Were you ever made aware at any point in your handling of this case that Mr. Epstein was an intelligence asset of some sort?

ACOSTA: There has been reporting to that effect ... I would hesitate to take this reporting as fact.

[That's most definitely not a denial!] pic.twitter.com/gpQohqdp3H

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 10, 2019

EXCLUSIVE: Married Israeli politician Ehud Barak is seen hiding his face entering Jeffrey Epstein's NYC townhouse as bevy of young beauties were also spotted going into mansion - despite his claim he NEVER socialized with the pedophile and his girlshttps://t.co/wQBJDkfVzt

— HomerB (@HomerB33) July 16, 2019

Bill Gates, Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew, Steve Bannon: guests of Epstein in his $8M Paris apartment, according to the butler there.https://t.co/M46MdwDCUp

— Larry Sanger (@lsanger) September 27, 2019