Vicki Ward

Well, I think that's a ridiculous thing to say, given the carelessness with which they've handled this entire process.

I mean, the fact that they didn't take enough care and effort to make sure that those victims' details were redacted, you know, to me undermines any notion that they can say with any clear conviction that there should be no further prosecution.

I mean, none of us have been able to go through all these files.

I mean, it's physically impossible at this point.

It's going to take a while.

And I just want to set the scene for folks who don't know or understand.

Yes.

And so what many of the victims have wanted to understand, because it was so egregious, the Feds, the FBI had worked very, very hard at this point and knew, the Feds knew of the scale of Epstein's abuse.

They understood that.

And so the idea that suddenly the state could come in and he could do a deal where he pled guilty to these two state charges.

One was prostitution and the other was soliciting a minor sentence.

And so basically nothing compared to what the feds knew was going on, that he could make this deal, plead guilty to these two charges, get a very short jail sentence, which turned out to be ridiculously cushy and he was allowed to have work release on it.

And this deal was done behind the victim's backs.

They weren't even notified about it.

It was totally shocking.

And on top of it, Epstein got this non-prosecution agreement signed, which meant that four individuals who worked very closely with him...

the government agreed not to prosecute them.

And they had been sort of, you know, women closely around him, some of them who'd gone out and recruited other girls.

So, you know, understandably, the victims were outraged and wondered, how could this have happened?

A lot traces back to that deal.