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Kenneth W. Starr
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
777 South Figueroa Street
Los Angeles, CA 90017-5800
May 27, 2008
Joe D. Whitley
Alston & Bird LLP
The Atlantic Building
950 F Street, NW
Washington. DC 20004-1404
VIA FACSIMILE CONFIDENTIAL
Honorable Mark Filip
Office of the Deputy Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
Dear Judge Filip:
This letter briefly supplements our prior submission to you dated May 19, 2008. In that
communication, we urgently requested that your Office conduct an independent review of the
proposed federal prosecution of our client, Jeffrey Epstein. The dual reasons for our request that
you review this matter are (i) the bedrock need for integrity in the enforcement of federal
criminal laws, and (ii) the profound questions raised by the unprecedented extension of federal
law by the United States Attorney's Office in Miami (the "USAO") to a prominent public figure
who has close ties to former President Clinton.
The need for review is now all the more exigent. On Monday, May 19, 2008, First
Assistant Jeffrey Sloman of the USAO responded to an email from Jay Lefkowitz informing U.S.
Attorney Alex Acosta that we would be seeking your Office's review. Mr. Sloman's letter,
which imposed a deadline of June 2, 2008 to comply with all the terms of the current Non-
Prosecution Agreement (the "Agreement"), plus new unilateral modifications, on pain of being
deemed in breach of that Agreement, appears to have been deliberately designed to deprive us of
an adequate opportunity to seek your Office's review in this matter.
The USAO's desire to foreclose a complete review is understandable, given that the
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section ("CEOS") has already determined that our substantive
arguments regarding why a federal prosecution of Mr. Epstein is not warranted were
"compelling." However, in contradiction to Mr. Sloman's assertion that CEOS had provided an
independent, de novo review, CEOS made clear that it did not do so. Indeed, CEOS declined to
examine several of the more troubling aspects of the investigation of Mr. Epstein, including the
deliberate leak to the New York Times of numerous highly confidential aspects of the
investigation and negotiations between the parties as well as the recent crop of civil lawsuits
filed against Mr. Epstein by Mr. Sloman's former law partner.
The unnecessary and arbitrarily imposed deadline set by the USAO was done without any
respect for the normal functioning and scheduling of state judicial matters. It requires that
Mr. Epstein's counsel persuade the State Attorney of Palm Beach to issue a criminal information
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Honorable Mark Filip
May 27, 2008
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to a charge that the State Attorney has not, despite a two year investigation, determined to be
appropriate. Mr. Epstein's counsel must also successfully expedite a plea of guilty to this charge
on a date prior to July 8, 2008, which is the date presently set by the state court Judge.
Further, the unnecessary deadline is even more problematic because Mr. Epstein's effort
to reconcile the state charge and sentence with the terms of the Agreement requires an unusual
and unprecedented threatened application of federal law. Thus, it places Mr. Epstein in the
highly unusual position of having to demand that the State acquiesce to a more severe
punishment than it had already determined was appropriate.
We have attempted to resolve these and other issues through the USA() and CEOS,
including raising our concerns about the USAO's inappropriate conduct with respect to this
matter. But those avenues have now been shut down. Mr. Sloman's letter purports to prohibit
any further contact between Mr. Epstein's defense team and U.S. Attorney Acosta, and instead
requires us to communicate with the USA() only though Mr. Sloman's subordinates.
While it pains us to say this, this misguided prosecution from the outset gives the
appearance that it may have been politically motivated. Mr. Epstein is a highly successful, self-
made businessman and philanthropist who entered the public arena only by virtue of his close
personal association with former President Bill Clinton. There is little doubt in our minds that
the USA() never would have contemplated a prosecution in this case if Mr. Epstein were just
another "John."
U.S. Attorney Acosta previously has stated that he is "sympathetic" to our federalism-
related concerns, but he has taken the position that his authority is limited by enforcement
policies set forth in Washington, D.C. As expressed in our prior communication to you, we
believe that a complete and independent appraisal and resolution of this case most appropriately
would be undertaken by your Office—beginning with the rescission of the arbitrary, unfair, and
unprecedented deadline that Mr. Sloman demands to have imposed in this case. At the very
least, we would appreciate a tolling of the arbitrary timeline imposed on our client by the USA()
in order to allow time for your office to consider our request that you undertake a review of this
case.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Respectfully submitted,
, Q-1444
Kenneth W. Starr
D. Whitley
Kirkland & Ellis LLP Alston & Bird LL
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