The late Jeffrey Epstein purchased two pairs of size five women’s panties at a store in Palm Beach County Jail, where he was serving a sentence for sex crimes more than a decade ago, The Miami Herald reports, citing records from the local Sheriff’s Office.
The outlet, which published a ground-breaking investigation into Epstein’s case in late 2018, points out that this particular purchase raises questions that the childless man, who had pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, was allowed to buy undergarments that an average-sized adult woman could not wear. The Miami Herald thus asks why this and other details about his time in the jail have not raised any eyebrows.
The Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office is said to have released records of Epstein’s stay amid criticism against Sheriff Ric Bradshaw over the alleged soft treatment that the highly-connected sex offender received. His department is now being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement over allegations that Epstein was allowed to leave his cell whenever he wanted. A separate probe by the Justice Department is trying to find out why then-US Attorney in Miami Alexander Acosta, who served as Donald Trump’s labour secretary and resigned in the wake of the scandal, signed a controversial plea deal with Epstein back in 2008.
The deal enabled Epstein to avoid federal charges, immunised all co-conspirators from prosecution, and allowed him to settle lawsuits from his close to three dozen alleged victims. Before the deal was reached, the FBI reportedly compiled a 53-page indictment on Epstein's sex crimes that would have been enough to send him to prison for life.
After pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison following a long FBI investigation. However, he went on to serve only 13 months of the sentence, was allowed to leave jail six days a week for work, and was held in a private wing of the Florida prison. After his release, he was subject to a year of house arrest, but allowed to fly back and forth from his properties along the Eastern Seaboard.
The Department of Justice announced an investigation into the Epstein case in early 2019, ruling his non-prosecution agreement unconstitutional. In July, Epstein was arrested in New York and accused of the trafficking and abuse of dozens of girls whom he knew were underage at his homes in New York and Florida between 2002 and 2005.
However, a month later, Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York. Although the autopsy concluded that he committed suicide, his death has sparked many conspiracy theories, as Epstein himself had claimed that he had “dirt” on some rich and powerful figures in the US, as reported by The New York Times.