A group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. federal government over allegations the FBI enabled his crimes.
According to the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the FBI allowed and enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking operation for two decades.
The FBI had received credible tips about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation as early as 1996, the anonymous victims allege.
However, they say the Bureau refused to investigate Epstein.
A probe finally began in 2006, the suit says.
This investigation ended once Epstein pleaded guilty to a soliciting prostitution charge in Florida and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, The Hill reports.
The suit claims the FBI continued to ignore mounting evidence until Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured, and threatened,” the complaint states.
“Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom — once and for all — of the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”
Additionally, the lawsuit claims the FBI had evidence that Epstein was continuing to traffic underage girls to his powerful associates but refused to investigate