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Lawsuit seeks to expose, unravel plea deal for billionaire sex offender

Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein could face new criminal charges if lawyers for his alleged former teen “sex slaves” succeed in an unusual effort to overturn a 2008 plea deal that gave him house arrest, despite accusations he pimped the girls out to his rich and powerful friends.
Attorneys for two of the 30 girls Epstein, 63, allegedly prostituted on his private jet, in his Florida mansion and at his private island hideaway are attempting to open up - and potentially overturn - the government’s secretive agreement with Epstein that critics say left him with just a slap on the wrist for pleading guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.

If they succeed, many of Epstein’s powerful friends could find themselves in the public spotlight.
“This is absolutely a groundbreaking case,” said Meg Garvin, executive director at the Oregon-based National Crime Victim Law Institute. “The victims are fighting to truly make victims’ rights meaningful  –  to ensure that victims are informed and have a voice at every critical decision point.”
Florida attorney Brad Edwards and retired federal judge Paul Cassel filed the civil case against the federal government in U.S. District Court in Southern Florida in 2008, claiming federal prosecutors conspired with Epstein to keep the details of the plea deal under wraps in violation of the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Epstein reached financial settlements with both women, who are now 28. Their current suit is against the Department of Justice, and a federal judge has only recently ordered the two sides to intensify settlement negotiations.
By law, the women cannot receive financial damages from the government, but they are seeking "fundamental changes" to the justice system, Edwards said.
Edwards said the women still hope that federal prosecutors, or a judge, will consider invalidating Epstein's non-prosecution agreement and consider filing criminal charges against him. They could also seek an apology from prosecutors or fines against the U.S. Justice Department which could benefit a crime victims' group, Edwards said.
“This legal challenge is incredibly unusual -- I have never heard of this happening before,” said John Malcolm, a former prosecutor in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, now director of the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
The investigation of Epstein and the plea deal that followed was a complicated matter involving multiple jurisdictions.

The Palm Beach Police Department opened an investigation into Epstein in 2005 after parents of a 14-year-old girl claimed the girl gave Epstein a “massage” at his Palm Beach estate for money. A subsequent investigation by the FBI allegedly found Epstein had paid at least 30 underage girls for sex.
The girls told police they were molested at Epstein’s $6.8 million Palm Beach mansion beginning in 1998 “regularly on a daily basis, and in most instances, several times a day,” according to court records. Girls claimed they were paid between $200 and $300 for each visit with Epstein.
A subsequent investigation by the FBI allegedly found Epstein had paid at least 30 girls ages 14 to 17 to “engage in illegal sexual activities.” That probe resulted in an 82-page prosecution memorandum and a 53-page indictment against Epstein and his female staff members. Although he was the target of state and federal investigations, it was state prosecutors who ultimately hatched the plea deal.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to one count of prostitution with a minor, registered as a sex offender, and spent 13 months in prison and home detention.
Under state and federal law, victims have a right to be present and “reasonably heard at any public proceeding in the district court involving release, plea, sentencing, or any parole proceeding.” Not only did the alleged victims not attend hearings regarding Epstein’s plea deal, key evidence assembled by authorities has remained sealed, Edwards said.
None of the parties would comment on the ongoing mediation.
“The government deliberately kept crime victims ‘in the dark’ so that it could enter into a plea arrangement designed to prevent the victims from raising any objection,” Edwards argued in court documents.
Those familiar with the criminal case against Epstein say the plea deal was extraordinarily lenient, and some suspect his friendship with powerful allies played a role.
One powerful friend of Epstein is former President Bill Clinton, who FoxNews.com first reported took 26 trips around the world aboard Epstein’s Boeing 727, dismissing his Secret Service detail for five of the trips.
Virginia Roberts, who claims that at age 15 she was a “sex slave” for Epstein and his friends, and is one of the plaintiffs in the ongoing civil case against the federal government, claims the plane was outfitted with a bedroom for orgies, earning it the name “Lolita Express.”
“Epstein required me to describe the sexual events that I had with these men, presumably so that he could potentially blackmail them,” Roberts said in an affidavit filed with the court. “Based on my knowledge of Epstein and his organization, as well as discussions with the FBI, it is my belief that federal prosecutors likely possess videotapes and photographic images of me as an underage girl having sex with Epstein and some of his powerful friends.”
One key piece of evidence from Epstein’s case was released last week by the Forida State Attorney General’s Office: a one-hour video showing the Oct. 20, 2005, search of his mansion. The video captured numerous salacious photos of young girls, some totally nude, as well as a photo of a child around 5 years old bending over in a short dress, adorning his walls.
Other Epstein items documented in the police video include a small stuffed teddy bear by his bedside, a professional dental chair and drill set in his bathroom, and Epstein in a photo standing next to a Catholic pope, but not shown are the hidden cameras found on his property.
Whether more evidence comes out now depends on the current lawsuit.
Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project and faculty member at University of Hawaii Law School, believes the lawsuit has merit.
“The victims’ attorneys are alleging the government conspired with the defendant’s attorneys to circumvent their rights,” Lawson said. “This flies in the face of the Crime Victims Rights Act, and it shows bad faith on both parties -- the defendant’s attorneys and the government attorneys.”

Trump campaign calls Kasich convention absence 'embarrassing'

The Republican National Convention kicked off with fireworks Monday morning between the Donald Trump campaign and the governor of the host state, with campaign manager Paul Manafort calling former Trump rival Gov. John Kasich’s absence from the event “embarrassing.”
The Ohio governor has been an outspoken Trump critic, and has not buried the hatchet with the presumptive Republican nominee since suspending his own presidential campaign earlier this year. Manafort, who also is the convention manager for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told NBC’s “Today” that Kasich missing the convention “makes no sense.”
“He is embarrassing his state, frankly,” Manafort said.
Chief Kasich strategist John Weaver hit back at Manafort late Monday morning.
“Manafort’s problem, after all those years on the lam with thugs and autocrats, is that he can’t recognize principle and integrity,” Weaver told The New York Times. “I do congratulate him though on a great pivot at the start of the convention after such a successful vice-presidential launch. He has brought great professionalism, direct from Kiev, to Trump world.”
The barbs underscored the lingering tensions between Trump and certain wings of the party, as the campaign tries to use to weeklong convention to forge unity going into the general election campaign against Hillary Clinton.

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Manafort said on MSNBC it was a “big mistake” for Kasich to stay home.
"Most of the Republicans who aren't coming are people who have been part of the past," Manafort said.
Kasich, a rival of Trump’s for the Republican nomination, has not endorsed his party’s likely standard bearer and has been critical of Trump.
"Why would I feel compelled to support someone whose positions I kind of fundamentally disagree with?" he told Fox News in June.
Kasich’s lone win during the Republican primary was his home state of Ohio.
Despite the absence of Kasich and a number of other prominent Republicans, including Jeb Bush and several former presidents and presidential nominees, the Trump campaign is eager to use the convention to bring disparate wings of the party together.
While Kasich is sitting out the convention, several former GOP rivals are set to speak.
They include former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Monday, to be followed later in the week by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson.
Perhaps the biggest headliner Monday, though, is Trump’s wife Melania.
Trump told Fox News that he plans to attend on Monday; sources confirmed to Fox News he plans to introduce his wife.

Watchdog: HUD's Castro violated federal law by touting Clinton in interview

Housing Secretary and potential Democratic vice-presidential prospect Julian Castro violated federal law when he touted Hillary Clinton's candidacy in a media interview earlier this year, according to a federal watchdog report released Monday.
The seven-page report by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel concluded Castro violated the Hatch Act, which bars most Executive Branch officials from expressing their political views while on official business. According to the report, he crossed the line during an April 4 interview that mostly was about HUD’s plans to increase Internet access to children and other agency-related issues.
Castro, though, responded to a question during the Yahoo News interview about Clinton’s presidential bid.
“Taking off my HUD hat for a second and speaking individually,” Castro said, while going on to call Clinton the most experienced 2016 candidate and criticizing Republicans. BuzzFeed News first reported on the OSC findings.
“Castro’s statements during the interview impermissibly mixed his personal political views with official agency business, despite his efforts to clarify that some answers were being given in his personal capacity,” states the OSC report, which will now be referred to President Obama, who will decide on what if any action to take.
Castro is considered a potential running-mate pick for Clinton as she prepares to name her choice going into the Democratic convention next week.
Castro, in response to the report findings, said he thought during the interview that he avoided violating the act but agreed with the OSC findings.
“I offered my opinion to the interviewer after making it clear that I was articulating my personal view and not an official position,” he said. “At the time, I believed that this disclaimer was what was required by the Hatch Act. However, your analysis provides that it was not sufficient.”
He also purportedly plans to provide training for top agency officials to avoid future violations.
The Obama administration recently said Cabinet-level officials like Castro cannot speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention in support of Clinton, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
In 2012, the OSC, which focuses on Hatch Act violations, concluded then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also was in violation when she said at a Human Rights Campaign event that Obama should be reelected.

Some of Melania Trump's speech at GOP convention similar to Michelle Obama remarks

Melania Trump’s speech Monday to the Republican National Convention on Monday has come under fire as it appears that two of the passages are strikingly similar to the speech first lady Michelle Obama gave in 2008 at the Democratic National Convention.
The passages in question focus on lessons that Melania Trump, the wife of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, said she learned from her parents and the relevance of their lessons in her experience as a mother.
The remarks came toward the beginning of her speech, which was otherwise distinct from the address that Michelle Obama gave when her husband, then-Sen. Barack Obama, was being nominated for president.
"From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise, that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life,” Melania Trump said in her speech in Cleveland.
In Michelle Obama's 2008 speech in Denver, she said: "And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: like, you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, that you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them and even if you don't agree with them."
Another passage with some similarities that follows two sentences later in Melania Trump’s speech addresses her attempts to instill those values in her son.

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"We need to pass those lessons on to the many generations to follow," she said. "Because we want our children in this nation to know that the only limit to your achievements is the strength of your dreams and your willingness to work for them."
In the first lady's 2008 speech, she said, "Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values and to pass them onto the next generation, because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work hard for them."
The Trump campaign said in a statement early Tuesday that Melania Trump’s speech “included fragments that reflected her own thinking,” but didn’t say whether it was plagiarized from Michelle Obama’s speech.
"In writing her beautiful speech, Melania's team of writers took notes on her life’s inspirations, and in some instances included fragments that reflected her own thinking. Melania’s immigrant experience and love for America shone through in her speech, which made it such a success,” the statement read.
An interview of the Trump’s is set to air Tuesday on NBC News in which Melania Trump discusses her speech and how she wrote it. In the preview for the interview, Melania Trump said “I wrote it, with little help.”