Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT co SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA FILEDby_D,G CASE NO JUL STEVEN LARIMORE CLERK DIST CT of FLA MIAMI IN RE JANE DOE Plaintiff vs UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Defendant ORIGINA Federal Courthouse West Palm Beach Florida July a.m The above entitled matter came on for Emergency Petitioner for Enforcement of Crime Victim Rights before the Honorable Kenneth A Marra pursuant to Notice taken before Victoria Aiello Court Reporter pages For the Plaintiff Bradley Edwards Esquire For the Defendant Dexter Lee AUSA Maria Villafana AUSA OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of Call to Order of the Court THE COURT Good morning Please be seated This is the case of In Re Jane Doe Case Number May I have counsel state their appearances please MR LEE Good morning Your Honor May it please the Court for the United States of America we have Maria Villafana Assistant United States Attorney and Dexter Lee Assistant United States Attorney And we have seated in the front row FBI Special Agent Becker Kendall and Jason Richards Thank you Your Honor MR EDWARDS Good morning Your Honor Brad Edwards on behalf of the petitioners Petitioners are also in the courtroom today This petition is styled on her behalf THE COURT Good morning All right Were here on the petitioners motion to enforce her rights as a victim under USC I have received the petition the governments response and the victims reply which was filed I guess this morning So You want to proceed counsel MR EDWARDS Yes Your Honor You prefer me at the podium THE COURT It is easier for us to hear you OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of MR EDWARDS Your Honor as a factual background Mr Epstein is a billionaire that sexually abused and molested dozens and dozens of girls between the ages of and years old And through cooperating victims that evidence can be proven Because of his deviant appetite for young girls combined with his extraordinary wealth and power he may just be the most dangerous sexual predator in U.S history This petitioner is one of the victims and she is in attendance today Another one of Mr Epsteins victims is also in attendance today She would be able to provide evidence that she provided that Mr Epstein paid her to provide him over girls for the purposes of him to sexually abuse Therefore the undercurrents of the petition are clear The plea bargain that was worked out for Mr Epstein in light of the offenses that he committed is clearly unfair to the point that if anybody looks at the information it is unconscionable THE COURT Well I mean is that for me Thats not my role Thats the prosecutors role to apply would it not I cant force them to bring criminal charges What do I have to do with that MR EDWARDS Okay OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of THE COURT That may be your opinion that may be your clients opinion but I presume that the government is aware that thats your clients opinion How does that change anything MR EDWARDS Thats my problem Im not sure that the government is aware that is petitioners opinion and thats why we"re here today just to enforce the victims rights under USC Crime Victims Rights Act and all we are asking is to order that the plea agreement that has been negotiated in this case THE COURT How do you know there is a plea agreement The plea agreement is with the State of Florida wasnt it MR EDWARDS There was a state charge with one victim that Im aware of And the plea agreement as to that one victim was months in the county jail But along with that the Palm Beach County Sheriff investigating this case was getting no action out of the local authorities and sent this to the FBI THE COURT It was actually the Palm Beach Town of Palm Beach Police not the Sheriffs Office MR EDWARDS Im sorry Judge And thats why the FBI got involved because Michael Feeter OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of wrote a scathing letter to the State Attorney about Mr Epstein receiving preferencial treatment by local authorities Before the FBI took the case they went behind the victims back and this is our motion without the victims input and allowing her the right to meaningfully confer with the government which is a right that she can assert at this time They worked out a plea deal where if Mr Epstein would plead to this other charge regarding another victim in the state court case they would agree to not prosecute him for all of the federal charges of what they were aware of in federal court THE COURT So thats already apparently taken place correct MR EDWARDS I dont know if it has taken place Im not sure exactly what stage it is in I know it is supposed to be attached at some point in time to a state court plea THE COURT Hasnt he already plead guilty though MR EDWARDS If he did plead guilty it is my understanding and belief that the agreement with the federal government and with the U.S Attorneys Office wasnt signed on that day So it is still my OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of belief I could be wrong but that that agreement hasnt been completed as of this time THE COURT So lets assume it hasnt been completed MR EDWARDS Okay Then petitioner would like the right to confer with THE COURT You can go in the conference room Weve got the FBI agents youve got the assigned prosecuting attorney You have got a conference room Youve got your client Go and talk Confer And then it is up government to decide what to do correct MR EDWARDS In a way Your Honor thats very similar to what happened in In Re Dean and PB case where there is a plea agreement negotiated and then the victim gets the right to confer THE COURT Its already negotiated What am I supposed to do MR EDWARDS Order that the agreement that was negotiated is invalid and it is illegal as it did not pertain to the rights of the victim THE COURT I can order you into the conference room Then the government can do what it chooses It can agree to prosecute or it can agree to going forward with the agreement it had already OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of reached and after consulting your client and in taking into consideration your clients views decide to go forward anyway I cant make them prosecute him I cant All I can do is at best say confer with the victim consider the victims input before you make a decision or reconsider the decision you already made in view of the victims input if it is possible for you to do that So if I invalidate the agreement whats the best you can get The right to confer MR EDWARDS Exactly That is all we can THE COURT So why can"t you go into the conference room now take as much time as you feel you need and confer MR EDWARDS Judge at this time Id like to move ore tenus to add the victim thats in the courtroom to this conference with the U.S Attorneys Office THE COURT So is that Jane Doe for purposes of this MR EDWARDS Exactly Your Honor THE COURT All right Let me hear from the government then MR LEE Good morning Your Honor May it please the Court OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of Let me update the Court on the status of various matters The agreement to defer prosecution to the State of Florida was signed and completed by December of Mr Epsteins attorneys saught a higher review within the Department of Justice and it took a number of months for that to come to fruition When it came to fruition he ended up pleading guilty on June to two charges in state court and he was sentenced to a term of incarceration of months with another months of community control after the completion of his sentence and he is currently incarcerated as we speak We have two arguments Your Honor First insofar as the right that they claim under a their right to confer in the case we respectfully submit that there was no case in federal court and indeed none was contemplated if the plea agreement was to be successfully completed since it contemplated the State of Florida sentence on the criminal charges So as long as certain conditions were met and certain federal interests were vindicated the federal government was satisfied that this was an appropriate disposition Insofar as the best effort Your Honor we OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of have cited the Attorney Generals guidelines The guidelines do say that you should normally advise victims of plea negotiations and the terms of the plea but they recognize that there are times when they may not be appropriate or could cause some harm or prejudice and they set out six factors which are to be considered non-exhaustive factors We have advised in the declaration of AUSA Villafana that when the subject of having Mr Epstein concede that he would be convicted of an enumerated offense for purposes of a cause of action under USC there was a rather strenuous objection from Mr Epsteins counsel that the federal government was inducing some effort to either fabricate claims enhance claims or embellish claims and if this agreement ultimately could not be consumated then wed have a federal prosecution on our hands and we did not want to be in a positin of creating additional impeachment material I cant say that the stand by Mr Edwards that the arguments of inducement in a subsequent civil action can be made by any criminal victim that is true It is another thing for that inducement to have come before the prosecution arguing about the credibility and veracity of the OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of individual That was a considerably strong point in essence in not discussing those terms with the victims as might ordinarily be done if those considerations did not exist So first Your Honor we believe that a does not apply THE COURT Well what about the language in the statute that suggests that a victim can bring a claim or seek enforcement of his or her rights under the statute before a case is filed What does that refer to MR LEE Your Honor we believe thats a venue provision essentially telling an individual if there is no exigent case there is no case of United States versus So And So then you seek to enforce your rights then you can go in and do so in the did court where the offense occurred This is not saying necessarily that rights exist but if you believe they exist here is the place where youre going to have to lodge it and the Court will have to decide Now there are certain of the eight rights accorded in a that could come up before any charge is filed For instance lets say somebody believes that the perpetrator of the crime is going OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC I Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of to try to harm them or threatened them or intimidated them into not testifying or cooperating with the government and of course no indictment has been returned If an individual went to the government and believed that the individual had not acted appropriately they can go to the district court and say I need to have my rights under a enforced because those people are threatening me and the government hasn"t done enough That would be a situation But were talking really here about a which is the right to consult in the case and we respectfully submit that there is not case until a charge has been filed THE COURT So what about the circuit case that was actually pending case had to do with a plea agreement in a pending case MR LEE Yes The distinction between the Dean case and the instant case Your Honor is this In Dean they had negotiated with BP Petroleum for a plea and it was always contemplated that there was going to be a federal prosecution The distinction in this case was that there was already a pending state prosecution and the objective for both sides was to keep it in state OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of vi court and the federal governments objective was to ensure that there were sufficient safeguards in the state court proceedings and concessions made by Mr Epstein so that federal interests particularly a cause of action for damages for the victims of the sexual exploitation could be preserved So thats the key distinction because there was no federal case there was no federal criminal charge contemplate so long as the agreement could be reached THE COURT All right So they want me to invalidate your non-prosecution agreement MR LEE Your Honor we respectfully submit that does not grant authority of this Court to do so In the Dean case for instance Your Honor there was a plea agreement that was entered into and district court of course entertained a plea agreement and exercised its judicial discretion in terms of whether to accept it or not The victims were encouraged to go to district court and say you know we didnt hear about this We should have and we object to it for the following reasons The district court take that into account There is no plea agreement before this Court There will be no plea proceedings in this court That was all done OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of in state court several weeks ago So thats another basis for distinguishing Dean THE COURT All right So is there any point in conferring with these victims MR LEE Your Honor I will always confer sit down with Jane Doe and with the two agents and Ms Villafana Well be happy to sit down with them THE COURT But it wouldnt make any difference in terms of the outcome Would maybe give them the benefit of your explanation of why you did what you did and why you came to the conclusion you did but it is not going to change your decision in any way MR LEE If it is going to change it would have to be done at a level higher than mine Your Honor THE COURT What was I didnt understand your statement earlier that Mr Epstein wanted some kind of review of higher authority within the Department in terms of whether or not the federal government was going to insist on preserving any civil claims MR LEE Your Honor of the agreement was consumated by the parties in December of Mr OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of Epsteins attorneys wanted a further review of the agreement higher up within the Department of Justice and they exercised their ability to do that THE COURT Meaning Again Im trying to understand He wasnt happy with the agreement that he had signed MR LEE Basically yes And was trying to maintain that the agreement should be set aside or more favorable terms THE COURT Now in terms of You dont dispute that Jane Doe and First of all do you have an objection to Jane Doe being added as a petitioner in this case MR LEE No I dont THE COURT Ill grant that request You dont dispute that theyre victims within the meaning of the Act MR LEE It depends to which There is one Jane Doe Well there is one individual who is one of Mr Edwards clients who we do not believe to been a victim If these are SN and CW then we have no objection and I can discuss If I may have a moment Your Honor Your Honor thank you I have been corrected We have no objection OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC I I I I Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of THE COURT Okay MR LEE We agree theyre victims THE COURT Now what is your position then regarding the right of a victim of a crime that is potentially subject to federal prosecution to be to have input with the prosecutor your office before a resolution or decision not to prosecute is made Do you say that there is no right to confer under those circumstances because there is no case pending so any decision not to prosecute there is no right to confer but that right to confer only is triggered once there is an indictment or an information filed MR LEE That is correct Your Honor The Attorney General guidelines which were published in May of provide that the rights in a through accrue when a charge is filed in federal court Now that my change after the Dean decision It is under consideration But thats the governments position THE COURT All right And so Are you saying all of the rights MR LEE Your Honor some of the rights clearly will only pertain after a charge has been filed The one that pertains to notice of public OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of hearing public proceedings though cant apply until there are public proceedings to be had Of course these guidelines are a floor and not a ceiling Theyre to be applied with common sense If somebody If charges of assault were being investigated and somebody would come in and say the perpetrator whom youre investigating is getting ready to indict has been threatening me following me and I need help because he or she is going to do something bad to me and try to take care of me before I can testify in the grand jury this person would not be turned away because a charge hasnt been filed yet Those guidelines would be applied with common sense But specifically insofar as a a which is the right to consult with the attorney for the government in the case that would not accrue until there is a days And in our view a case doesnt come into being until charges are filed THE COURT And are there any reported decisions that you are aware of where any court has found a right to confer before charges are filed MR LEE Im not aware of any Your Honor THE COURT All right Thank you MR LEE Thank you Your Honor OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of THE COURT Counsel MR EDWARDS I would just like to address that Dean decision Theyre asking you that you just simply ignore it because the decision clearly was a decision made because as it is a direct result of a plea deal being worked out prior to the victims being able to speak THE COURT But there was a pending case though correct MR EDWARDS As I understand the decision THE COURT As I understand the plea deal it was negotiated prior to charges being filed Then there was a filed case and then the court had the ability to accept the plea or not And at that point you would have the ability to entertain or assert an objection because you werent consulted about the plea So there was a proceeding or case in which you can assert a right to confer How do you do that before a case is filed How do you enforce the government or force the government to consult about not filing a case Every case they have to consult with the victim before they decide not to prosecute MR EDWARDS No there are limitations I think in my reply I refer to the case of U.S OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of Rubin where they discussed that very scenario stating there at least has to be criminal charges contemplate by the government before these rights kick in The rights under and a the right to confer and the Dean case clearly states clearly rights under the CBRA apply before prosecution is under way Logically this includes the CBRA establishments of a victims reasonable right to confer with the attorney for the government And thats read in the plain reading of the statutes as well This first case in interpreting it I think its pretty clear the distinction theyre making between BP and this case Is it a distinction withoug a real difference in that the court is saying you have this right before the case is filed which is exactly what we are saying And the result in that case was they filed the case later let him plea out to some sweet deal And in this case what we have is they avoid that by deciding not to file Either way you deprive the victim of their right before making that decision And the main problem that the court had in Dean as it states the victims do have rights when there is an impact and the eventual sent is OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of __ substantially less Whereas here their input is received after the parties have reached a tentative deal Well the government just stated the deal was reached back in October of However attached to their response is a letter to my client petitioner dated January after the time then counsel just put on the record that the deal was already finalized and it starts the opening paragraph talks about whether they wanted the victims to have the right to confer It says this case is currently under investigation This is January This case has been a lengthy process and we request your continued patience while we conduct a thorough investigation Sounds like the exact opposite of we want you to come in and confer and let us know what you really feel about this That is our biggest problem with what has happened here is that she just wasnt given a voice and if somebody would have heard her we believe there would have been a different outcome To go back into a room right now and talk after there has already been a plea negotiated without Your Honor ordering that in this case the plea deal needs to be vacated it is illegal and give her her rights THE COURT Well would you agree or not OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of that Mr Epstein plead guilty to the state charges probably at least in part in reliance upon the fact that he had an agreement with the federal government they werent going to prosecute Would you concede that or would would present evidence to that effect MR EDWARDS Of course we would Yes of course Sure THE COURT So you agree that Mr Epstein is now sitting in the Palm Beach County Jail a convicted felon serving months of imprisonment at least in material part because he relied upon the governments non-prosecution agreement MR EDWARDS Yes I agree that he is sitting there because he is guilty and maybe he took the plea rather than going to trial and being found guilty later in part because of this non-prosecution agreement that was worked out behind the other victims backs I would agree with that THE COURT So he accepted the States deal in part because he knew he had an agreement from the federal government that they werent going to prosecute MR EDWARDS I presume I speculate that is true OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of THE COURT So you want me now then to set aside the governments agreement with him because there was no conferring yet he has already accepted a plea agreement and is sitting in custody in part in reliance on that agreement I mean I can undo the agreement in your theory but how do I Mr Epstein in a sense would then be adversely affected by my actions when he acted in reliance upon the agreement How does that work MR EDWARDS Certainly were only asking you to vacate the agreement I understand and your point is well taken And I believe that at that point in time his rights may kick in and say wait I was relying on this other deal so I wouldnt be prosecuted for these hundreds of other girls that I molested that I plead guilty over here to the one girl that I will admit to molesting So maybe I can get to withdraw my plea But the last thing he wants to do because if he ends up going to trial Ill be in prison for the rest of his life like any other person who ever did this crime would be He could have that argument I guess but still wouldnt really work well for him THE COURT All right So you still think I should set aside the agreement require the OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC i I Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of government to confer MR EDWARDS Work out a plea negotiation commensorate with the crimes that he committed and that are favorable after they confer with the victims And it is within their discretion Of course they can decide on their own that hey I think that the agreement was fair after they have talked with the victims That could happen I dont know if a reasonable person that would do that but it could happen THE COURT Apparently you are not suggesting that that these person are not reasonable MR EDWARDS Im suggesting they havent conferred with the victims and that if they took into consideration what these two in the courtroom have to say I dont think that wed be in this same position right now THE COURT They have never spoken to your client about what happened to them MR EDWARDS They have spoken to them about what happened Maybe not about what the girls wanted to happen as a result of this case which is part of conferring to decide that these girls wanted money on their own which is basically what this OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of i this non-prosecution agreement entails that has language that hell agree to liability in a civil case Thats not what these girls They want justice They want him in prison now more than ever The reason they stated they kept this agreement from the girls and they basically conceded we didnt tell the girls about this agreement well the reason is because they would have objected and they wouldnt have been able to sign off on this and the victims would have had a voice and wed still been going through litigation The exact problem they tried to prevent at least in their terms which was the impeachment of these girls at a later trial is still available to anybody once the civil suits are filed anyway They have three arguments One we didnt have to talk to them Two we did talk to them sort of And if you dont buy that the reason we didnt talk to them we were trying to prevent them from being impeached later None of them trump the victims rights to confer prior to plea negotiations Thats why Your Honor we would ask this Court to enter an order vacating that previous plea agreement as illegal ask them to confer with the victims once again or for the first time and OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of work out a negotiated plea to that accord THE COURT Well all you can ask them to do is confer I cant ask them to do anything beyond that I mean it is up to them to negotiate MR EDWARDS I wouldnt quarrel with that THE COURT Now having learned today I guess that the agreement was signed when in October MR EDWARDS October I heard THE COURT About eight or nine months ago is there any need to rush to a decision in this matter The decision has already been made You filed this I think on the presumption that the agreement was about to take place and you wanted to be able to confer beforehand and you werent sure what was going on MR EDWARDS Precisely Your Honor And Im holding the letters that are exhibits that they were writing to my client during the year of telling her how lengthy of a process this was going to be and be patient So right I was completely in the dark about when this agreement was signed THE COURT In view of the fact that this agreement has already been consumated and you want me to set it aside as opposed to something thats OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of about to occur would you agree that and I have done this very quickly because of the petition and your allegation that something was about to happen Im not blaming you MR EDWARDS I was mistaken THE COURT Im not blaming you for doing that In view of what you know now is there any need to treat this as an emergency that has be decided by tomorrow MR EDWARDS I cant think of any reason in light of what we just heard THE COURT Mr Lee do you have anything else you wanted to add Does either side think I need to take evidence about anything If I do since this is not an emergency anymore I can probably find a more convenient time to do that I dont have the time today to take evidence But if you do believe that I should take evidence on this issue MR EDWARDS It may be best if I conferred with the U.S Attorneys Office on that and we can make a decision whether it is necessary or whether Your Honor deemed it was necessary for you to make a decision THE COURT I want to know what your OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of jj respective positions are because it may be something in terms of having a complete record and this is going to be an issue thats it going to go to the Eleventh Circuit may be better to have a complete record as to what your position is and the governments is as to what actions were taken And I dont know if I have enough information based on Ms Villafanas affidavit or I need additional information And because it is not an emergency I dont have to do something quickly we can play it be ear and make this into a more complete record for the court of appeals MR EDWARDS If there is a time where it is necessary to take evidence Your Honor is correct in stating that it is not an emergency and it doesnt need to happen today And I will confer with the government on this and if evidence needs to be taken it be taken at a later date It doesnt seem like there will be any prejudice to any party THE COURT Mr Lee do you have any thoughts You want to consult with Mr Edwards MR LEE There may be a couple of factual matters that I need to chat with petitioners counsel on If we can reach agreement on those as to what was communicated to CW and what time if OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of they dont dispute that then we dont think it will be necessary to have an evidentiary hearing But if we can agree fine or maybe we cant Well talk about it THE COURT All right So why dont you let me know if you think an evidentiary hearing is necessary If there are additional stipulations you want to enter into or supplement what has already been presented you can do that Now the other issue I want to take up though is the government filed its response to the petition under seal And so I want to know why What is in there that at this point needs to be under seal Is there anything in there thats confidential privileged anything thats different from what you hve said here in open court that requires that to be sealed MR LEE Well Your Honor on our motion to seal was based on two reasons One that dealt with individuals or minors at the time that the offense occurred So we were attempting to protect the privacy of those individuals And also it dealt with negotiations with Mr Epstein which were in the nature of plea negotiations which we treat as confidential Normally theyre not aired out in OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of open court So those were our two reasons THE COURT All right But I guess the letters you attached only related to Mr Edwards client MR LEE Three of them yes Your Honor THE COURT Are you prepared Mr Edwards to waive any issues regarding the release of those documents that relate to your clients MR EDWARDS Judge I think it would be appropriate to redact the names of the clients as they have done THE COURT I dont think the names are in there MR EDWARDS I think theyre redacted Theyre blacked out I have no problem with releasing those documents Im not sure thats part of the deal But if it is MR LEE It is MR EDWARDS Okay Ill waive THE COURT You really dont have any objection to those letters that were sent to them being released to the public MR EDWARDS Of course not Judge THE COURT Then what is there about the plea agreement or the negotiations that is in the OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of ij response that we really havent already kind of MR LEE Your Honor there was a confidentiality agreement in the deferral of prosecution to the State of Florida So we were trying to maintain the confidentiality of the negotiations that occurred since we had discussions during those negotiations as one of the reasons why we decided not to tell all of the individuals what was going on THE COURT But is that still necessary that confidentiality or is that kind of moot at this point MR LEE Well we would like it sealed Admittedly what happened today in open court has probably weakened our argument I dont dispute that THE COURT In your opinion anything in particular any paragraph in the response or in Ms Villafanas affidavit that you think is particularly troublesome that should remain under seal MR LEE May I have a moment Your Honor THE COURT Yes MR LEE Thank you Your Honor one aspect of this in the notification letters that were dispatched to individuals which were attached to Ms OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of iJLJ _l Villafanas declaration there is a citation to a clause in the agreement that was reached regarding the damages remedy under USC that was subject to the constitutionality agreement we believe that should still remain confidential THE COURT But hasnt the fact that this provision was part of the agreement again been aired Is there any secret to it anymore MR LEE The actual text of it has not been aired The existence of it has been heard but the actual text has not and we believe it should still remain confidential THE COURT Okay Any other argument on that issue MR LEE No Your Honor Thank you THE COURT Ms Villafana wants to speak to you MR LEE Your Honor one item that Id like to bring to the Courts attention We had advised Mr Epstein and his attorneys that if we were to dislose some of the agreement we would give them advance notice and ability to lodge an objection We would like an opportunity to do that THE COURT All right But youre not disclosing It would be by my order that it would OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of LJ l_ be disclosed MR LEE Yes Your Honor And we just would like to register that we believe it should remain confidential THE COURT All right MR EDWARDS Your Honor I dont see any authority for keeping that under seal THE COURT I agree The fact that there is this preserved right on behalf of the victims to pursue a civil action is already a matter of public record the exact text of the clause I dont see that disclosing the text of the clause when the fact that the clause exists is already a matter of public record It is not harmful in any way to Mr Epstein or the government and the letters to the victim that the victim can disclose those letters theyre not under any confidentiality obligation or restriction and theyre free to disclose it themselves if they choose to So I dont see that there is any real public necessity to keep the response sealed in view of what we discussed already on the record and the victims ability to disclose those provisions of their own choosing if they wish So in view of the public policy that matters filed in court proceedings should be open to the public and sealing OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC Case Document Entered on FLSD Docket Page of Jr should only occur in circumstances that justife the need to restrict public access Im going to deny the motion to seal the response and allow that to be viewed All right So Ill let both of you confer about whether there is a need for any additional evidence to be presented Let me know one way or the other If there is well schedule a hearing If there isnt and you want to submit some additional stipulated information do that and then Ill take care of this in due course MR EDWARDS Thank you Your Honor THE COURT All right MR LEE Thank you Your Honor MS VILLAFANA Thank you Your Honor THE COURT You"re welcome Proceedings concluded I hereby certify that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my ability Victoria Aiello Court Reporter OFFICIAL REPORTING SERVICES LLC
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