{"id":7683,"date":"2019-07-10T03:45:29","date_gmt":"2019-07-10T10:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7683"},"modified":"2019-07-10T03:46:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-10T10:46:30","slug":"the-jeffrey-epstein-case-was-cold-until-a-miami-herald-reporter-got-accusers-to-talk-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=7683","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Jeffrey Epstein Case Was Cold, Until a Miami Herald Reporter Got Accusers to Talk&#8221;, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"css-g9zndl e12qa4dv1\">\n<div class=\"css-1vkm6nb ehdk2mb0\">\n<div class=\"css-vp77d3 epjyd6m1\">\n<div class=\"css-1baulvz\">\n<p class=\"css-16vrk19 e1jsehar1\">By <span class=\"css-1baulvz\">Tiffany Hsu,\u00a0<\/span>July 9, 2019<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-xt80pu e12qa4dv0\">\n<div class=\"css-acwcvw epjyd6m0\">\n<div class=\"css-vp77d3 epjyd6m1\">\n<div class=\"css-1baulvz\">\n<p class=\"css-16vrk19 e1jsehar1\">Julie K. Brown, an investigative journalist for The Miami Herald, expected to spend the week on the same emotionally brutal endeavor she has pursued for more than two years: interviewing women who say that, as girls, they were part of a sex ring run by the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"meteredContent css-1i2y565\">\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Months ago, she published a meticulously researched series of <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/local\/article220097825.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">articles<\/a> about a secret plea deal, engineered by a <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/07\/nyregion\/jeffrey-epstein-trump.html?action=click&amp;module=inline&amp;pgtype=Article\">current member of President Trump\u2019s cabinet<\/a>, that helped Mr. Epstein evade federal charges related to the women\u2019s accusations. Her work identified some 80 alleged victims and earned a slew of journalism prizes, including a George Polk Award in the category of Justice Reporting. She worked on the award-winning series with Emily Michot, a visual journalist at The Herald.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">While Mr. Epstein moved about freely, reportedly building <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.virginislandsdailynews.com\/news\/epstein-building-compound-on-great-st-james\/article_a49261e9-40f0-57b1-9501-605e26e74cf3.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a new compound<\/a> in the Virgin Islands, Ms. Brown continued to dig, accumulating enough documentation to fill a spare bedroom in her Florida home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Things changed on Saturday, when Mr. Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey after flying in from Paris on his private jet. <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/jeffrey-epstein-arrested-for-sex-trafficking-of-minors-source?ref=scroll\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Daily Beast<\/a> and other news outlets reported that he faced sex trafficking charges. Law enforcement officers forced their way into his 21,000-square-foot mansion in Manhattan and found <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/08\/nyregion\/jeffrey-epstein-charges.html?action=click&amp;module=inline&amp;pgtype=Homepage\">hundreds of photos<\/a> of nude or partially nude young women and girls.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-o6xoe7\">\n<div class=\"css-ke163a\" data-testid=\"article-companion-wrapper\">\n<div id=\"newsletter-module\" class=\"css-48vsi0\">\n<div class=\"css-1k9ek97\">\n<div class=\"css-tjpxhb\">\n<div class=\"css-sefkcv\">\n<div id=\"story-ad-1-wrapper\" class=\"css-1r07izm\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\"><a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/07\/nyregion\/jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking.html?action=click&amp;module=inline&amp;pgtype=Homepage\">The charges<\/a>, which federal prosecutors unsealed on Monday, accuse Mr. Epstein, 66, of orchestrating a \u201cvast network of underage victims\u201d involving girls as young as 14.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Ms. Brown\u2019s articles, collected under the title Perversion of Justice, quickly resurfaced on social media. \u201cThis is what happens when a reporter refuses to give up on a story,\u201d The Columbia Journalism Review <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CJR\/status\/1148254651533234176\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote on Twitter<\/a> on Monday. Geoffrey Berman, a federal prosecutor, said at a news conference that his team had been \u201cassisted by some excellent investigative journalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">On Sunday, Ms. Brown, 57, and Ms. Michot, 50, flew to New York to cover the new developments. Monday was a day of running around the city, with reporting stops and an appearance on CNN. On Tuesday morning, while having breakfast in the restaurant of the hotel where she was staying in Lower Manhattan, Ms. Brown deflected praise for her work as her phone, in a pink case, buzzed repeatedly, its ringtone set to the \u201cSex and the City\u201d theme song.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThe story is not about me,\u201d Ms. Brown said, as a nearby TV screen showed Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, speaking about the case on CNN. \u201cIt\u2019s about the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Ms. Brown was not the first journalist to report on the allegations against Mr. Epstein, who pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served 13 months of an 18-month sentence. She got to work in 2017, shortly after Mr. Trump nominated Alexander Acosta to be secretary of labor. Ms. Brown knew that Mr. Acosta had handled Mr. Epstein\u2019s prosecution while serving as the United States attorney in Miami.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cSometimes a story deserves a new look,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were all of these puzzle pieces that were out there, and when you put all of these puzzle pieces together, with the passage of time, there was this really damning story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">As part of her work, Ms. Brown tried to persuade law enforcement officials and women with allegations against Mr. Epstein to speak with her. Some resisted, she said, afraid that she would focus on the more salacious elements, or that her reporting would never make it to publication. She was told the story was stale. But as she looked into the prosecution of Mr. Epstein that led to his imprisonment last decade, Ms. Brown discovered that, in 2007, Mr. Acosta led a team of federal lawyers who secretly negotiated a deal that granted the financier immunity from federal sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">In February, a federal judge ruled that prosecutors <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/21\/us\/jeffrey-epstein-judge-prosecution-agreement.html?module=inline\">had violated federal law<\/a> by keeping victims in the dark about the plea deal. That same month, the Justice Department said it had <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/02\/06\/us\/fbi-jeffrey-epstein.html?module=inline\">opened an investigation<\/a> into how Mr. Acosta\u2019s team handled the case to see if there was \u201cprofessional misconduct.\u201d Mr. Acosta is <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/09\/us\/politics\/alex-acosta-jeffrey-epstein.html?module=inline\">facing calls to resign<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Ms. Brown, who grew up outside Philadelphia, said she had always been sensitive to injustice. She was often bullied in the neighborhood for being one of three children raised by a single parent. Once, when her mother was unable to pay the electricity bill, the power company came to her house and took away all the furniture, Ms. Brown said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She left home at 16 and worked as a server, a flower delivery courier and a lampshade factory worker until she could afford to go to college. She graduated magna cum laude from Temple University in 1987 with a journalism degree. She said she felt she had to \u201cwork harder than almost anybody to get the big stories, the scoops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She started her career as an editor at The Pendulum, the student newspaper at Pennridge High School. While at The Philadelphia Daily News, a tabloid, she wrote articles on firefighters infected with hepatitis C that helped make testing mandatory among public safety workers. In her 19-year career at The Miami Herald, she has covered hurricanes, the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting and corruption in the Florida prison system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thegreenespace.org\/watch\/heres-the-thing-with-julie-k-brown\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has compared<\/a> her work on the Epstein series to \u201cwhat a cold-case detective does.\u201d Early in the process, she received a heavily redacted police report that was more than 100 pages long and mentioned more than 100 Jane Does. She combed through the document for names and other identifying details that had not been blocked, creating spreadsheets to track her progress.\\She spoke with experts in sexual trauma, including psychologists and an F.B.I. investigator. But interviewing Mr. Epstein\u2019s accusers was still difficult, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThey blame themselves,\u201d she said of the women. \u201cThat was actually the hardest thing for me to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">At a time when regional newspapers are struggling across the country, it wasn\u2019t always easy for Ms. Brown and Ms. Michot, who filmed much of Ms. Brown\u2019s reporting process, to keep up with the ambitious investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Ms. Michot, the only remaining female visual journalist at The Herald, said she sometimes returned from a wrenching interview with one of Mr. Epstein\u2019s accusers and was immediately assigned to something unrelated, like a piece about the most outrageous food available at a county fair.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The two reporters tried to keep costs down by renting less-expensive rooms at Airbnbs, booking low-cost flights and occasionally not filing expenses. And they tried not to fall down any rabbit holes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cA lot of other local journalists aren\u2019t given the luxury of the time I had with this, even though they are the last line of defense against corruption, against taxpayer money being wasted,\u201d said Ms. Brown, who wears a beaded bracelet that spells out \u201cbrave,\u201d a gift given to her by an 81-year-old friend while she was in the thick of reporting. \u201cThis has helped the public see we\u2019re not the enemy of the people.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">She added that she had spent more than $100 certifying letters to send to Mr. Epstein, his lawyers, his handlers and other people in his orbit. She tracked his flight plans and showed up at his home when she knew he was present. No one responded, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"story-ad-4-wrapper\" class=\"css-1r07izm\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">In April, the lawyer and social commentator Alan Dershowitz, who helped broker Mr. Epstein\u2019s plea deal, wrote <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gatestoneinstitute.org\/14003\/pulitzer-prize-fake-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a public letter<\/a> to the administrators of the Pulitzer Prize urging them not to reward what he called \u201cfake news and shoddy journalism.\u201d (The series was not a finalist.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">The morning that her first article on Mr. Epstein was scheduled to be published, she brought bagels into The Herald\u2019s newsroom. When the piece became the most-read article on the paper\u2019s website, surpassing a story about a woman who had passed gas in a convenience store, her colleagues broke into applause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">Ms. Brown plans to continue covering Mr. Epstein and his social circle, which has included Mr. Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. Last week, amid urging by The Herald, The New York Times and other publications, a federal appeals court in New York ordered up to 2,000 pages of judicial documents about the case <a class=\"css-1g7m0tk\" title=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.miamiherald.com\/news\/state\/florida\/article232251212.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">to be unsealed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">\u201cThis is a search for the truth,\u201d Ms. Brown said. \u201cThis is about sexual abuse and power and people who cover it up. Sexual abuse doesn\u2019t discriminate on political party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\">On Monday, at Mr. Epstein\u2019s bail hearing, she got the closest she has ever been to the man she had spent years investigating. Seeing him seated before the judge in a blue prison jumpsuit, she thought he looked small.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-exrw3m evys1bk0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/09\/business\/media\/miami-herald-epstein.html?action=click&amp;module=Well&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;section=Business\">The New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-o6xoe7\"><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"bottom-of-article\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tiffany Hsu,\u00a0July 9, 2019 Julie K. Brown, an investigative journalist for The Miami Herald, expected to spend the week on the same emotionally brutal endeavor she has pursued for more than two years: interviewing women who say that, as girls, they were part of a sex ring run by the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7683"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7685,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683\/revisions\/7685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}