Victims Excluded from NPA Negotiations — Government Keeps Agreement Secret
As the U.S. Attorney's office finalizes terms of the non-prosecution agreement with Jeffrey Epstein's attorneys, federal prosecutors keep the negotiations entirely secret from Epstein's known victims — in direct violation of the Crime Victims' Rights Act. Victims' attorney Brad Edwards later described learning nothing about the NPA until after it was signed. This secrecy would be the basis of the landmark 2019 federal court ruling that the government had violated the CVRA.
People Involved
The deliberate exclusion of victims from the NPA negotiation process was not an oversight — it was a choice made by the U.S. Attorney’s office under Alexander Acosta.
What the CVRA Required
The Crime Victims’ Rights Act (18 U.S.C. § 3771), enacted in 2004, requires federal prosecutors to:
- Notify victims of any plea proceeding
- Give victims the right to confer with prosecutors about the case
- Give victims the opportunity to be reasonably heard
None of these obligations were met in the Epstein NPA process.
How the Secret Was Kept
According to subsequent court filings and testimony:
- The agreement was negotiated entirely between prosecutors and defense attorneys
- Victims who had been identified and interviewed by the FBI were not notified
- The agreement, once signed, was sealed — even the fact of its existence was kept from victims for a period
- Victims’ attorneys only learned of the NPA after it was finalized
The Later Ruling
In federal court proceedings initiated by victim Courtney Wild’s attorneys, Judge Kenneth Marra found in February 2019 that the government’s conduct violated the CVRA. He described the secrecy as reflecting a government policy of keeping victims in the dark — behavior he characterized as inappropriate. The ruling was a landmark in victims’ rights law, though it could not undo the completed sentence.