Miami Herald Publishes 'Perversion of Justice' Investigation

On November 28, 2018, the Miami Herald published “Perversion of Justice,” a multi-part investigative series by reporter Julie K. Brown. The series represented one of the most consequential pieces of American investigative journalism of the decade.

Brown had spent more than a year investigating the Epstein case — tracking down survivors, obtaining court records, interviewing investigators, and piecing together a comprehensive account of both Epstein’s crimes and the extraordinary legal leniency he had received.

The series documented:

• The full scope of Epstein’s Palm Beach-centered trafficking operation, including the identities and accounts of more than 80 survivors Brown had located
• The details of the 2008 federal non-prosecution agreement — including the extraordinary secrecy with which it had been negotiated and the deliberate exclusion of victims from the process
• Alexander Acosta’s role in brokering and signing the NPA
• The work-release program that allowed Epstein to effectively serve his sentence from a private office rather than a cell
• The experiences of victims who had been failed repeatedly by the justice system

The series’s publication generated immediate national and international reaction. Calls for a Department of Justice inquiry into the NPA grew. Acosta — who by 2018 was serving as U.S. Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration — came under intense pressure. He resigned in July 2019, days after Epstein’s federal arrest.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have credited the Herald series among the factors that contributed to renewed investigative attention to Epstein’s activities.

Julie K. Brown received the George Polk Award, the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, and other major journalism prizes for the work. She published a book, “Perversion of Justice,” in 2021.