Julie K. Brown’s November 2018 series “Perversion of Justice” in the Miami Herald is widely credited as the journalism that reopened the Epstein case and directly led to his 2019 arrest. How Brown found her sources — predominantly victims who had never spoken publicly — is itself an important story of investigative method.
The starting point:
Brown began investigating the Epstein case in 2017, drawn to it partly by existing court records — including civil case filings that contained pseudonymous victim accounts and pleadings that described the NPA’s terms.
Public court records, including deposition transcripts from earlier civil proceedings and motions filed by victim attorneys, contained enough information to establish that there were dozens of victims and that their identities, while protected in court filings, could potentially be found through investigative effort.
The cold-call methodology:
Brown tracked down victims through what she has described as a cold-calling methodology — using the descriptions in court documents, names and locations that appeared in records, and interview techniques honed over decades of investigative reporting.
She called women who appeared in records, many of whom had never been contacted by journalists. Some hung up. Over time, she built trust with victims who agreed to speak on the record — many for the first time.
Why victims spoke:
Brown has described several factors that made 2017–2018 different from earlier years:
- The #MeToo movement had shifted the cultural context for coming forward
- The statute of limitations on civil claims had expired for many, removing a legal reason for silence
- A decade after the NPA, victims felt the case was closed and nothing would happen anyway — and some were angry enough to want the story told regardless
The series:
The resulting November 2018 series ran multiple parts using victims’ real names (with their permission), detailed the NPA in depth, and directly challenged the adequacy of the prosecution. It received widespread attention and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.