MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
We're joined now by James Marsh. He is an attorney who represents a number of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged victims. One of them is Maria Farmer, who says both Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, sexually assaulted her 30 years ago. In addition to these accusations, Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government last May, alleging that it failed to protect her and other victims. Mr. Marsh, good morning. Thank you for joining us.
JAMES MARSH: Good morning. Thank you for inviting me.
MARTIN: You've said several times that the victims that you represent want accountability and transparency. Do you think that they're getting that? Are they heading in that direction, at least?
MARSH: Well, I think it's safe to say we're heading in that direction. Although, as we've seen over the many, many years that records have been, you know, released in little bits and pieces, mostly from the court cases that involve many of these same parties. There have been no, you know, dramatic revelations or, you know, bombshell information in the prior releases. Most of the information we've seen over the years is interesting and maybe, you know, somewhat salacious, but nothing that really gets at the roots of the Jeffrey Epstein story.
MARTIN: So assuming, though, that some of these records will be made public, as the House Oversight chairman says, are there questions that you think the files could answer?
MARSH: I think there are a lot of questions that the files could answer. And to be clear, you know, there are likely to be a lot of files about Jeffrey Epstein in the federal government's possession, not only by the Department of Justice, but the SEC - Securities and Exchange Commission - prosecuted him and his associates in the 1990s. There are a tremendous amount of records in the Southern District of New York - the federal prosecutors there. I'm not sure that the Department of Justice considers that part of their records. So I think there are a lot of records and a lot of different places that we're going to need to get ahold of in order to get the full story behind Jeffrey Epstein.
MARTIN: And the full story being what?
MARSH: Well, I think it's really important to look back 30 years when my client Maria Farmer made her complaint to the mid-1990s. Jeffrey Epstein was well known to the federal government at that time. He's actually renting a townhouse from the State Department. He was being prosecuted as part of a very large Ponzi scheme - the biggest one before Bernie Madoff, involving Tower Financial. This period has not really been - drawn much attention from Congress or anyone else, but we think that the - really the genesis of Jeffrey Epstein's rise to power and influence can be found in the 1990s. And there are likely to be a lot of records related to those litigations.
MARTIN: So let me go back to the Oversight Committee, and let me go back to the subpoenas before them. The Oversight Committee wants to talk to Maxwell. It has subpoenaed witnesses, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a number of former attorneys general and FBI directors. So first, are you satisfied with the committee's witness list? But even if the answer's no, is there something you hope to learn from these witnesses that have been subpoenaed?
MARSH: I think these witnesses can give part of the story, but, of course, you have to remember that this is not a neutral environment where Jeffrey Epstein is just some random person under investigation by Congress. This is somewhat of a hot potato. And I think anyone that has any information about Jeffrey Epstein at this date and time, going to be very reluctant to give the full story just because it's such a controversial case. So we'd like to also hear from Acosta. That's a huge, glaring omission. I've spoken to members of the committee. Nobody's really been able to explain to me why he's missing. He's made some...
MARTIN: Acosta being the person who negotiated - Alex Acosta being the person who negotiated the conviction - the...
MARSH: Exactly.
MARTIN: ...His original conviction...
MARSH: Yeah. He's probably the...
MARTIN: ...Epstein's original conviction.
MARSH: ...Person, at least within recent memory, that knows the most. He has made references over the years that Jeffrey Epstein was somehow related to intelligence services as part of the United States. Nobody's really asked him who told him that. So there's a lot of answers that he has. And I don't really understand. I - the victims and survivors are a little disappointed that his name has not come up as part of this investigation.
MARTIN: That's attorney James Marsh. Mr. Marsh, thank you so much.
MARSH: Thank you very much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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