Relentless Pursuit: Our Battle with Jeffrey Epstein - Softcover

Edwards, Bradley J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1982148144 ISBN 13: 9781982148140

Verlag: Gallery Books, 2021

Inhaltsangabe

“A thrilling page-turner about the pursuit of justice” (New York Post), this is the definitive story of the case against Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the corrupt system that supported them, told in thrilling detail by the lawyer who has represented their victims for more than a decade.

In June 2008, Florida-based victims’ rights attorney Bradley J. Edwards was thirty-two years old and had just started his own law firm when a young woman named Courtney Wild came to see him. She told a shocking story of having been sexually coerced at the age of fourteen by a wealthy man in Palm Beach named Jeffrey Epstein. Edwards, who had never heard of Epstein, had no idea that this moment would change the course of his life.

Over the next ten years, Edwards devoted himself to bringing Epstein to justice, and came close to losing everything in the process. Edwards tracked down and represented more than twenty of Epstein’s victims, shined a light on his shadowy network of accomplices, including Ghislaine Maxwell, and uncovered the scope of his sexually exploitative organization, which reached into the highest levels of American society.

In this “revelatory exploration of the long fight to bring a monstrous man to justice” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Edwards gives his riveting, blow-by-blow account of battling Epstein on behalf of his clients, and provides stunning details never shared before. Epstein and his cadre of high-priced lawyers were able to manipulate the FBI and the Justice Department, but despite making threats and attempting schemes straight out of a spy movie, Epstein couldn’t stop Edwards, his small team of committed lawyers, and, most of all, the victims, who were dead-set on seeing their abuser finally put behind bars.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Bradley J. Edwards is a prominent board-certified civil trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who specializes in representing victims of violent and sexual crimes. In addition to obtaining some of America’s largest jury verdicts, he prosecuted the landmark Crime Victims’ Rights case, Doe v. United States, pro bono for more than ten years. He has published on the topic of crime victims’ rights in nationally recognized journals and speaks across the country on the representation of victims and survivors.

Brittany Henderson is a trial lawyer in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who is committed to making a difference both in the courtroom and in the community. She has obtained nearly $100 million in jury verdicts and settlements in her short career as an advocate for crime victims. Additionally, she is the cofounder of two nonprofit organizations for sexual abuse survivors.  

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Chapter One: The Beginning of the End ONE THE BEGINNING OF THE END
IT WAS SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2019. I was in Naples, Florida, with my wife, Terry, and our three sons, Blake, Cashton, and Austin, enjoying the Fourth of July holiday weekend with several other families from our hometown of Fort Lauderdale. We spent the day hanging out at the hotel pool and throwing a football around until suddenly black clouds came out of nowhere and filled the sky. Within minutes, a lightning bolt shot down and thunder drowned out the lifeguard whistles as everyone was asked to evacuate the pool area. We corralled the children and ushered them inside.

Cooped up in a hotel room, the kids were bouncing off the walls, and the adults wanted a break. One of the other dads and I volunteered to take all the kids somewhere to let them run off their energy. We loaded up two cars with ten children ranging from four to fourteen years old and went to the local bowling alley.

As soon as I parked, my phone rang. It was my law partner Stan Pottinger. Making a concerted effort not to let anything disrupt my family time, I didn’t answer and shoved my phone back in my pocket. It was still raining so hard you could barely see. The kids and I opened the car doors and made a run for it. We quickly realized we were not the only ones in town with this idea. The alley was packed. And loud. The kids immediately dashed to the counter. While I was trying to pay for the shoes and lanes, my phone kept ringing. Stan again. I thought to myself, This is strange. He never does that. Still, I couldn’t answer at that moment.

“What size shoes do you need?” asked the clerk. Most of the kids, excited to get bowling, just started yelling out shoe sizes simultaneously.

“I don’t know what my shoe size is,” shouted my friend’s four-year-old daughter, Callie. I placed my phone faceup on the counter while lifting Callie in the air to show the clerk her foot so that he could take his best guess at her size.

“Your phone is ringing,” Callie said. I looked down. It was Stan again. This had to be important. After I helped Callie get her shoes on and find a lightweight bowling ball, I asked the other dad to watch the kids while I made a quick call.

Before I could dial, Stan called again. I ducked into the quieter bar area to answer. “Are you okay?” I asked as I pulled the phone to my ear.

Stan, in his typical very calm voice, said, “I just got a call from the FBI. He’s in handcuffs. They arrested him an hour ago coming off his jet from Paris.”

Jeffrey Epstein, infamous billionaire and my longtime archenemy, who until now had gotten away with international sexual abuse against hundreds of young women and girls, was in custody.

At that moment, a million thoughts shot through my mind. I didn’t say anything for a good five seconds, unable to figure out which one I wanted to turn into a question. “No kidding,” I finally replied. “Who arrested him? What did they charge him with? Have you seen the indictment? Has it been reported?”

Stan continued with what little information he had. “The indictment is sealed,” he explained. “I don’t know who the victims are, but he’s charged with sex trafficking. His first appearance hearing is Monday. Because some of our clients are known victims and may be witnesses, the FBI is trying to alert them to the arrest before it leaks to the press. Hopefully that won’t happen before we get to them, but you should call them as soon as you can.” He was right—bowling would have to wait. Our clients should get the news from us, and as soon as possible. I hung up with Stan and immediately called my associate attorney, Brittany Henderson, so that she could help me begin sharing the news with all of our clients.

The first client I called was Courtney Wild. “No way. I don’t believe you,” she said. After that, all I heard was crying, years of emotions pouring out. “I have to see him in handcuffs. I won’t believe it until I do. I want to be at the hearing on Monday. If I have to drive to New York, I will! We need to be there,” she exclaimed.

“One way or the other, we will be,” I assured her.

Before I could reach out to anyone else, I received an incoming call from another client and victim, Olivia. Her voice was shaking, “Jeffrey Epstein was arrested. The FBI just called me. I can’t believe this day has finally come.”

When the next call came, I figured it was a client, but it was a reporter from the New York Times, and within seconds, I discovered that he knew more than I did. “Why did they raid his New York mansion?” he asked. I didn’t know they had. I wasn’t interested in wasting time on the phone speculating, so I let all the other unidentified calls go to voice mail.

I spent the rest of the night talking with clients, one after another. For more than ten years, we had been through so much together. I was more than just their lawyer. By this point, I served in the role of trusted friend and oftentimes therapist. After hours of trying to answer as many questions as possible, I finished the last client call and sat on the hotel balcony, staring at the water and reflecting.

The day has finally come. Jeffrey Epstein is in custody. But this is not over. This is a world-class heavyweight fight and Jeffrey Epstein is not someone you can just sucker-punch and think you’ve won. The government has to keep swinging until they finish him off, because if he gets a second to recover, he will. And if he does, he will make them pay. He will make everyone who took this shot at him pay. Those thoughts made sleep impossible that night.

The next day, Sunday July 7, Courtney got on a plane from West Palm Beach, Florida, to New York City. I drove back from Naples to Fort Lauderdale and flew to New York Monday morning. We knew the courthouse would be crawling with reporters, which made Courtney nervous. As an Epstein victim, she’d been unfairly labeled and mischaracterized by certain members of the press, which meant that, unable to tell the good ones from the bad, she distrusted them all.

While we hoped to avoid the press altogether—at least until everyone got their bearings—we knew that was not going to be possible. Courtney rode in one car with Michelle Licata, another Epstein child sex abuse victim, whom Courtney had never met before that day. I went separately in another. We thought if we didn’t show up together, we could probably get into the courthouse without a media siege. To some extent, the strategy worked.

As I approached the lawyer’s entrance to the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse at 500 Pearl Street, I could see the sidewalk lined with cameras. It was raining, so I used my umbrella to shield my face as I scooted behind the reporters, who were waving their microphones while frantically scanning the perimeter of the building in search of victims or their attorneys.

I made it all the way to the courthouse steps unnoticed before a member of the crew working on an Epstein-related Netflix series recognized me and asked, “Brad, where are your clients?” I ignored the question and made my way up the courthouse steps. Just then, at least twenty reporters who had covered the Epstein saga over the years started shouting my name, all following with different questions. When I didn’t answer, one called out, “Come...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Gallery Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2021
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1982148144
• ISBN 13: 9781982148140
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV, GPSR Europäische Union; info@simonandschuster.nl; ; Herculesplein 96; AA Utrecht; 3584; Niederlande