Miami Herald reports:

Jeffrey Epstein didn’t beat the justice system by accident.

For decades, the New York financier curated a network of influential people — politicians, business titans, media figures and academics — whom he leveraged to build his fortune and restore his reputation after he had been accused of preying on underage girls in South Florida in 2008.

While much of the spotlight has been on the elite heavyweights who hitched themselves to Epstein’s orbit even after he was jailed in South Florida, there’s been little scrutiny on how Epstein cozied up to some of the very people who were supposed to hold him accountable.

New documents — made public for the first time — show in greater detail how Epstein tried, and often succeeded, in influencing almost every level of the criminal justice system that threatened to disrupt his sex trafficking and money laundering empire.

Epstein’s efforts to corrupt the justice system is important because, had some of these figures rigorously investigated and monitored Epstein, he may not have been able to continue to sexually abuse women and girls for another decade.

This story is based on a Miami Herald review of thousands of documents released by the Justice Department, court records and interviews with key people involved in the Epstein case.

The documents — released in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress last year — reveal how Epstein wooed state and federal prosecutors, assistant district attorneys, sheriff’s deputies, probation officers, federal marshals and customs and border patrol officers.

He even enlisted his court-approved sex-addiction doctor, Stephen Alexander, as a back channel to relay messages to government and law enforcement officials he wanted to secretly curry favor with.

Records show he tried to cultivate relationships with a coterie of former prosecutors, including: Alex Acosta, the U.S. Attorney in South Florida who approved Epstein’s plea deal; Jeff Sloman, Acosta’s former deputy in the South Florida U.S. attorney’s office; Matthew Menchel, the South Florida U.S. attorney’s former chief criminal prosecutor; Bruce Reinhart, a former South Florida federal prosecutor; Barry Krischer, the former Palm Beach state attorney; and Michael Gauger, who was the chief deputy of the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office during Epstein’s incarceration. Not all of his efforts were successful. [Continue reading…]