General Discussion

The "conviction" was obtained by getting him to plead guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute. Epstein agreed to the plea deal precisely because it was part of a Non Prosecution Agreement (NPA) deal that was later determined to be illegal. Alex Acosta, later Trump's first Secretary of Labor, was the primary US Attorney on the case. He's never adequately explained why he agreed to the deal. It's pretty clear Acosta was compromised. From Wikipedia: "Acosta later said he offered a lenient plea deal because he was told that Epstein "belonged to intelligence", was "above his pay grade" and to "leave it alone"". Alan Dershowitz was one of Epstein's lawyers. Dershowitz was later accused of raping a woman at Epstein's island.

For more back story, In May 2006, Palm Beach police filed a probable cause affidavit saying that Epstein should be charged with four counts of unlawful sex with minors and one count of sexual abuse. Presented evidence from only two victims, the grand jury returned a single charge of felony solicitation of prostitution. In July 2006, the FBI began its own investigation of Epstein that resulted in a fifty-three page, 60-count indictment in June 2007. That indictment included multiple counts of Sex Trafficking. Acosta, then the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, then agreed to the previously mentioned plea deal, to grant immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein, along with four named co-conspirators and any unnamed "potential co-conspirators". According to the Miami Herald, the non-prosecution agreement "essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes". At the time, this halted the investigation and sealed the indictment. The Miami Herald said: "Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims."