A dozen victims of Jeffrey Epstein have filed a lawsuit accusing the FBI of covering up its failure to investigate the late financier, enabling his sex trafficking to continue for more than 20 years.
The victims, using Jane Doe pseudonyms, said the FBI received credible tips as early as 1996 that Epstein trafficked young women and girls, yet failed to interview victims or share what it knew with federal and local law enforcement.
Victims said the FBI finally began a probe in 2006 but ended it two years later after Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida prostitution charge.
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They allege the FBI then kept ignoring tips until his July 2019 arrest.
Epstein committed suicide a month later.
“As a direct and proximate cause of the FBI’s negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened,” the complaint said.
“Jane Does 1-12 bring this lawsuit to get to the bottom — once and for all — of the FBI’s role in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking ring.”
The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Wednesday’s complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan seeks damages from the US government, the only defendant.
It cited a December 5, 2023, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in which FBI director Christopher Wray was asked why the FBI didn’t do more.
He promised to “get with my team and figure out if there is more information we can provide”.
The number of Epstein’s victims is believed to be well over 100.
Victims previously reached agreement for approximately $US500 million ($A771 million) in settlements, before deducting legal fees and costs, with a program funded by Epstein’s estate and two of Epstein’s banks, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank.
It is unclear whether the 12 plaintiffs received compensation from those settlements.
Their lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.