Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein once again urged that the accused child sex trafficker be released on bail, asking a federal judge not to be swayed by the discovery of a foreign passport in their client’s mansion, with his photo but a different name.
Epstein kept the Austrian document on hand in case he was taken hostage in a hijacking, not to deceive authorities, they said.
“Epstein – an affluent member of the Jewish faith – acquired the passport in the 1980s, when hijackings were prevalent, in connection to Middle East travel,” they said of the incongruous item in a court filing Tuesday.
“The passport was for personal protection in the event of travel to dangerous areas, only to be presented to potential kidnappers, hijackers or terrorists should violent episodes occur.”
They said there is no evidence he ever used the passport, which expired 32 years ago and listed a Saudi residence.
Prosecutors said in their own filing that Epstein’s ability to get hold of such a passport, genuine or forged, “gives rise to the inference that the defendant knows how to obtain false travel documents and/or assume other, foreign identities”.
They argued that “adds to the serious risk of flight posed by the defendant”.
In addition to the passport, government agents searching Epstein’s Manhattan town house at the time of his arrest on July 6 found 48 loose diamonds, a large diamond ring and more than US$70,000 in cash, according to court filings, contents that prosecutors say are “consistent with the capability to leave the jurisdiction at a moment’s notice”.Epstein, arrested in New Jersey after stepping off his private jet from Paris and charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy, will learn on Thursday whether he will return to his home or to the jail he now shares with Paul Manafort and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
Epstein, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of molesting girls from 2002 to 2005 and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.
Epstein, who is a registered as a sex offender under a 2008 plea agreement in Florida that has been sharply criticised for its leniency, has pleaded not guilty to the indictment.
Alexander Acosta, who handled the 2008 case as US attorney for the Southern District of Florida, resigned as secretary of labour under US President Donald Trump amid fresh outrage over that plea deal.The defence team has asked that Epstein be allowed to surrender his passport and live under house arrest at his US$77 million mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, guarded by private security at his own expense.
A document filed by his lawyers and made public this week lists his total assets at $559 million, including four homes and two private islands.
Epstein was known for socialising with politicians and royalty, with friends who have included Trump, former president Bill Clinton and according to court papers, Britain’s Prince Andrew.
None of those people were mentioned in the indictment.
Additional reporting by Reuters
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Fake Epstein passport ‘was to fend off hijackers’
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