- The Miami Herald reported on Thursday that at least 12 women have reached out to lawyers in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, with new allegations against Jeffrey Epstein.
- Epstein was charged on Monday with sex trafficking and conspiracy, and prosecutors allege that he molested dozens of girls as young as 14 in a sex-trafficking operation that ran from at least 2002 to 2005.
- Jack Scarola, a Palm Beach attorney, said the women coming forward now have not been part of previous investigations.
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At least a dozen more women have come forward with sexual assault and sex trafficking accusations against Jeffrey Epstein in the week since he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy.
The Miami Herald reported on Thursday that at least 12 women have reached out to lawyers in New York and Palm Beach, Florida, with new allegations against Epstein.
In the indictment, prosecutors allege that Epstein molested girls as young as 14 in a sex-trafficking operation that ran from at least 2002 to 2005, with dozens of girls victimized. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jack Scarola, a Palm Beach attorney, told the Miami Herald that at least five women have contacted him and Fort Lauderdale lawyer Brad Edwards about Epstein in the last week.
"The people we are speaking to are underage victims in Florida and in New York. They are not individuals whose claims have previously been part of any law enforcement investigation,'' Scarola said.
In an exposé published by the Miami Herald last year, journalist Julie K. Brown identified about 80 women who said they were sexually abused by the financier between 2001 and 2005, according to The New York Times.
Eight of the women agreed to be interviewed for the story, which Brown spent 18 months working on with Emily Michot, a visual journalist at The Herald.
Epstein's lawyers argued on Thursday that the financier should be released to his Manhattan townhouse as he awaits trial, but prosecutors have said he is a flight risk.
Currently, he is awaiting a bail hearing at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Lower Manhattan.
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