I’m not the one who labelled the victims. I remember the case from news reports at the time.
The press made it sound like Epstein was the victim of a gang of avaricious young women who
You’re mistaken when you say “they weren’t victims, they were hookers looking for a big payday after they aged out.”
From both court records and investigative reporting, it’s clear there were multiple categories of Epstein’s victims.
1. Underage victims
Florida’s age of consent is 18. Anyone under that threshold cannot legally consent, regardless of circumstances. Federal filings and victim testimony confirm that many of Epstein’s victims were 14–17 years old at the time. That makes their exploitation a criminal offense — period. Consent isn’t possible under the law, and attempts to recast minors as “sex workers” are legally and morally wrong.
2. Epstein’s own words
Listen to how he complained about being “caught” and having to serve time, insisting that in other jurisdictions his actions wouldn’t even be “a serious crime” — comparing it to jaywalking. That remark reveals his mindset: he didn’t view the abuse of underage girls as wrong, only as a matter of legal inconvenience.
3. Evidence of grooming and manipulation
One detective/prosecutor reported that a victim believed she was Epstein’s fiancée and that they would marry. Think about that — a fifty-year-old man convincing a teenage girl they were engaged. That’s not “a hooker looking for a payday”; that’s calculated exploitation of a young person’s naiveté and lack of life experience.
Labeling these girls “gold diggers” is not only factually wrong — it erases the legal reality that for many, what happened to them was statutory sexual abuse. The evidence, the law, and common decency all say otherwise.
I am NOT saying these women weren't victims. I am saying that the media, and the prosecutors spun this story to present EPSTEIN as the victim to a gang of young prostitutes who made false claims that he was a predator because they had "aged out" and he wouldn't pay for their services anymore. They wanted a big payday now and they were going after him for "dumping" them.
The only way the victims could get any form of justice from Epstein was to sue him in civil court, and when a number of the victims sued, Accosta and the Republican media then claimed that this was proof positive that the women were just after money. Yes Epstein had a nasty interest in very young hookers and but they were hookers after all.
They made out that these 12 and 13 year old girls were already turning tricks when Epstein met them and they were taking advantage of HIM. It was beyond disgusting, and then Republicans starting trying to link Democrats to what Epstein was doing to the girls on his island.
Jeffrey Epstein conducted legitimate business from his island, and as such, he had to invite legitimate business people to the Island, and demonstrate for IRS purposes that maintaining the Island was a legitimate business expense. Therefore, the vast majority of those he invited to the Island, had nothing to do with the other activities which went on there.
A reporter doing a profile for a national magazine story on Epstein, was barred by security from even entering certain areas of the Island.
And still, none of these Republicans, breathlessly awaiting the transcripts of the Ghislaine Maxwell interview, have asked Accosta, Maureen Commey (who prosecuted Maxwell), or any of Epstein/Maxwell's victims, to testify.
