Federal prosecutors arrest Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges tied to his Palm Beach and New York operations

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York arrested financier Jeffrey Epstein on charges of sex trafficking minors across his Palm Beach and Manhattan properties between 2002 and 2005. The charges came despite a 2008 non-prosecution agreement Epstein had negotiated with then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, which critics said had shielded him from federal accountability for over a decade. Epstein entered a not-guilty plea and prosecutors sought detention pending trial.