Epstein Survivors’ Lawsuit Against the FBI Moves Closer to Discovery (8/20/26)

A federal magistrate judge recommended allowing a lawsuit brought by more than 30 Jeffrey Epstein survivors against the FBI to move forward, at least for now, rejecting the government’s attempt to immediately throw the case out on statute-of-limitations and jurisdictional grounds. The women alleged that FBI agents in New York, Florida and elsewhere repeatedly received credible information about Epstein’s abuse and trafficking operation but failed to adequately investigate or intervene. Their allegations stretched back to 1996, when Maria Farmer said she reported Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to authorities, and continued through the years before the FBI formally opened an investigation in 2006. The survivors also accused federal authorities of disregarding reports involving suspicious financial activity, payments to underage girls, trafficking and possible child sexual-abuse material. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe concluded that, taking the allegations as true at this stage, the plaintiffs had plausibly argued that federal agents may have created a foreseeable risk to future victims through their actions and failures during the investigation

McCabe did not rule that the FBI was ultimately liable, and he expressed doubts about whether the survivors would eventually be able to prove that different investigative decisions by agents would have prevented Epstein’s later crimes. Instead, he concluded that those difficult questions, particularly causation, were not enough to justify dismissal at this early stage. He recommended a 90-day discovery period focused on FBI policies concerning sexual abuse and child sexual-abuse material, after which the government could renew its effort to dismiss the case. The Justice Department had argued that the claims were barred by sovereign immunity, the Federal Tort Claims Act’s discretionary-function protections and expired filing deadlines, while the survivors maintained that they only recently learned the full extent of the government’s alleged failures because relevant information had been concealed for years. The recommendation now goes to U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz, who will decide whether to adopt it and allow the litigation to proceed into limited discovery.


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source:

Epstein victims’ suit against FBI poised to survive dismissal, for now | Courthouse News Service

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