Bill Clinton Pal and DNC Bagman Facing Child Trafficking Probe

I guess Jeffrey Epstein won't be attending the so-called wedding of the decade today. Just imagine the attention this guy would attract were he a GOP fatcat donor.

The Feds may not be quite done with Jeffrey Epstein. Having just completed 13 months in a Florida jail for soliciting prostitution from a minor, he now might be under investigation for other possible crimes, including whether there's any evidence of child trafficking, reports The Daily Beast. Epstein has settled several lawsuits by teens who say they were lured to his Palm Beach mansion for massages or sex. The US attorney general in Florida wouldn't comment. Epstein's lawyer, Jack Goldberger, says he knew nothing of any probe and, "There are not and should not be any pending criminal investigations."

Good luck with that.

• Federal investigators continue to investigate Epstein’s activities, to see whether there is evidence of child trafficking—a far more serious charge than the two in his non-prosecution agreement, the arrangement between Epstein and the Department of Justice allowing him to plead guilty to lower-level state crimes. Trafficking can carry a 20-year sentence.

• The FBI is also investigating Epstein’s friend Jean Luc Brunel, whose MC2 modeling agency appears to have been a source of girls from overseas who ended up on Epstein’s private jets.

Did Epstein's connections help win a lenient sentence on his earlier charges?

But the question remains: Did Epstein’s wealth and social connections—former President Bill Clinton; Prince Andrew; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson; and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers were just a few of the prominent passengers on his private jets—allow him to receive only a slap on the wrist for crimes that carry a mandatory 20-year sentence? Was he able, with his limitless assets and heavy-hitting lawyers—Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt, Roy Black, Kenneth Starr, Guy Lewis, and Martin Weinberger among them—to escape equal justice?

Great connections: Both Bill Clinton and Ken Starr.

More here.

Back in 2007 and 2008 when the Epstein-sex-abuse scandal broke, Democrats who at one time couldn't move fast enough to get close to him, were running scared. Clinton, who famously traveled with Epstein to Africa, and Epstein friend, Obama economic adviser and former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, who sought tens of millions from Epstein for the university, would not comment on the relationship. Bill Richardson and then-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer returned political donations.

Naturally, shameless Democrats are still willing to take his money.

"We are a forgiving people," says one Democrat National Committee fundraiser. "Look, Eliot Spitzer is going to have his own national TV show on CNN -- why can't someone like Epstein be allowed to support political and philanthropic endeavors he cares about?"

To that end, according to Democrat insiders, former close associates to Epstein, like Clinton and Richardson, who is leaving office after the 2010 election cycle, have been approached by party officials about how to best engage Epstein's largesse without directly tying him to the Democrat party. It is not known whether Clinton or Richardson has been in contact with Epstein in the past two years.

"There are any number of ways for us to do that," says the DNC fundraiser. "If there is a foundation, he can give the money through the foundation to entities like The Tides, which will use his money confidentially to fund our causes. He can give dollars to groups like the Center for American Progress, where his name won't be made public. He's paid his debt to society, and we can't afford to have him stuck on the sidelines."

A DNC Fundraiser says, "He's paid his debt to society (Epstein), and we can't afford to have him stuck on the sidelines."