The lady who supplied essential proof that allowed federal prosecutors to cost Jeffrey Epstein with intercourse trafficking of minors in 2019 is talking out publicly for the primary time, urging lawmakers to launch data associated to the convicted intercourse offender to assist his victims heal.
Sources say Marina Lacerda, 37, was recognized in Epstein’s 2019 indictment as “Minor-Sufferer 1” and supplied key info that helped prosecutors put the intercourse offender behind bars.
Talking publicly for the primary time in an interview with ABC Information, Lacerda known as on the Trump administration to launch their data associated to Epstein and inspired different survivors of abuse to return ahead.
To see the complete interview, tune into ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday at 7 a.m.
“I would love for them to offer all of the victims transparency, proper, to what occurred and launch these recordsdata. It is also not just for the victims, however for the American individuals,” Lacerda informed ABC Information’ Linsey Davis concerning Epstein, the rich financier and convicted intercourse offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
Federal investigators first contacted Lacerda in 2008, however Epstein secured a controversial and once-secret non-prosecution settlement with federal prosecutors earlier than she might inform a grand jury about her allegations of childhood intercourse abuse. Investigators returned to Lacerda greater than ten years later, utilizing her experiences to construct a case that charged Epstein with intercourse trafficking minors in New York.
Based on the indictment, Lacerda first met Epstein when she was 14 years outdated in 2002 when she was recruited to return to his palatial New York dwelling to offer a therapeutic massage to Epstein — an interplay that in the end led to years of sexual abuse.
“His home was a revolving door. There was at all times women,” Lacerda informed ABC Information. “If he was in New York, he had his week prepped to see as many women as doable. I might say he was seeing about 5 to perhaps eight girls, perhaps much more, perhaps as much as ten girls a day.”
Jeffrey Epstein in court docket in West Palm Seashore, Fla., July 30, 2008.
Uma Sanghvi/The Palm Seashore Publish by way of AP
After immigrating from Brazil along with her household, Lacerda mentioned she was residing in Queens and sharing a single bed room along with her mom and sister when she first met Epstein. A pal first launched her to the financier, framing it as a possibility to become profitable to help her household.
“She had mentioned that, you realize, I used to be going to therapeutic massage any person and there wasn’t a lot specifics,” Lacerda mentioned. “I wasn’t anticipating what led on to that day as a result of I feel with Jeffrey Epstein, it begins someplace, however then it ends. Both you having intercourse with them whether or not you prefer it or not.”
Over the subsequent three years, Lacerda mentioned she grew to become part of a rising community of younger women recruited by Epstein in New York, assembly and being pressured to have intercourse with the disgraced financier two to 3 occasions per week.
“He pressured me to have intercourse with him. Principally. I actually had no selection,” she mentioned.
Lacerda mentioned Epstein finally paid her hundreds of {dollars}, and he or she believed being related to the financier would open doorways for her as an immigrant from Brazil.
She recalled that Epstein displayed photographs of high-profile celebrities and politicians in his dwelling, and that he performed telephone calls with high-profile people.
“I believed that if I simply performed alongside that I would not be this immigrant from Brazil, you realize, and that I might have one thing to look ahead,” she mentioned.
However Lacerda mentioned Epstein’s curiosity in her light as she grew older, and he or she started recruiting different younger girls for him.
“It got here to a degree after I was, I might say, 16 and a half or 17. He did not need me anymore. He was similar to, you are too outdated,” she mentioned.
Years later, Lacerda mentioned that FBI brokers arrived at her doorstep to ask questions on Epstein. She mentioned she instantly known as Epstein, who supplied her with a lawyer. Whereas she ready to talk to the grand jury in 2008 about Epstein, the chance was minimize brief when Epstein secured a cope with prosecutors.
“I might have felt a lot better at the moment talking if I used to be in a position to converse in 2008,” she mentioned. “In the event that they gave me the possibility to talk, these girls wouldn’t be by this.”
Eleven years later, the FBI contacted Lacerda again, as New York prosecutors opened a case into Epstein. Her expertise in the end supplied prosecutors with key info to unravel his alleged community of kid intercourse abuse in New York.
The Trump administration has been dealing with the fallout from its determination to not launch supplies associated to the investigation into Epstein following the blowback it acquired from MAGA supporters after it introduced final month that no further recordsdata can be launched.
Epstein, whose personal island property was within the U.S. Virgin Islands, has lengthy been rumored to have stored a “shopper listing” of celebrities and politicians, which right-wing influencers have baselessly accused authorities of hiding.
The Justice Division and FBI introduced in July that they’d found no evidence that Epstein stored a shopper listing, after a number of high officers, earlier than becoming a member of the administration, had themselves accused the federal government of protecting info concerning the Epstein case.
On Tuesday, Lacerda met with Congressional lawmakers alongside different survivors of Epstein. Many years after her abuse, she mentioned that the incessant protection of Epstein and the shortage of transparency solely exacerbate the hurt suffered by his victims.
“We have to have transparency. We want the Epstein recordsdata to be out,” she mentioned. “Right now I spoke about it — I need to have my recordsdata in order that I can start to heal.”
