Dauntless journalist Julie K. Brown recounts her uncompromising and risky investigation of Jeffrey Epstein's underage sex trafficking operation, and the explosive reporting for the Miami Herald that finally brought him to justice while exposing the powerful people and broken system that protected him.
For many years, billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's penchant for teenage girls was an open secret in the high society of Palm Beach, Florida and Upper East Side, Manhattan. Charged in 2008 with soliciting prostitution from minors, Epstein was treated with unheard of leniency, dictating the terms of his non-prosecution. The media virtually ignored the failures of the criminal justice system, and Epstein's friends and business partners brushed the allegations aside. But when in 2017 the U.S Attorney who approved Epstein's plea deal, Alexander Acosta, was chosen by President Trump as Labor Secretary, reporter Julie K. Brown was compelled to ask questions. Despite her editor's skepticism, Brown began poring over thousands of redacted court documents and tracked down over sixty of Epstein's victims, now young women struggling to reclaim their lives after the trauma and shame they had endured.
Brown's resulting three-part series in the Miami Herald was one of the most explosive news stories of the decade, revealing how Epstein ran a global sex trafficking pyramid scheme with impunity for years, targeting vulnerable teens, often from fractured homes and then turning them into recruiters. The outrage led to Epstein's arrest, the disappearance of his closest accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the resignation of Acosta. The financier's mysterious suicide in a federal jail cell prompted conspiracy theories and speculation about the secrets he took to the grave--and whether his death was intentional or the result of foul play.
Tracing Epstein's humble beginnings to becoming one of the most successful financiers in the country--whose associates included Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton--Perversion of Justice builds on Brown's original award-winning series and is a startling portrait of the deep-seated corruption of powerful men.
Brown, Julie K.: -
Julie K. Brown is an investigative reporter with the Miami Herald. During her 30-year career, she has worked for a number of newspapers, focusing on crime, justice and human rights issues. As a member of the Herald's prestigious Investigative Team, she has won dozens of awards, including a George Polk Award in 2018 for "Perversion of Justice," a series that examined how a rich and powerful sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein, managed to arrange a secret plea deal and escape life in prison -- even though he was suspected of sexually abusing more than 100 underage girls and young women. The series, and her subsequent dogged coverage of the case in 2019, led to the resignation of President Trump's labor secretary, Alex Acosta, Epstein's arrest on new federal charges in New York and reforms in the way that prosecutors treat victims of sex crimes.
Brown previously won acclaim for a series of stories about abuses and corruption in Florida prisons. The stories led to the resignations of top agency officials, firings of corrupt corrections officers and an overhaul in the treatment of inmates with mental and physical disabilities, as well as women in Florida prisons. That series also won a Polk Award. A native of Philadelphia, she is a graduate of Temple University.
