The lady who offered 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 offered 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 total interview, tune into ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Wednesday at 7 a.m. ET.
“I would really like 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.
In response to the indictment, Lacerda first met Epstein when she was 14 years outdated in 2002 when she was recruited to return to his palatial New York residence to supply a therapeutic massage to Epstein — an interplay that finally led to years of sexual abuse.
“His home was a revolving door. There was at all times ladies,” Lacerda informed ABC Information. “If he was in New York, he had his week prepped to see as many ladies as doable. I’d say he was seeing about 5 to possibly eight ladies, possibly much more, possibly as much as ten ladies a day.”
Jeffrey Epstein in courtroom in West Palm Seashore, Fla., July 30, 2008.
Uma Sanghvi/The Palm Seashore Put up by way of AP
After immigrating from Brazil along with her household, Lacerda stated 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 chance to earn cash to help her household.
“She had stated that, you understand, I used to be going to therapeutic massage anyone and there wasn’t a lot specifics,” Lacerda stated. “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 following three years, Lacerda stated she grew to become part of a rising community of younger ladies recruited by Epstein in New York, assembly and being pressured to have intercourse with the disgraced financier two to 3 instances every week.
“He pressured me to have intercourse with him. Mainly. I actually had no alternative,” she stated.
Lacerda stated Epstein finally paid her 1000’s 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 pictures of high-profile celebrities and politicians in his residence, 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 understand, and that I’d have one thing to look ahead,” she stated.
However Lacerda stated Epstein’s curiosity in her light as she grew older, and he or she started recruiting different younger ladies for him.
“It got here to a degree after I was, I would say, 16 and a half or 17. He did not need me anymore. He was identical to, you are too outdated,” she stated.
Years later, Lacerda stated that FBI brokers arrived at her doorstep to ask questions on Epstein. She stated she instantly known as Epstein, who offered her with a lawyer. Whereas she ready to talk to the grand jury in 2008 about Epstein, the chance was reduce quick when Epstein secured a cope with prosecutors.
“I’d have felt a lot better as we speak talking if I used to be capable of converse in 2008,” she stated. “In the event that they gave me the prospect to talk, these ladies wouldn’t be by this.”
Eleven years later, the FBI contacted Lacerda once more, as New York prosecutors opened a case into Epstein. Her expertise finally offered prosecutors with key info to unravel his alleged community of kid intercourse abuse in New York.
The Trump administration has been coping with the fallout from its choice 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 non-public island property was within the U.S. Virgin Islands, has lengthy been rumored to have stored a “shopper record” of celebrities and politicians, which right-wing influencers have baselessly accused authorities of hiding.
The Justice Division and FBI introduced in July that that they had discovered no proof that Epstein stored a shopper record, after a number of high officers, earlier than becoming a member of the administration, had themselves accused the federal government of defending info concerning the Epstein case.
On Tuesday, Lacerda met with Congressional lawmakers alongside different survivors of Epstein. A long time after her abuse, she stated that the incessant protection of Epstein and the dearth of transparency solely exacerbate the hurt suffered by his victims.
“We have to have transparency. We want the Epstein recordsdata to be out,” she stated. “Right now I spoke about it — I wish to have my recordsdata in order that I can start to heal.”
