Epstein waged 'full court press' to get clemency from ex-Florida gov: report

Emails newly uncovered by the Miami Herald reveal how deceased billionaire financier and accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein attempted a "full court press" to get clemency from then-Florida Gov. Charlie Crist after serving out his sweetheart deal sentence for soliciting prostitution in 2010.

That deal itself, brokered by a prosecutor who went on to become President Donald Trump's first Secretary of Labor, was massively controversial, as Epstein's sex trafficking operation and his role in molesting and assaulting almost three dozen girls were already widely known at the time. But according to the new report, Epstein tried to get even that wiped clean.

"The records show that Epstein sought a direct conversation with Crist in the final months of Crist’s time as governor in 2010," said the report. "Crist, who had been elected as a Republican, had opted not to run for re-election as governor and lost his bid for a Senate seat to Republican Marco Rubio after Crist ran as an independent. E-mails show that Epstein was expecting a call from Crist in early December and tried to enlist the help of then-New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, when the call from Crist never came."

"While Epstein would later imply in an undated conversation that he and Crist had spoken, Crist said no such conversation ever happened," said the report. “I had no involvement with the man,” said Crist.

Since leaving the governor's mansion, Crist has sought multiple other offices as a Democrat, running unsuccessfully to reclaim the governor's mansion twice and representing a Tampa-area district in Congress. He is currently considering a run for mayor of St. Petersburg.

The revelations come as part of the latest batch of documents released from the Epstein case files, which Congress passed a law compelling the Trump administration to do. The files implicate a number of other powerful and influential people of at least interacting with Epstein, and this week, Brad Karp, the head of a prominent white shoe law firm that cut a deal with Trump last year, resigned following his own appearance in the files.