And as they have repeatedly in the week since his arrest on July 6, they argued that a lenient plea deal he struck in Florida in 2007 that allowed him to avoid federal prosecution and instead plead guilty in 2008 to lesser state prostitution charges should apply in New York because it was made in consultation with senior officials at the Justice Department.

Asked by the judge for the names of the senior officials involved, Epstein attorney Martin Weinberg named several top-level DOJ employees, including Alice Fisher, who was the head of the criminal division at the time, and Mark Filip, who became deputy attorney general in 2008.

Weinberg suggested the officials had “endorsed the exercise of prosecutorial discretion that was at the heart of the” nonprosecution agreement.