Documents that were included in the US Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files are photographed. (AP Photo/ File) Files released by the US Justice Department show how deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein operated in the US Virgin Islands as months before his arrest in July 2019, he had an island dispute and the island’s top elected official, Democratic Governor Albert Bryan Jr. offered to help.
Officials in the Virgin Islands had issued a stop-work order while investigating unauthorised construction on Epstein’s private islands and were considering potential fines. As the dispute between Epstein and the officials intensified, the disgraced financier towards US Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan Jr.
According to text messages exchanged between Epstein and Bryan in 2019, the Governor told the convicted paedophile that he had spoken with US Virgin Island’s top environmental official and asked him to pause the enforcement of stop-work order and other punitive measures until the matter is discussed, CNN reported.
After Epstein raised the issue of rising fines and negative media coverage, Bryan said that he had asked the commissioner who was overseeing the case to “recuse himself and concede on all previous permit requests.”
In a message, Bryan told Epstein, “We got you.” According to the CNN report, after analysing dozens of messages and emails exchanged over a period of several months, Bryan expressed willingness to talk to regulators involved in the case on Epstein’s behalf and reassured the convicted offender that he was addressing the dispute.
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Message exchanges also show that Bryan and Epstein had planned to meet privately as the island dispute was ongoing. Epstein, in one of the messages, cautioned that enforcement actions would “kill all interest and send investors to puerto rico instead!!”
Bryan, who is currently the governor of the US Virgin Islands, is in the final year of his second term as governor. Bryan had been asked several times in the past if he had provided Epstein with any special treatment, to which the governor has responded saying, “No.”
