Inside Jeffrey Epstein's Secret Friendship With Florida Prosecutor Who Slowed Investigation Into Vile Pedo — Including Dinner, Financial Advice and Job Offers

Jeffrey Epstein developed a secret friendship with Matthew Menchel years after the same prosecutor was involved in the widely-considered botched prosecution of the pedophile in Florida that ultimately ended in a sweetheart deal and short jail sentence, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

In 2008, Epstein pled guilty to one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18, despite the lead prosecutor in the case, Ann Marie Villafaña, pushing for at least 18 years behind bars after documenting the financier's patterns of abuse.

"Allowing a federal defendant to plead guilty to state charges also is completely unheard of," Villafaña noted in 2019. "No one ever explained to me where the idea originated from."

Menchel left the US Attorney’s office in August 2007 — before Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement. His purported friendship with Epstein did not develop until after the sex creep was released. Radar is not suggesting the pair's coziness had any impact on the investigation.

Following Epstein's plea deal, Villafaña is said to have written to a colleague, "After all the hell they put me through, I don't feel like celebrating 18 months. He should be spending 18 years in jail."

After Epstein was released from jail in 2009, he and Menchel, according to emails, appeared to strike up a friendship, which included the attorney being invited to dinner at the criminal's New York mansion, even luring him with a possible Woody Allen appearance.

At another point, Menchel even asked Epstein to recommend a financial adviser.

"Obviously I'm speaking of someone who advises people like me not someone like you, who advises people like Bill Gates," Menchel wrote to Epstein.

Epstein also tried to get Menchel a job, as in 2013, after Jes Staley had left his post at JPMorgan & Chase Co., the pedo suggested the banker "consider matt menchel."

At other times, both men would reach out to one another to simply check in. In February 2014, Menchel wrote to Epstein. "Just touching base to see how you have been."

They would also discuss the press involving Epstein, as the wealthy financier wrote, "How are you? My press is pretty bad."

And just a month after a damning exposé on Epstein's ties to then-Prince Andrew was detailed, Menchel responded, "I've read some of the press. Very unfortunate, and I see that Alan Dershowitz has been caught up in it as well."

In response to the shock emails, Menchel's camp noted the conversations between the two "were made in the context of potential representations and referrals (none of which ever materialized into any business of Mr. Menchel or his firm)."

They added: "During the three months Mr. Menchel was involved in the investigation of Epstein, he treated the matter as he treated every case he prosecuted over his twenty-year career in public service – with seriousness, professionalism, and respect for the chain of command.

"Any suggestion that Mr. Menchel prevented an indictment or did anyone any favors is categorically false."

A lawyer for Menchel also insisted Menchel was not friends with Epstein while serving as a prosecutor or that he had involvement in securing Epstein "a sweetheart deal in exchange for personal favors."

The representative said: "Mr. Menchel was not responsible for the 2008 plea deal (he was not even at the US Attorney’s office at that time, having left in August 2007 before Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement was drafted much less signed). And Mr. Menchel did not have any communications with Epstein when Mr. Menchel was a prosecutor, nor were they ever friends."

Epstein found himself back behind bars in July 2019 after being charged with s-- crimes. He was found dead from an apparent suicide just a month later.

UPDATE (MARCH 25): An earlier version of this story included the caption, 'Jeffrey Epstein had a tight relationship with the same man who pushed for his sweetheart deal in 2008.’ Menchel left the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office in August 2007, one month before Epstein’s non-prosecution deal was completed. His lawyer insists he was not involved in the final negotiations of the so-called “sweetheart deal” and any relationship he struck with Epstein came after Menchel left his role as a prosecutor.

However, the Miami Herald has reported Menchel did indeed propose "one of the key provisions of the plea deal — that it was to be done in state court in Palm Beach County — instead of in federal court. This later proved to be ideal for Epstein because it gave control of Epstein’s incarceration and probation to the Palm Beach state attorney and the Palm Beach sheriff’s office. Despite promising federal prosecutors that Epstein would be held behind bars for the length of his jail term, Epstein was given work release, files show."