'I feel like this weight has been lifted off my shoulders': Alleged Epstein victims recount powerful emotions after witnessing financier’s New York arraignment.
In the very last row of the 23rd floor of the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan, where wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was being arraigned on Monday, two young women sat side by side, flanked by men in dark suits – the bustling media chaos surrounding them at the high-profile criminal proceeding.
"We get to look him in the face today and see him in handcuffs," Wild said at one point during a series of exclusive interviews with ABC News."We get to see him in jail. Finally, that day has come. So it was just nice to be able to share it with somebody, you know, look at you [Licata] and say 'OK, today's our day.'"
Licata, who was 16 at the time of her first and only alleged encounter with Epstein, told ABC News that when she saw the disgraced, shackled Epstein marched into the courtroom, she experienced a moment of panic. That deal allowed him to avoid federal charges by pleading guilty to two lesser state charges and registering as a sex offender -- despite investigators at the time uncovering, according to court documents, evidence of a broad pattern of sexual abuse of minor victims.
The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has already launched an investigation into alleged impropriety surrounding the deal. And Acosta is currently facing public calls for his resignation, including from Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic Senator Charles Schumer.
Once Licata and Wild filed out of the courtroom and down to street level together, they were recognized – and a mob of reporters clamored around them, snapping their photos, filming them and shouting questions. Back in their waiting SUV, the two women, who had only just met hours earlier, collapsed in fits of laughter like old friends, and breathed a collective sigh of relief.
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