In perhaps one of the most ironic turns of events we've seen in a while, new court documents have now revealed that Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who certainly was not known for treating young women with decency and respect, actually reported infamous child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to the FBI after a Playboy Playmate was allegedly sexually abused and trafficked by the now-late rapist and New York financier.
The FBI ignored it for a decade and a half.
According to court records obtained and reported by Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown in her Substack, a legal complaint was just recently filed against the United States in the Southern District of Florida by 34 Epstein survivors. Among those survivors named in the suit was former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen. The filing reveals that Christiansen went to Hefner in 2005 and told him that she was a survivor of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein, asking the Playboy owner to contact the FBI on her behalf, as she believed that authorities would be more likely to take him seriously because of his status.
The newly revealed court document shows that the FBI agreed to assist Christiansen and investigate her claims. Christiansen alleges she did not hear from the FBI again on the matter until October 2020, 15 years after Hefner first made the call.
Court documents read: "For about fifteen years, the FBI did not investigate Ms. Christiansen’s tips or follow up on her allegations."
The documents go on to reveal that Christiansen met the now-deceased convicted child rapist and "before she knew it she was naked and raped by Epstein" and "trafficked for 10 years."
NewsNation reported on the development:
The complaint alleges the FBI did not investigate the model’s claim and by not doing 'violated mandatory policies and protocols requiring it to investigate claims, like Ms. Christiansen’s, of child sexual abuse and trafficking' and 'failing to investigate credible tips, such as Ms. Christiansen’s allegations, the FBI created a foreseeable zone of risk to future victims of Epstein’s sex trafficking enterprise, including Plaintiffs.'
Arick Fudali, an attorney who represents several of the Epstein survivors, said, "The latest reporting about the FBI ignoring complaints about Epstein in 2005 are devastating but not surprising. Law enforcement has failed Epstein’s survivors for decades and continues to do so today at the highest level."
The FBI has already moved to dismiss the case filed against them by the 34 Epstein survivors, arguing that "Plaintiffs each had two years from the date of their respective injuries to file an administrative claim with the appropriate federal agency." Because their cases were between 1996 and 2017, they were too late. Too bad, so sad.
Hefner himself was not much better than Epstein. Since his death in 2017, multiple former Playmates have come forward with accusations of severe verbal abuse, systematic manipulation, and sexual misconduct. A docuseries released in 2022 accused Hefner of regularly drugging and coercing women into sex at his Playboy Mansion.
