More/Medavoy Options ‘TrafficKing’ Book About The Jeffrey Epstein Case For TV
More/Medavoy has optioned Conchita Sarnoff’s book TrafficKing, which chronicles the Jeffrey Epstein child-trafficking case, along with Sarnoff’s life rights, for television. The project will be shopped for development as a limited series or television movie.
The project is timely as the Epstein case has received renewed attention following his recent arrest. The billionaire financier was charged with federal sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy of minors in a two-count indictment unsealed Monday in New York. Epstein is accused of trafficking minors in Florida and New York between 2002 and 2005, with each charge carrying a penalty of 10 years to life in prison.
According to the book’s synopsis, TrafficKing “explores the darkest recesses of the corridors of power, from Harvard to the White House.”
Sarnoff is a human rights activist and correspondent for The Daily Beast who reported on the Epstein case in 2010 after he was first arrested in Palm Beach. She was shocked to discover that the original charges against the billionaire financier were first filed as human trafficking and later reduced to alleged charges of prostitution. Her reporting included video interviews with the first victim who filed a complaint.
Sarnoff alleges she was followed, received bribes, threats and was hacked when she sought to first publish her book. Her research in the book includes interviews with British socialite and Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell, then-U.S. attorney for Southern Florida Alex Acosta — who resigned this week as Donald Trump’s Labor Secretary amid the scandal — Epstein’s victims, attorney Alan Dershowitz and Epstein himself, among others.
TrafficKing was published independently by Sarnoff in 2016.
Sarnoff is a Cuban American advocate and Senior Fellow at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, Human Trafficking Research Center Program. For the past decade, she has worked on public policy issues dealing with human trafficking. She is a contributor at Financial Times, The Miami Herald, The Latin America Herald Tribune, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Daily Caller, ElPolitico.com and others. She has been a guest commentator on numerous TV networks including NBC, Fox, ABC, Univision, Telemundo, Russia TV, Caracol, and several radio and digital news programs, according to her website.
Epstein is accused of abusing dozens of female minors at his homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach, FL, and enlisting his victims to expand a network of possible targets, according to federal prosecutors.
Epstein is a politically connected hedge fund manager who’s been closely associated with former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II. Both Clinton and the British royal are said to have jetted around the globe on Epstein’s private plane, known as the “Lolita Express.”
The financier also has ties to Trump, who was his neighbor in Palm Beach, Florida, and also reportedly flew on Epstein’s jet.