French officials call for investigation of Epstein ‘links with France’

Two French Cabinet officials are calling for an investigation into “many unanswered questions” about accused sex trafficker and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to the nation, according to ABC News.

In a joint statement Monday, Secretary of State for Equality between men and women Marlène Schiappa and Secretary of State for the ministry of solidarity and health Adrien Taquet called for the French government to launch its own probe of Epstein, who died in federal custody over the weekend.

{mosads}“The US investigation has highlighted links with France,” Schiappa and Taquet said in the statement, according to ABC. “It thus seems to us fundamental for the victims that an investigation be opened in France so that all is brought to light.”

“The elements received at the Paris prosecutor’s office are being analyzed and cross-referenced,” a spokesperson for the office told ABC News. “The first audits are currently underway to determine whether an investigation should be opened in France.”

In addition to homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein owned multiple properties within Paris’s 22 Avenue Foch. He had been returning from Paris when he was arrested in New Jersey on sex trafficking charges in July.

One of several women who have accused Epstein of sexual assault, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that as a teenager she flew to Paris with Epstein and alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001, according to ABC.

Court documents indicate that in a deposition, Giuffre said she believed that an incident in which Maxwell “sent [her] to have sex with the owner of a large hotel chain” occurred in Paris.

Maxwell has denied Giuffre’s allegations and has not been charged with a crime.

Attorney General William Barr has vowed an investigation into Epstein’s death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and ranking member Doug Collins (R-Ga.) on Monday wrote to the Bureau of Prisons asking for additional information about his death.