HOUSE OVERSIGHT 012195 ALLEN GUTHRIE MCHUGH & THOMAS, PLLC Mr. John Roth June 19, 2008 Page 13 had attained the requisite legal age. Finally, although 18 U.S.C. §2423(f)(2) also defines "illicit sexual conduct" as any commercial sex act with a person under the age of 18, 18 U.S.C. §2423(g) also provides a specific affirmative defense as to that age element if proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Mr. Epstein reasonably believed that the young women had attained the requisite legal age. As we have demonstrated, time and again the women involved lied to Mr. Epstein as to illeir true age, representing that they were, in fact, over the age of 18. Many of them also represented that they worked at local massage parlors, which presumably would have imposed a legal age requirement. Lastly, in contrast to 18 U.S.C. §1591, Mr. Epstein's conduct did not involve trafficking of women or children in the sex industry, and was not part of any phenomenon that, in the aggregate, had an economic impact on interstate or foreign commerce. Additionally, Mr. Epstein did not benefit financially from the alleged conduct. Therefore, as the SAO determined, and still believes, Mr. Epstein was a customer, a "John" for whom prosecutions are best left to the State to address. Indeed, there is no reported precedent extending federal law to a local "John" who does not violate the child exploitation statutes. Indeed, CEOS does not point to a single case where federal prosecutors have used § 1591 in a case involving facts like these. Instead, every § 1591 prosecution has involved national or international sex trafficking and/or for-profit prostitution rings, involving the knowing use of minors and/or forcible coercion, or forcible rape, physical abuse or intimidation. These are the elements required by the statute, and they are not met here. Although CEOS could, perhaps, point to United States v. Evans, 476 F.3d 1176 (11th Cir. 2007) as a case that, standing alone, i