https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/magistrate-judge-bruce-reinhart-faces-political-firestorm-after-signing-mar-a-lago-search-warrant/ar-AA10x4gj?ocid
Judge Bruce Reinhart has ties to Jeffrey Epstein case
Many of the news stories about Reinhart have focused on his representation of associates of serial molester Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 in a New York City jail cell after being accused of trafficking dozens of young women for sex.
As part of the long and complicated case that began a decade before Epstein’s death, Reinhart was named in a lawsuit attorney Bradley Edwards filed on behalf of some of the Palm Beach financier's young accusers.
In it, they claimed federal prosecutors violated their rights by not telling them a plea deal had been approved that would allow Epstein to plead guilty to state prostitution charges to avoid federal prosecution.
Search theories: Why did the FBI search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate? 5 potential explanations
Reaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago: Reaction to search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago: Anger from supporters, caution from critics
In court papers, Edwards claimed Reinhart used his position as a federal prosecutor to curry favor with Epstein. Then, when Reinhart left the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he immediately “joined Epstein’s payroll” by representing the politically-connected financier’s pilots and women who were accused of helping him recruit teenagers for sex, Edwards said in the lawsuit.
Saying the “unfounded factual and legal accusations” hurt his reputation, Reinhart in 2011 asked U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to sanction Edwards. Marra declined, saying the dispute had nothing to do with whether federal prosecutors violated the women’s rights.
“The Court cannot permit anyone slighted by allegations in court pleadings to intervene and conduct mini-trials to vindicate their reputation,” Marra wrote, in denying Reinhart’s request.
Cohen called Edwards' allegations against Reinhart offensive. “The whole idea that he quit (the U.S. Attorney’s Office) so he could become a lapdog for Epstein is nonsense,” she said.
Reinhart quit, after a nearly two-decade career as a federal prosecutor in West Palm Beach and Washington, D.C., to become a criminal defense attorney.
“Good for him,” she said. “Just because you represent a murderer doesn’t mean you condone the murder.”
Reinhart, however, did acknowledge he encountered some ethical problems when he briefly represented then-Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty before she was formally charged in 2009 with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud by federal prosecutors.
When he stepped off McCarty’s case, Reinhart told The Palm Beach Post that his former bosses told him that if he continued to represent McCarty he would be violating rules prohibiting him from representing defendants on matters he had dealt with as a federal prosecutor.
Judge Reinhart is a Princeton graduate who got his law degree at Penn
Reinhart graduated from Princeton University with a degree in civil engineering and got his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He worked as a trial attorney in the Public Integrity Section of the Department of Justice and was a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of the Treasury before joining the federal prosecutor’s office in West Palm Beach.
Two days before he was appointed as a magistrate, his wife Carolyn Bell, also a former prosecutor, was appointed to the Palm Beach County Circuit Court bench by then-Gov. Rick Scott. She currently presides in juvenile court.