Quote:A dozen of Jeffrey Epstein's victims filed a lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday, alleging that the agency had failed to protect them and then covered up its lack of action.

The women, all of whom are listed in the suit anonymously as Jane Doe, argued that the FBI ignored tips it received about the convicted pedophile's criminal activity as early as 1996, failing to disseminate that information to relevant federal and local authorities.

"The FBI has turned its back on survivor victims," attorney Jennifer Plotkin said, "and this lawsuit seeks to hold the FBI responsible for failure to act when it absolutely should have."

In their suit, filed with the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York, the victims alleged that while the FBI has a "non-discretionary obligation, governed by established policies, procedures, rules, and protocols, to handle and investigate tips concerning potential and ongoing underage child erotica, rape, sex with minors, and sex trafficking in a reasonable manner and to act against Epstein and to prevent him from committing repeated crimes," the agency "failed to take appropriate action and botched and covered up investigations for years."

"During the FBI investigation, the FBI was complicit in permitting Epstein and co-conspirators to continue to victimize Jane Does 1-12 and other young women," they continued. "The FBI had photographs, videos and interviews and hard evidence of child prostitution and failed to timely investigate and arrest Epstein in deviation from the FBI protocols."

The suit went on to claim that "as a direct and proximate cause of the FBI's negligence, plaintiffs would not have been continued to be sex trafficked, abused, raped, tortured and threatened," adding that the purpose of the legal action was to "get to the bottom — once and for all — of the FBI's role in Epstein's criminal sex trafficking ring."

The only defendant listed in the suit is the federal agency, from whom the plaintiffs seek financial compensation.