Face of Nation : Labor Secretary Alex Acosta defended his role on Wednesday in cutting a deal for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein more than a decade ago that critics have called too lenient. He signaled that he has no intention of resigning.
Acosta, who at the time served as the U.S attorney in south Florida, said in a news conference that his office intervened in the case after state prosecutors failed to secure a plea deal that would have resulted in jail time for Epstein and give justice to his victims.
“Times have changed, and coverage of this case has certainly changed,” Acosta said, adding, “the facts are being overlooked.”
The labor secretary’s role in the administration has come under scrutiny after Epstein, 66, was arrested over the weekend and charged Monday with sex trafficking of minors in New York and Florida from at least 2002 through 2005. Epstein has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Federal prosecutors in New York allege the politically connected financier, who has socialized with Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, sexually abused dozens of minors and paid his victims to recruit others, allowing him to build a vast network of girls to exploit.
Acosta shared an affidavit filed by the career prosecutor in a civil matter related to the Epstein case in which the prosecutor discussed the challenges faced in the criminal case, including victims being unwilling to testify, making the case difficult to present to a jury. He claimed an affidavit from the FBI case agent corroborated the prosecutor’s account.
Despite his vigorous defense of his actions, Acosta did not say whether he would cut the same deal today.
“Today’s world treats victims very, very differently,” he said. “Today’s world does not allow some of the victim-shaming that could have taken place at trial.”
Acosta added, “Everything that the victims have gone through in these cases is horrific and their response is entirely justified. At the same time, I think it’s important to stand up for the prosecutors of my former office and make clear that what they were trying to do was help these victims.”
Acosta also balked at the insinuation that Epstein’s wealth and political connections influenced his office’s decision making as U.S attorney, saying that they stayed true to the terms of the agreement despite several appeals to the Justice Department by Epstein’s attorneys.
Acosta maintains the arrangement they worked out with Epstein helped pressure him into pleading guilty to state charges and having to register as a sex offender. The labor secretary defended his handling of the case on Tuesday as well, and praised federal prosecutors in New York for the new charges against Epstein.
“He’s been just an excellent secretary of labor,” Trump said, before suggesting that multiple officials, in addition to Acosta, were responsible for how the earlier case turned out — and that they probably “would wish they’d maybe done it a different way.”
“If you go back and look at everybody else’s decisions, whether it’s a U.S. attorney, or an assistant U.S. attorney, or a judge, you go back 12 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago and look at their past decisions, I would think you would probably find that they would wish they’d maybe done it a different way,” Trump said.
“I do hear there were a lot of people involved in that decision, not just him,” he said. “You’re talking about a long time ago. And again it was a decision made, I think, not by him but by a lot of people.”
Trump added that he felt “very badly” for Acosta.
