Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta defended his actions as a U.S. attorney a decade ago in the controversial sex crimes prosecution of billionaire Jefferey Epstein by saying Wednesday that he had gotten the victims in the case “restitution.”
The Justice Department is currently probing whether Acosta engaged in professional misconduct in the case by not telling the victims about a the plea deal that was struck.
Acosta was aggressively questioned about his handling of the case during a House Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday by Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass. Clark demanded to know if Acosta thought the 13-month county jail sentence that Epstein eventually received was appropriate given the crimes he was accused of, which included sex trafficking of underage girls.
“Do you regret making this deal in secret?” Clark asked.
Acosta did not directly answer but said that the grand jury in the case had initially not recommended any jail time at all. “At the end of the day, Mr. Epstein went to jail,” he said. “Epstein was incarcerated. He registered as a sex offender. The world was put on notice that he was a sex offender and the victims received restitution.”
Clark wasn’t moved. “13 months in county jail, 12 hours a day work release: You consider that justice for the devastation of these girls?” she asked.
Acosta has been criticized for his handling of the 2008 case, which resulted in Epstein’s conviction on two counts of prostitution. Critics argue the penalty was far too light given that Epstein, a well-connected billionaire, initially faced a 53-page federal indictment for crimes related in sex trafficking and that he had abused dozens of women, many underage.
“I come from Palm Beach County, where that Epstein matter arose. Aside from the justice issue, I can tell you that many people in my community are upset,” said Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla. “It seems like a sexual predator was allowed on the loose.”
The case was the subject of a long investigative piece published in November by the Miami Herald, in which many of Epstein’s victims expressed anger over how it was resolved, especially that the details of the plea deal were initially kept secret. The article portrayed Acosta as bowing to pressure from Epstein’s lawyers to limit the prosecution. Epstein was a key federal witness about the same time in a case against a pair of Bear Stearns executives who were being charged of securities fraud.
Federal Judge Kenneth Marra ruled in February that the deal violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act because of the “decision to conceal the existence of the [agreement] and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility.”
The same month, the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility announced it had launched a probe into whether Acosta’s actions as U.S. attorney amounted to professional misconduct.
