The Justice Department is investigating whether Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta gave a wealthy sex offender favorable treatment in 2008, when Acosta was a U.S. attorney.
Acosta has been criticized for his handling of the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, a well-connected Florida resident. Epstein was eventually convicted two counts of prostitution in 2007 and served 13 months in county jail.
But critics argue the penalty was far too light given the allegations that Epstein was involved in sex trafficking and had abused dozens of women, including many who were underage. He initially faced a 53-page federal indictment related to those crimes.
The case was the subject of an investigative story 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 at about the same time in a case against a pair of Bear Stearns executives who were being charges of securities fraud.
The Miami Herald article prompted several members of Congress to call on the Justice Department to investigate the matter. The department confirmed the investigation in a letter to Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.
“OPR has now opened an investigation into allegations that Department attorneys may have committed professional misconduct in the manner in which the Epstein criminal matter was resolved. OPR will thoroughly investigate the allegations of misconduct that have been raised,” Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd said in a letter Wednesday to Sasse.
Sasse applauded the department’s announcement, saying that the “victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation.”
During his Senate confirmation as labor secretary in 2017, Acosta defended his actions as part of a reasonable plea deal: “At the end of the day, based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutor’s office decided that a plea that guarantees someone goes to jail, that guarantees he register generally [as a sexual predator] and guarantees other outcomes, is a good thing.”
A Labor Department spokesman could not be reached for comment.
