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The House Oversight committee on Friday released a transcript of its interview with the former U.S. attorney who initially negotiated a controversial plea deal with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Members of the oversight committee conducted the interview with Alex Acosta in late September, who previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Included in the document release by the House Oversight Committee are flight manifests for Epstein’s private plane, which include Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Walter Cronkite and Richard Branson. None of these individuals have been accused of any wrongdoing.
Click here to see the flight manifests:
Acosta helped Epstein in 2008 secure a plea deal that avoided federal charges by serving 13 months in jail and pleading guilty to state charges. Under the deal, Epstein registered as a sex offender and paid settlements to victims.
In explaining the plea agreement, Acosta claimed the case against Epstein was plagued with issues that may hinder a conviction.
EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS RELEASED BY HOUSE DEMOCRATS NAME ELON MUSK, STEVE BANNON AND PETER THIEL
“And so in part it was influenced by that, and in large part it was also influenced by the viability of the case. Every attorney that looked at the case, from the prosecuting attorney, again, through the entire chain, looked at the evidence, and there were evidentiary issues with the victims,” Acosta said. “Many victims refused to testify. Many victims had changing stories. All of us understood why they had changing stories, but they did. And defense counsel would have – cross-examination would have been withering.”
Acosta explained in detail why Epstein was offered the plea deal, saying he was worried Epstein might have gotten away with no jail time.
“Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success,” Acosta said. “I supported that judgment then, and based on the state of the law as it then stood and the evidence known at that time, I would support that judgment again.”
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Acosta claimed that the state attorney in Florida “had let him off entirely.”
“And so our thinking at the time was, you know, the State attorney is letting him get away with this. The State attorney is asking pre-trial diversion. Unacceptable. Entirely unacceptable. But a billionaire going to jail sends a strong signal to the community that this is not acceptable, that this is not right, that this cannot happen,” Acosta said.
During the interview, Acosta also agreed that Epstein’s counsel “got awfully close to the line of unethical,” adding he “resisted” some of their tactics.
In 2019 while Acosta was serving as United States Secretary of Labor, he defended his involvement in negotiating the plea deal.
“Simply put, the Palm Beach state attorney’s office was ready to let Epstein walk free, no jail time,” Acosta claimed. “Prosecutors in my former office found this to be completely unacceptable.”
“We now have 12 years of knowledge and hindsight and we live in a very different world,” he said. “Today’s world treats victims very, very differently.”
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