Former US attorney defends Epstein’s 2008 plea deal in hours-long appearance on Capitol Hill
By Annie Grayer, CNN
(CNN) — The former US attorney who negotiated a controversial 2008 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein defended that agreement in a closed-door meeting with House investigators Friday, according to Democrats in the room.
“It’s very clear that Alex Acosta ran a deeply flawed investigation of the Epstein case,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel, told reporters during a break in the meeting. “He also would not admit that Mr. Epstein received a sweetheart deal, which has been widely reported and agreed upon.”
According to a readout from the panel, Acosta expressed concern over the hours-long testimony to the House Oversight Committee that had prosecutors lost at trial, it could have sent a message that the late convicted sex offender’s crimes could continue. A key issue in the US Southern District of Florida’s handling of the case was whether it should be prosecuted federally or locally, he said, per the readout.
“I testified for six hours. I’ll let the record speak for itself,” Acosta, the former US Attorney in Miami, said as he left Capitol Hill.
Emerging from the room partway through the transcribed testimony, Democrats on the panel dismissed Acosta as “not credible” and said they left the first round of questioning with more questions than answers.
Acosta, they said, told investigators he didn’t see sufficient evidence to move forward with the case even though approximately 40 women had come forward to share their accounts of sexual assault.
“He seems to be pretty dug into the decisions that he made,” Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett said of Acosta.
Epstein, a well-connected multi-millionaire, avoided a federal trial at the time of the plea deal and served just 13 months in prison for state prostitution charges over his involvement with underage girls. A Miami Herald investigation described the plea deal, negotiated by Acosta, as the “deal of a lifetime.”
In July 2019, the financier was arrested and charged in connection with having operated a sex trafficking ring. The next month, Epstein died by suicide at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, the federal detention facility where he was being held.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, however, described Acosta as cooperative and helpful throughout his appearance.
“Alex Acosta cooperated with our questions today and provided information that will help advance our investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell cases,” Comer said in a statement. “This information will guide our next steps as we work to bring accountability, and we expect to announce new action soon.”
Acosta, Comer said, told the committee he never met Epstein nor Ghislaine Maxwell, and testified that he never saw President Donald Trump’s name on any document related to the late financier.
Comer knocked Democrats’ line of questioning related to Trump during the interview, saying, “They were batting around so many questions about Trump. The members were talking over each other. It was all about Trump.”
Acosta, who also served as Trump’s secretary of the Department of Labor during his first term, resigned in 2019 amid renewed scrutiny over the plea deal he had negotiated with Epstein a decade before.
On Friday, he reiterated that it was his decision alone to resign, according to a readout from the House committee.
The 2008 plea deal has come under scrutiny yet again amid the House Oversight Committee’s ongoing investigation into the Epstein case.
Earlier this week, testimony from FBI Director Kash Patel underscored how some in the Trump administration appear to be pointing blame at Acosta as the president and his team are being pushed by members of their own party to be more transparent and release all of the Epstein case files.
During his Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill, Patel twice brought up Acosta unprompted, including in his opening statement.
The oversight panel, meanwhile, has been plowing ahead with its investigation into the so-called Epstein files.
The panel subpoenaed a group of high-profile Democratic and Republican figures for information and interviews between August and mid-October, including Acosta, and have so far released former Attorney General Bill Barr’s deposition on the matter.
The Republican-led committee has also received two batches of documents from Epstein’s estate as the result of a subpoena, including a collection of letters gifted to Epstein for his 50th birthday. The panel has subpoenaed the Department of Justice for all of its Epstein-related files, and made public the documents it has received so far, most of which were already public.
In recent days, the committee also met with Epstein abuse survivors and is working with the Treasury Department to turn over certain bank activity reports.
The lawmakers have withdrawn subpoenas for former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzalez and Jeff Sessions, a committee aide told CNN, after both men stated in sworn letters that neither possessed any information related to the committee’s investigation into Epstein.
This headline and story has been updated with additional developments.
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CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.
