Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Miami who gave Jeffrey Epstein and an untold number of his co-conspirators immunity for sex trafficking dozens of underage girls, defended his decision not to prosecute Epstein during a closed-door congressional hearing Friday. The hearing, held by the House Oversight Committee, is the latest in a series of efforts by Congress to scrutinize how the late financier managed to get away with abusing hundreds of girls and young women over more than two decades — despite Epstein being on the FBI’s radar since 2006. The scandal continues to consume the Trump administration, which has been unable to satisfy public outrage over the Justice Department’s decision in July to not release all of its Epstein files. Most of the material the DOJ has released thus far has already been in the public domain. “It’s important to remember that this is a massive cover up,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari. “There are many, many more people involved, financial institutions involved, potentially foreign governments involved, but this is one key part to getting to the bottom and getting to the answers that we need to get justice for the survivors.” Ansari and other Democratic congressional leaders, on a break from the hearing, described Acosta’s testimony as “defiant,” “unremorseful” and “evasive.” They said the former FIU law professor said Epstein’s victims weren’t credible — and that he didn’t believe that their stories of sexual assault would lead to a successful federal prosecution. Acosta “essentially said he didn’t have faith in the victims, their stories and their ability to tell their own story and their own testimony, which is deeply disturbing to all of us sitting in there,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost during the break. They said they also found it disturbing that, even in hindsight, Acosta would not admit that mistakes were made and was not apologetic about how his actions led to other victims being abused by Epstein. “There was a clear lack of remorse,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat. “…This is someone who should at least acknowledge that he made a mistake … his memory faded whenever we asked pointed questions.” Acosta largely ignored questions from reporters on his way in and out of the hearing, but did stop to answer a question about FBI Director Kash Patel saying Tuesday that the plea deal was the “original sin” in the government’s handling of Epstein’s criminal case. “I’ve testified for six hours,” he said. “I’ll let the record speak for itself.” This is the first time that Acosta, 56, has testified under oath about his decision to give Epstein a plea deal. The agreement allowed Epstein to plead guilty to lesser prostitution charges in state court rather than be prosecuted for federal sex trafficking crimes that could have sent him to prison for life. Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in the county jail, but served just 13 months — most of it as a work-release inmate which allowed him to leave jail and go to his office in West Palm Beach almost every day. While he was monitored by Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputies, he was nevertheless able to have women come into his office, where he pressured them to have sex with him while a sheriff’s deputy was standing outside the door. Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking Democrat, noted that they met with survivors last month and “one of the survivors that was there was very clear that she was abused and assaulted and raped by Jeffrey Epstein during his work release, and during that time when he was out during that 18-month period that was given to him by Mr. Acosta and his team.” Acosta, the representatives said, refused to characterize the plea bargain as a “sweetheart deal” — maintaining that even today he believes the deal was the best course of action.
Hellbound and Down 