As details emerge of the 2007 deal that saw hedge fund billionaire Jeffery Epstein serve a ludicrously light prison sentence, all eyes turn to current Labor Secretary Alex Acosta. At the time, Acosta – in his role as U.S. Attorney – apparently orchestrated not only this light slap on the wrist but also helped shut down a major FBI investigation into a sex ring involving underage girls.
"Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal – called a non-prosecution agreement – essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes," The Miami Herald reports in a powerful exposé.
Diabolical Deal
The Herald details how Acosta essentially allowed Epstein's lawyers to write the terms of the sweetheart deal that would spare him years of potential prison time. It would also end all further inquiries into a sex ring involving minors that is said to have operated in multiple states and reportedly involved the importation of foreign underage girls.
"This was not a 'he said, she said' situation. This was 50-something 'shes' and one 'he' – and the 'shes' all basically told the same story," retired Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, who supervised the investigation into Epstein at the time, told The Herald.
The article has reportedly proven the final nail in the coffin for any chance Acosta may have had to replace the fired Jeff Sessions as President Trump's attorney general. But that is far from good enough. Trump must act decisively and bounce the thoroughly tainted Acosta from his administration forthwith.
It's been noted that sex trafficking prevention measures fall under the Labor Department's bailiwick. Acosta has forfeited all right to serve as the head of a department that ostensibly aims to put a stop to the very thing he actively enabled and abetted, undoubtedly with his own career advancement in mind, when he performed his shameful deed for Epstein.
Root It All Out
Democrats seem to see the renewed attention to Epstein's infamous deal as a chance to lob yet another attack at Trump. "Would you accept this plea agreement? If you are Donald Trump’s Labor secretary, then the answer is yes," Eric Levitz wrote in New York Magazine.
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), former head of the Democratic National Committee, is calling for a federal corruption probe of Acosta over the Epstein deal.
Given the clear irregularities involved in Acosta's efforts with lawyers to contain the fallout from Epstein's especially seedy crimes, a federal corruption probe is most definitely in order. Of course, any serious digging into Epstein's sex ring will leave one of the most prominent Democrats of the past 50 years squirming in the net. Former president Bill Clinton took at least 26 trips on the notorious "Lolita Express," the plane that flew Epstein associates to his private island filled with underage girls.
That a close Hillary Clinton ally like Wasserman Schultz would call for the Epstein can of worms to be opened when she certainly knows what it will mean for Old Bill displays the waning influence of the Clintons on the Democratic Party today.
... any serious digging into Epstein's sex ring will leave one of the most prominent Democrats of the past 50 years squirming in the net.
Whether it is a man who made his career in Republican power circles like Acosta or a two-term Democratic president who gets taken down in the storm, the disgraceful Epstein deal must be revisited in the name of justice. And let the chips fall where they may.
If President Trump does not choose to separate himself immediately from his beyond-tarnished Labor secretary, a fair amount of those chips will be falling over his administration.
