Feds planned to indict Epstein, but U.S. attorney retreated from child sex-abuse charges
In 2007, the U.S. attorney’s office seemed on track to charge Palm Beach billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in a sweeping indictment, accusing him of running a ring to pay underage girls for his sexual pleasure.
But the office’s leader, Alex Acosta, retreated from what appeared to be a strong federal prosecution, bolstered with 40 female victims, and opted to let the state attorney charge Epstein in a streamlined pros ution case involving minors.
The bruising negotiations between Acosta’s office and Epstein’s defense team ended with the U.S. attorney’s decision not to present the 53-page indictment to a federal grand jury.
Instead, Acosta signed off on a non-prosecution agreement that spared Epstein from five federal charges accusing him of an interstate commerce conspiracy to recruit girls from 13 to 17 years old for sex at his Palm Beach mansion. If he had been indicted and convicted by the feds, Epstein could have been sent to prison for the rest of his life.
Acosta’s dominant role in deciding Epstein’s fate is expected to be scrutinized at his upcoming Senate confirmation hearing as President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of labor.
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Brilliant move by Trump as Epstein is already headed back to court. Dems will be forced to ask Acosta why he did what he did and who pressured him to do so.