Senate Democrats, including New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, are demanding the Justice Department’s inspector general probe a sweetheart plea deal pedophile hedge-fund manager Jeffrey Epstein negotiated with former federal prosecutor, Alexander Acosta, who is now the labor secretary.
Epstein, who was accused of sexually molesting dozens of girls — some as young as 14 — faced up to life in prison before his legal team hammered out the generous agreement in 2008, which landed him in Palm Beach County Jail for only 13 months, with work-release privileges.
Acosta, who was the South Florida U.S. attorney, now serves as President Trump’s labor secretary.
“Crimes of sexual violence against minors are horrendous and need to be held to the highest standards of prosecutorial conduct,” said Gillibrand, one of 16 senator Democrats to sign off on a Dec. 6 letter requesting the investigation.
“I am extremely concerned about this in Mr. Epstein’s case,” she continued. “That is why I am calling on the DOJ inspector general to do a deep-dive investigation.”
Epstein, a multimillionaire who launched his career at Bear Stearns, pleaded guilty to two prostitution charges in state court as part of the agreement with Acosta, which effectively shut down a federal probe into the breadth of his wrongdoing and whether other high-profile violators were involved.
Before the mountain of accusations branding him a pedophile came to light, Epstein rubbed elbows in rarefied circles, counting Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew among his friends.
Afterward, the money manager assembled a high-profile legal team, including Alan Dershowitz, Gerald Lefcourt and Kenneth Starr, the prosecutor who presided over the Clinton-Monica Lewinsky probe.
Now, some of Epstein’s accusers are pursuing a lawsuit seeking to nullify the deal those attorneys negotiated with Acosta. They contend Acosta and his colleagues violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act by failing to notify them of the plea bargain.
“We are concerned about whether this agreement is in compliance with the law, based on reported interviews with a number of Mr. Epstein;s victims who deny being informed,” the senators wrote in their letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. “It is essential that plea agreements involving well-connected individuals not only follow the law and standard practice, but also stand up under scrutiny.”
