MIAMI _ Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Florida who in 2008 granted accused pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein a plea deal that sent him to county jail for 13 months, said he's happy to see New York prosecutors go after Epstein again now that they have "new evidence."
"The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence," Acosta, currently U.S. secretary of labor for President Donald Trump, tweeted Tuesday. "With the evidence available more than a decade ago, federal prosecutors insisted that Epstein go to jail, register as a sex offender and put the world on notice that he was a sexual predator."
Epstein, 66, was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey over the weekend. The arrest came about a decade after he was released from a Palm Beach County jail following a 13-month stint that he served after pleading guilty to charges of prostitution involving a girl under the age of 18.
Epstein pleaded guilty back then as part of a non-prosecution agreement one of his lawyers negotiated with Acosta, who agreed to forego a prepared 53-count indictment over accusations that he'd been involved in the sex trafficking of minors.
Now, Epstein faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted in New York on charges that he manipulated numerous underage girls into engaging in sex acts for money. The accusations contained in an indictment unsealed Monday cover the period from 2002 to 2005, but investigators say that when they served a warrant at Epstein's Manhattan townhouse last weekend, they found images in a safe of what appeared to be nude underage girls.
Epstein's indictment by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York renewed criticism of the plea deal Acosta negotiated more than 10 years ago. South Florida's entire Democratic congressional delegation has called for Acosta to step down. And on Tuesday, several Democrats running for president called on him to resign.
But Acosta, who has said little since the Miami Herald published its Perversion of Justice series outlining the extent of the accusations against Epstein and the details behind his plea agreement, defended his handling of the case on Twitter.
"Now that new evidence and additional testimony is available, the NY prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice," Acosta tweeted.
