FBI Director Kash Patel said during his Tuesday Senate testimony that the "original sin" in the investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was the way Alex Acosta initially brought the case in 2006.
The big picture: Acosta, who served as President Trump's labor secretary during his first term before resigning in 2019 amid scrutiny over his handling of the case, is set to appear before a House panel Friday.
Driving the news: "The original case involved a very limited search warrant, or set of search warrants, and didn't take as much investigatory material it should have seized. If I were the FBI director then, it wouldn't have happened," Patel said before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
- As a federal prosecutor in 2008, Acosta oversaw a highly controversial non-prosecution agreement that eventually saw Epstein sentenced to serve 18 months in a Florida state prison.
- "Mr. Acosta allowed Epstein to enter, in 2008, a plea and non prosecution agreement, which then the courts issued mandates and protective orders, legally prohibiting anyone from ever seeing that material ever again without the permission of the court," Patel said.
- Acosta exercised "poor judgment" when he signed off on the sweetheart deal but did not commit "professional misconduct," the Justice Department concluded in 2020.
Zoom out: House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) announced last month that Acosta would appear voluntarily for a transcribed interview on Sept. 19.
- He was not part of the original batch of subpoenas issued earlier in August.
Go deeper: Trump and Johnson likely doomed in effort to stop Epstein files vote
