US

'Poor judgement’: US investigation critical of Jeffrey Epstein plea deal

Justice Department says Alexander Acosta did not commit professional misconduct

The deal allowed Epstein to serve 13 months in a work-release program while registering as a sex offender.

Thu Nov 12 2020 - 22:14

The Justice Department said then-US Attorney Alexander Acosta used "poor judgment" as the top prosecutor in southern Florida in approving a generous plea deal with former money manager Jeffrey Epstein, but that he didn't commit "professional misconduct".

The finding was announced on Thursday by the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the agency’s internal disciplinary arm. Epstein, who was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, was allowed to enter into a non-prosecution agreement with Mr Acosta’s office in 2008 while also pleading guilty to state charges for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution.

The deal allowed Epstein to serve 13 months in a work-release program while registering as a sex offender. Epstein was charged last year in a separate sex-trafficking case by federal prosecutors in New York but was later found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in what was ruled a suicide.

Mr Acosta, who served as US president Donald Trump’s labour secretary from April 2017 to July 2019, didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.

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The investigation “does not find that Acosta engaged in professional misconduct by resolving the federal investigation of Epstein in the way he did or that the other subjects committed professional misconduct through their implementation of Acosta’s decisions,” the Justice Department said in a statement. Still, Mr Acosta’s decision to resolve the probe through the non-prosecution agreement “constitutes poor judgment.”

Mr Acosta was also faulted for failing to notify Epstein’s victims about the accord. “Victims were not treated with the forthrightness and sensitivity expected by the Department,” the report said.

The Justice Department said the US Privacy Act prohibits the agency from releasing the full report publicly but permits it to be disclosed upon request to a congressional committee. – Bloomberg

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