Victims, legal experts and critics say the plea deal allowed Jeffrey Epstein to pursue and sexually abuse more minors until New York prosecutors arrested and charged him with sex trafficking in 2019.
Inside Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion
The 2005 video walkthrough of Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion taken by Palm Beach police.
Palm Beach Post
- Rep. Anna Paulina Luna insists former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta can still be called to testify in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
- Acosta, who oversaw the controversial 2008 Epstein plea deal, is not currently on the witness list.
A Florida Republican serving on the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform insists a key figure in the Jeffrey Epstein prosecution scandal can still “be called to testify” on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who represents a St. Petersburg district, said the fact that former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta is not among those presently on the panel’s witness list does not rule him out.
“This does not take Alex Acosta off the table,” said Luna, one of three Floridians on the high-profile congressional committee, in a statement emailed to The Palm Beach Post. “At any time, he can be called to testify.”
The two others, Republican Byron Donalds of Naples and Democrat Maxwell Frost of Orlando, did not respond to queries from The Post.
What was Alex Acosta’s role in Jeffrey Epstein prosecution?
While he was the U.S. attorney in South Florida, Acosta helped draft and approved the so-called “deal of the century” for Epstein in 2008. The serial child sex abuser was allowed simply to plead guilty to two prostitution-related felonies in state court and was sentenced to 18 months in the Palm Beach County jail. He served just 13 months.
At the time, Palm Beach police investigators had identified dozens of victims who claimed they had been sexually abused by the financier. Police Chief Michael Reiter brought in the FBI in 2006 because he had concerns about the way the state investigation was proceeding.
A federal grand jury drafted a 60-count indictment against Epstein that was never used because federal prosecutors and then-Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer agreed to allow Epstein to plead guilty to the two prostitution-related charges in state court.
Had local and federal prosecutors, most prominently Acosta, fully prosecuted Epstein, the Palm Beach financier could have faced decades in prison.
Instead, victims, legal experts and critics of the plea agreement have said, Epstein was able to pursue and abuse more minors sexually until New York prosecutors arrested and charged him with sex trafficking in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in a prison cell, according to New York authorities at the time and a report issued July 7 by the U.S. Department of Justice.
After leaving the U.S. attorney’s office, Acosta served as dean of the law school at Florida International University in Miami. He then joined President Donald Trump’s first administration as secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, but Acosta resigned from that post because of outcries over his role in the weak Epstein prosecution.
Despite his central role in the wrist-slap punishment Epstein received 17 years ago, Acosta is not among the six former U.S. attorneys general and two former FBI directors on the House committee’s subpoena list.
Curuously, Acosta’s superior at that time, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, has been called to testify even though Gonzales’ name is not cited in a 347-page report issued by a Justice Department investigation into how federal prosecutors handled the Epstein probe in 2006-08. None was found to have committed professional misconduct, though Acosta was cited for “poor judgment” in the way he handled the investigation.
In September of last year, Gonzales wrote an opinion piece in which he called Trump “the most serious threat to the rule of law in a generation” and publicly stated he would join the list of fellow Republicans voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
What did Anna Paulina Luna say about Jeffrey Epstein case?
Luna, who this year offered legislation to place Trump on the Mount Rushmore monument, called for transparency in the Epstein case during a speech to the USA Turning Point USA gathering in Tampa in July.
During that appearance, Luna extolled her work on a task force she said investigated some of the most “grisly” crimes in U.S. history, including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The group’s work, she stated, led to the release of CIA and other files that Luna claimed proved the spy agency covered up its role in the president’s murder.
“This model of transparency in the declassification of the JFK records is literally what they should be doing with Jeffrey Epstein,” Luna said.
She also said: “If you’re given a position of power or a platform, and you don’t speak out against injustices, you’re just as complicit as the injustice that occurred.”
In her statement to The Post, Luna said she does not know why Acosta’s name was not among the ones submitted by a colleague, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania, when a Oversight subcommittee voted on subpoenas.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at [email protected]. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.