During Donald Trump’s insane ranting into a microphone that has been called everything from a dumpster fire to a press conference, he announced his pick for labor secretary—former Florida federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta. Politico has a fun walk down memory lane concerning Alexander Acosta’s particular speciality in dealing with entitled and abusive billionaires.
As the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, Acosta agreed not to file any federal charges against the wealthy financier, Jeffrey Epstein, if he pled guilty to state charges involving soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution.
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Acosta acknowledged to the media in 2011 that he came under extreme pressure from Epstein's high-powered defense team, which included legal heavyweights such as Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, former Whitewater independent counsel Kenneth Starr and Florida criminal defense attorney Roy Black.
There have been subsequent lawsuits filed against prosecutors in the case, not Acosta. Over the last year, lawsuits have come back up again with a variety of allegations involving Dershowitz and Epstein and even Trump. While they are still only allegations, one thing is known and that is that Epstein was having sex with a ton of underage girls. Acosta had given two excuses for his office’s lack of potency in trying Epstein: the tough defense and a lack of evidence.
"Some may feel that the prosecution should have been tougher," Acosta wrote in the letter, posted online by The Daily Beast. "Evidence that has come to light since 2007 may encourage that view. Many victims have since spoken out, filing detailed statements in civil cases seeking damages. Physical evidence has since been discovered. Had these additional statements and evidence been known, the outcome may have been different. But they were not known to us at the time."
This is true and not true. A billionaire doesn’t plea to three years in prison with a high-powered team that would have (and half did) get OJ Simpson off of a murder rap without there being a lot of evidence. One thing is clear from Alexander Acosta’s record in Florida: he isn’t fighting for the victims.