After Epstein deal, Acosta still ignoring victims
By Catherine Rampell
The Washington Post
Alex Acosta gave a pass to Jeffrey Epstein years ago. He’s still failing victims today.
It’s scandalous that more than a decade ago then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta gave a sweetheart deal to a known sexual predator.
Even more scandalous? That now as labor secretary, Acosta (among other Trump appointees) is overseeing policies that encourage and enable many more such predators today.
On Monday, multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York involving victims as young as 14. But he arguably should have already been in federal prison. A decade earlier, he was accused of running a similar sex-trafficking ring out of his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Despite the 53-page indictment that the FBI prepared against him, he managed to cut a cushy non-prosecution agreement with Acosta in a deal kept secret from Epstein’s victims.
We know about this egregious miscarriage of justice because of a heroic series by the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown. Incidentally, Brown began reinvestigating this case just after President Trump nominated Acosta to head the Labor Department, which is on the front lines of — you guessed it — detecting trafficking crimes.
The Trump administration has claimed to be deeply devoted to combating this scourge. “My administration has made the fight against human trafficking one of our highest priorities,” Trump declared in February.
Its actions suggest otherwise.
Justice Department human trafficking cases have dropped, from 282 newly initiated prosecutions in fiscal 2017 to 230 in fiscal 2018. Federal protections afforded victims, including those who cooperate with authorities to hold their traffickers accountable, have also frayed.
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