Alex Acosta, marked by slap on the wrist for billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, sent six South Florida politicians to prison for corruption.
Alex Acosta’s four years as the top federal prosecutor in South Florida are indelibly marked by the lenient deal he gave billionaire Jeffrey Epstein on charges of molesting and trafficking teenage girls.
Cases he oversaw that sent six important South Florida elected officials to prison for corruption — rocking the halls of government in Broward and Palm Beach counties — will now go down as little more than asterisks in Acosta’s career.
Corruption investigations while Acosta was U.S. attorney in South Florida brought down Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne and Palm Beach County commissioners Tony Masilotti, Mary McCarty and Warren Newell.
Acosta — who’s now been accused by critics of betraying the public trust — decried the government officials’ corruption at the time as a betrayal of public trust.
Acosta lamented Jenne’s downfall. “It’s sad when you see a man who once served the public fall in this way. … He stayed too long and, in the end, he lost sight of the meaning of public service.”
In 2007 Jenne, the powerful Broward sheriff and a former state senator, resigned. He pleaded guilty and went to prison for mail fraud conspiracy and income tax evasion after prosecutors said he used his position as sheriff to exploit his secretaries, friends and business associates for his own gain, then failed to report the income he received from it.
Masilotti pleaded guilty in June 2007 to using his public office for private gain in schemes that brought him almost $10 million.
Newell pleaded guilty in 2007 to federal tax evasion and corruption. Prosecutors said he used his position to pocket money for a series of transactions and ventures in Palm Beach County.
McCarty pleaded guilty in 2008 to honest services fraud.
Federal prosecutors said that as commissioner McCarty helped to steer business to her husband, a bond underwriter, and that the couple received free and discounted hotel stays from the company selected by the county to build a convention center hotel in West Palm Beach.
Her husband Kevin, who died last year, also went to prison for not reporting the financial crimes. Kevin McCarty was at one point a member of the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board.
Also while Acosta was U.S. attorney, West Palm Beach City Commissioner Ray Liberti, a former state representative, was sentenced in 2006 to 18 months for taking $66,000 and an expensive watch as bribes, and former West Palm Beach City Commissioner Jim Exline was sentenced in 2007 to 10 months for filing a false tax return.
Acosta was U.S. attorney for the territory from Fort Pierce to Key West from June 2005 until June 2009 — most of former President George W. Bush’s second term and almost five months during President Barack Obama’s first.
He’s now been thrust into the spotlight for cutting the deal with Epstein, who was accused of having sex with dozens of underage girls.
Prosecutors didn’t file federal charges against Epstein in return for his pleading guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor for prostitution, for which he served 13 months in jail — with extensive time out of jail at his office — and served a year on house arrest.
Acosta insisted at a Washington, D.C., news conference Wednesday afternoon that he did nothing wrong in the Epstein case. To the contrary, Acosta asserted, his office intervened with the state-level case in Palm Beach County to ensure Epstein got jail time, had to register as a sex offender and would have to pay restitution to victims.
Acosta also repeatedly shifted responsibility, maintaining that that career prosecutors in the office, not him, were responsible for handling the case.
He said he isn’t quitting as labor secretary. Many Democrats, including U.S. Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, Lois Frankel of West Palm Beach and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Miami, have called for his resignation.
Frankel and Wasserman Schultz want him to appear before the House Oversight Committee, on which they serve, to answer questions about the Epstein plea agreement. Wasserman Schultz said she wants a “public accounting.”
One of the other highprofile cases of Acosta’s tenure as U.S. attorney was the prosecution of Washington, D.C., lobbyist Jack Abramoff on conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Abramoff pleaded guilty and served 43 months of a five-year, 10-month sentence.
Acosta’s office also prosecuted Jose Padilla for terrorism and members of a Colombian drug ring responsible for bringing 15 tons of cocaine per month into the United States.
After he left the U.S. attorney’s office, Acosta became dean of the law school at Florida International University, where he spent almost nine years.
Trump nominated Acosta as labor secretary about a month after he took office after his original pick withdrew once it became clear that Republicans who control the Senate were reluctant to vote for his confirmation.
Acosta was seen as easily confirmable by the Senate. Because of his previous jobs, Acosta had been confirmed by the Senate three times previously.
In selecting Acosta as secretary of labor, Trump broke the mold he established with most of his earlier cabinet picks. Most of the people he selected for top jobs early in his administration were white men: wealthy businessmen and financiers with no government experience, conservative members of Congress, and former high-ranking military officers. Acosta, who is Cuban-American, became the only Hispanic in Trump’s cabinet.