Will Acosta and other enablers face justice for Epstein?
Alex Acosta was going to be on trial this week.
Not in the literal sense. Donald Trump’s secretary of labor wouldn’t have been in that West Palm Beach courtroom. He faced no accusations. Still, Acosta might have faced overdue public shaming.
Among his duties, Acosta monitors human trafficking.
The Labor Department especially focuses on people who exploit and abuse child workers, but the agency also seeks to prevent “commercial sexual exploitation.”
Yet 10 years ago, as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Acosta approved – and tried to keep secret – an outrageously lenient non-prosecution deal for a billionaire money manager who exploited hundreds of underage girls for sex. Acosta has offered breezy excuses and stonewalled. His defenses have collapsed.
Last week, The Miami Herald published devastating stories and videos about the campaign to shield Jeffrey Epstein from penalties for abusing countless girls at his 14,000-square-foot Palm Beach mansion. Reporter Julie Brown and other staffers explained how Acosta, authority figures in Palm Beach County and Epstein’s lawyers allowed a man who could have faced a life sentence to endure just minimal inconvenience.
Brown revealed much about a case I followed as The Palm Beach Post’s editorial page editor. For the first time, some of Epstein’s victims spoke in public.
Epstein and his female recruiters had a system. They targeted young girls, some not old enough to drive. They targeted girls from broken homes who didn’t have much money, offering $200 and up to massage a fiftysomething pervert. One victim said she never had been across the Intracoastal Waterway to Palm Beach.
Massages were just the start. Some were pimped out to Epstein for sex with his friends. The girls would fly on Epstein’s jet, named the “Lolita Express.” One woman recalled lessons in how to perform oral sex.
As the Herald showed, Epstein kept wanting more and more girls, and he wanted them younger.
Even a rich sleazo who could afford good lawyers might have had to face justice.
But among Epstein’s friends are Bill Clinton, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. Among his platoon of lawyers was Ken Starr, that paragon of rectitude when he investigated Clinton for lying about consensual sex with Monica Lewinsky.
Apparently, Epstein’s money made Starr willing to defend not just sex, but illegal sex. How fitting that Starr lost his job as chancellor of Baylor University for failing to adequately investigate sexual assault allegations against football players.
Barry Krischer, then the Palm Beach County state attorney, also buckled. He referred Epstein’s case to a grand jury and would have basically quashed it if the Palm Beach police chief – Michael Reiter – hadn’t made enough noise to get the FBI involved. Reiter is one of the few heroes in this story.
No one gets more blame, however, than Acosta. Like former Broward sheriff ’s deputy Scott Peterson, who ran from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Acosta ran from responsibility and left victims to their fate.
Acosta should have told Epstein’s lawyers to stick it. Instead, he allowed them to craft a deal under which Epstein avoided federal prosecution and pleaded guilty to a pair of state charges. Krischer was fine with that.
Epstein got 18 months in the Palm Beach County Jail, not the customary state prison. He served just 13 months and was out on weekdays and some weekends. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw was fine with that.
In 2009, after lawsuits by some of Epstein’s victims and The Palm Beach Post, we learned the details of Acosta’s unforgivable deal. The victims weren’t supposed to know anything about it. Some allege that Acosta’s deal violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act, since they never got the chance to object. Indeed, documents show that Acosta led what appears to be collusion among prosecutors to violate federal law.
A case involving one of the victims’ attorneys might have allowed the women to speak. It was scheduled to start Tuesday. Instead, the case settled, with an apology from Epstein to the lawyer, not to the victims. A separate case still could hold Acosta accountable.
Or maybe it won’t. Epstein can pay for continued silence. Too many people in Epstein’s circle want the case to go away. For now, at least, the Herald has made sure that it won’t.