What the columnists said

Acosta “has to go,” said the Miami Herald in an editorial. Despite clear evidence that Epstein kept a retinue of underage sex slaves, Acosta approved a slap-on-the-wrist deal for this serial predator. And for reasons that are still unclear, he kept that deal secret from the billionaire’s victims. You’re smearing an innocent man, said The Wall Street Journal. “By all publicly available evidence, Acosta acted honorably.” In fact, the deal that he struck was far tougher than the one sought by state and lower-level federal prosecutors.

A lot of Epstein’s wealthy and powerful friends must be sweating right now, said Timothy O’Brien in Bloomberg.com. As the reality of a lengthy prison sentence approaches, he might “end up trying to flip for prosecutors.” What might he tell them about the attendees at his famous parties, such as Trump, who was accused by an unidentified young woman in 2016 of raping her at Epstein’s mansion when she was 13 years old? Trump denied the claim, and the woman later dropped the suit.

Back in 2008, Epstein was shielded from justice by his “nearly incomprehensible money,” said Ken White in TheAtlantic.com. His star attorneys—including Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr—investigated the “personal peccadilloes” of prosecutors that could lead to their disqualification, Acosta said. The strategy worked and Epstein won “the deal of the millennium.” But that deal is now radioactive, and Epstein’s unlikely to get another one. “Great wealth insulates people from consequences, but not always, absolutely, or forever.”