Alexander Acosta
The President named Alexander Acosta as his labor choice Thursday, after previous nominee Andy Puzder backed out over scrutiny of issues including alleged violence in his marriage.
Acosta, the law school dean of Florida International University, is also likely to face controversy for his record as U.S. attorney in Miami from 2005 to 2009.
His office prosecuted Epstein, a billionaire financier who admitted to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a 14-year-old, and signed off in 2008 on the plea deal to not pursue federal charges in exchange for the state pleas.
Epstein served 13 months of an 18-month sentence, though federal statutes against transporting minors for the purposes of sex carry minimum penalties of 10 years.
Two victims in the federal case unhappy with the deal have since sued the feds, saying that their rights under the Crime Victims Rights Act had been violated because they had not been in the loop about the details of a plea deal.
A 2014 court filing shows letters from an Epstein lawyer to Acosta in 2007 telling him not to contact the victims in the case, and that lawyers in Acosta's office waited months after an agreement with the billionaire was reached.
Lawyers for the victims say that the letters show a "conspiracy between the Government and Epstein's attorneys to conceal."
"There is good reason to believe that if the prosecutors had exposed their dealings to scrutiny by Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2, they would not have reached such a sweetheart deal," attorney Bradley Edwards wrote in one filing.
The suit, filed in 2008, is still ongoing, though a settlement conference was held last summer.
"Our judgment in this case, based on the evidence known at the time, was that it was better to have a billionaire serve time in jail, register as a sex offender and pay his victims restitution than risk a trial with a reduced likelihood of success," Acosta wrote in a 2011 letter, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in South Florida told the Daily News that it would not comment.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Acosta's involvement with the Epstein case.
Before the former Bear Sterns executive was prosecuted, Epstein was connected to powerful people including former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
The registered sex offender also knew Trump, and the future President was quoted in New York magazine in 2002 as saying "I've known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy ... He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."
An unidentified Trump associated told POLITICO in 2015 that the President and Epstein were never particularly close.
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