(AP) – Labor Secretary Alex Acosta is defending his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, saying he tried to avoid a deal allowing the wealthy financier to “walk free.”
Acosta is a former federal prosecutor in South Florida. He is being criticized for his part in a secret 2008 plea deal that let Epstein avoid federal prosecution on charges that he molested teenage girls.
Acosta said Wednesday that the case started as a state matter, not with his office. He says that the Palm Beach state attorney’s office was “ready to let Epstein walk free. No jail time. Nothing.”
Acosta says federal prosecutors found that to be unacceptable. He says prosecutors presented an ultimatum of pleading guilty to more serious charges that required jail time and restitution.
Epstein has pleaded not guilty to recent New York charges.
Acosta was asked Wednesday at a news conference if he owed an apology to women who said Epstein molested them when they were underage.
Acosta says the prosecution didn’t want to share with the victims that there were efforts to gain restitution for them from Epstein.
He says there was concern that if negotiations fell through, Epstein’s counsel could use the prospect of restitution to question their credibility.
Acosta says, “In our heart we were trying to do the right thing for these victims.”
A woman who accuses Jeffrey Epstein of raping her when she was 15 has filed court papers in preparation for suing him.
Lawyers for 32-year-old Jennifer Araoz filed the papers Wednesday in New York, seeking information from Epstein.
Messages were left with Epstein’s attorneys seeking comment. Epstein pleaded not guilty Monday to federal sex trafficking charges that don’t include Araoz’s allegations, which weren’t reported to authorities and were shared for the first time Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show.
The court papers say that starting when Araoz was 14, she would give him massages that would often lead to sex acts.
She says after months of massages, he forcibly raped her in 2002.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Araoz has done.
