Alex Acosta and Epstein

Trump admits to being friends with Jeffrey Epstein throughout the 80s and 90s until Florida police began investigating Epstein in 2005 after allegations that he had sexually abused a minor. Police identified five victims and 17 credible witnesses.

Ultimately the Republican U.S. attorney in Miami, Alex Acosta, negotiated a sweetheart plea deal with Epstein in 2008. Acosta allowed Epstein to plead guilty only to state charges, including soliciting a minor, and avoided any federal charges. No one knows why a sexual predator would get such a deal.

Fast-forward a decade. Trump appointed Acosta to be the secretary of labor in his first administration. Why?

Acosta had to resign in 2019 after reporting by the Miami Herald accused Acosta of knowing that evidence showed Epstein abusing about 80 girls and women and showed how Acosta had shut down an FBI investigation into Epstein’s actions.

In July 2019, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors as young as 14.

The indictment charged Epstein with sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of underage girls who engaged in sex acts for money at Epstein’s properties in New York and Florida.  Epstein died in his Manhattan prison cell in August while Trump was President.

In 2020, Epstein’s associate Maxwell was indicted on charges of assisting, facilitating, and contributing to Epstein’s abuse of minor girls, not only in New York and Florida, but also at his residences in New Mexico and London, “helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18.”

Epstein also owned a private 72-acre island off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, rumored to be another site of sex trafficking. In 2021 a jury found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts, including sex trafficking of a minor and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.