On Friday, the House Oversight Committee unveiled a transcript of an interview with the former U.S. attorney responsible for negotiating a contentious plea agreement with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Alongside the transcript, the committee also released flight manifest records from Epstein’s private jet.
The interview, conducted in late September, featured Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The newly disclosed documents include flight manifests listing notable figures such as Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Walter Cronkite, and Richard Branson as passengers on Epstein’s plane. It is important to note that none of these individuals have been implicated in any misconduct.
Click here to see the flight manifests:
Additionally, the flight logs revealed by the House Oversight Committee document several instances of former President Bill Clinton traveling with Epstein. On at least one occasion in 2002, Clinton was accompanied by Secret Service agents. As with others mentioned in the manifests, Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
In 2002, Clinton was seen receiving a massage from Chauntae Davies at a small airport in Portugal. This took place during a fuel stop for Epstein’s Boeing 727, en route from New York to Africa.
Back in 2008, Acosta played a pivotal role in securing a plea deal for Epstein, which resulted in Epstein serving 13 months in jail on state charges, thus avoiding federal charges. The plea agreement required Epstein to register as a sex offender and make financial settlements with his victims.
Acosta helped Epstein in 2008 secure a plea deal that avoided federal charges by serving 13 months in jail and pleading guilty to state charges. Under the deal, Epstein registered as a sex offender and paid settlements to victims.
In explaining the plea agreement, Acosta claimed the case against Epstein was plagued with issues that may hinder a conviction.
File photo of Jeffrey Epstein in New York City on Feb. 23, 2011. (David McGlynn)
“And so in part it was influenced by that, and in large part it was also influenced by the viability of the case. Every attorney that looked at the case, from the prosecuting attorney, again, through the entire chain, looked at the evidence, and there were evidentiary issues with the victims,” Acosta said. “Many victims refused to testify. Many victims had changing stories. All of us understood why they had changing stories, but they did. And defense counsel would have – cross-examination would have been withering.”
Acosta explained in detail why Epstein was offered the plea deal, saying he was worried Epstein might have gotten away with no jail time.
“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 said. “I supported that judgment then, and based on the state of the law as it then stood and the evidence known at that time, I would support that judgment again.”
Jeffrey Epstein was facing federal sex trafficking charges stemming from years of abuse of minors. (Rick Friedman/Corbis)
Acosta claimed that the state attorney in Florida “had let him off entirely.”
“And so our thinking at the time was, you know, the State attorney is letting him get away with this. The State attorney is asking pre-trial diversion. Unacceptable. Entirely unacceptable. But a billionaire going to jail sends a strong signal to the community that this is not acceptable, that this is not right, that this cannot happen,” Acosta said.
During the interview, Acosta also agreed that Epstein’s counsel “got awfully close to the line of unethical,” adding he “resisted” some of their tactics.
This March 28, 2017, file photo, provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)
In 2019, while Acosta was serving as United States Secretary of Labor, he defended his involvement in negotiating the plea deal.
“Simply put, the Palm Beach state attorney’s office was ready to let Epstein walk free, no jail time,” Acosta claimed. “Prosecutors in my former office found this to be completely unacceptable.”
“We now have 12 years of knowledge and hindsight and we live in a very different world,” he said. “Today’s world treats victims very, very differently.”
