Epstein trial would have been 'crapshoot', plea-deal prosecutor tells Congress [View all]
Source: The Guardian
Fri 17 Oct 2025 18.23 EDT
Last modified on Sat 18 Oct 2025 04.00 EDT
Alex Acosta, the former US attorney for the southern district of Florida who negotiated a plea deal in 2008 with Jeffrey Epstein, testified before the House oversight committee last month that going to trial would have been a “crapshoot” due to lack of cooperation from victims.
In a transcript of the six-hour interview released on Friday, Acosta, who later served in the first Trump administration as labor secretary, described the evidentiary hurdles a federal prosecution of Esptein would have faced, and told why his office turned the case over to Florida state prosecutors, which resulted in the disgraced financier pleading guilty to charges of soliciting sex from a minor.
“Ultimately, the trial was a crapshoot, and we just wanted the guy to go to jail,” Acosta told members of the oversight panel.
Questions over the government’s non-prosecution agreement with Epstein have hung heavily over the scandal, generating speculation over the presence of larger forces at work.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/17/alexander-acosta-epstein-trial
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