Billionaire pedophile case

White House 'looking into' Alexander Acosta's prosecution in billionaire pedophile case

By REBECCA MORIN

The White House is "looking into" a decade-old Florida case in which Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, then a federal prosecutor, potentially violated the law by keeping underage female victims of billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein in the dark about his plea deal to avoid federal prosecution.

"We’re looking into the matter, I’m not aware of any changes on that front," press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters when asked whether President Donald Trump's confidence in Acosta has changed.

She added: "My understanding is that’s a very complicated case ... but that they made the best possible decision and deal they could have gotten at that time."

U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Marra on Thursday ruled that federal prosecutors broke the law by failing to keep Epstein's victims adequately informed about the billionaire's plea deal, and he mentioned numerous times Acosta's direct involvement in the 2008 case. Acosta was the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida at the time.

Epstein dispatched associates to find teenage girls, many of them underage, to visit his home in Palm Beach for "massages," which would often involve sex acts, according to evidence in the case. Epstein faced a lenient 18-month sentence, but he was released five months early and was given lax conditions in which he was on work-release during the day.

In addition, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog for attorney misconduct, the Office of Professional Responsibility, earlier this month announced it had opened an investigation into the government's conduct in the case.

Despite key details of the case being known when Acosta was confirmed as labor secretary, an extensive report by the Miami Herald with new interviews with Epstein's victims brought fresh attention to the case and prompted Democratic lawmakers to demand an investigation.