A new report has implicated President George W. Bush’s Department of Justice in the controversial case of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The report, published in the Miami Herald by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julie K. Brown, whose reporting helped lead to Epstein’s arrest in 2019, focuses on former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, who opened the first criminal probe into Epstein’s conduct in the mid-2000s.
It features previously unreported details, including the fact that then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta started negotiating a secret plea deal with Epstein in 2007 after the financier was arrested for felony solicitation the year before.
After Reiter had gathered evidence and interviewed “two dozen tearful girls and their parents,” he was then “stonewalled by state prosecutors and attacked in the media” before being ostracized by federal prosecutors who took over the case.
Reacting to concerns raised by the parents of some of Epstein’s victims, Reiter requested a meeting with Acosta, who served as President Donald Trump’s labor secretary during his first term.
Recalling the meeting in his conversation with Brown, Reiter says that he told Acosta, “I’m here to ask you to live up to the principles that you espoused when you were sworn in.”
“Who has the authority to make the decision of whether or not to federally prosecute Epstein? We turned it over to you. We did most of the work, and the assistant U.S. attorney told us she usually gets 10 years for each count, and we had maybe 100 counts and probably 24 or so cooperating victims. So whose authority is it?” He added.
According to Reiter, Acosta did not respond, prompting the police chief to express concern that Epstein’s legal team was “manipulating” Acosta’s office.
“We have been receiving some guidance from main justice and [Epstein’s] defense attorneys have done a very effective job in stalling the case,” Acosta replied.
‘Main justice’ refers to the Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., which at that time during Bush’s presidency was being overseen by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Daily Beast has contacted the Department of Justice and George W. Bush’s office for comment.
Epstein ultimately only pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation, despite law enforcement agencies having knowledge of as many as 40 potential victims. He would not be indicted on charges of sex trafficking minors until 2019.
Epstein’s name had previously been raised by the Trump transition team when Acosta was being interviewed for the role of labor secretary, with Acosta reportedly being asked, “Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?”
“I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” Acosta told the Trump transition team. He would later be appointed as Trump’s labor secretary and serve in his Cabinet for two years.
Speaking to Brown, Reiter said that he considers the fact that Epstein’s behavior went unchallenged by so many powerful people for years—many of whom he cultivated close friendships with in order to ensure exactly that—to be the worst failure of the criminal justice system in recent years.
“Some reforms have been made, and the Epstein and Maxwell cases have shed light on many of the others that are still needed,” Reiter said. “But the true measure of success will be whether the system learns from its failures and acts on those lessons.”
