House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to resign for negotiating a plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein that allowed the multimillionaire financier to spend a little more than a year in jail on sex crime charges.
“@SecretaryAcosta must step down,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter late Monday. “As US Attorney, he engaged in an unconscionable agreement w/Jeffrey Epstein kept secret from courageous, young victims preventing them from seeking justice. This was known by @POTUS when he appointed him to the cabinet.”
Acosta’s handling of the prosecution for soliciting prostitution from underage girls when he was US attorney in Miami was revived when Epstein, 66, was indicted in Manhattan federal court on two counts of sex trafficking, alleging that he recruited girls as young as 14 for sex.
In 2008, Acosta worked out a sweetheart plea deal with Epstein that dropped more serious federal charges for two felony state solicitation charges without notifying his victims.
Epstein spent 13 months in the Palm Beach County Jail and was allowed to spend 12 hours a day, six days a week, at his private office.
Pelosi is the most high-profile lawmaker so far to call for Acosta to resign.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are among those who have already called for him to step down.
Acosta defended the plea deal during his 2017 confirmation hearing.
“At the end of the day, based on the evidence, professionals within a prosecutor’s office decide that a plea — that guarantees that someone goes to jail, that guarantees that someone register generally and that guarantees other outcomes — is a good thing,” Acosta said.