Sept. 19 (UPI) — Former U.S. attorney for Florida’s Southern District Alex Acosta testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during a closed deposition on Friday.
Acosta arrived for the deposition hearing regarding the 2008 Jeffrey Epstein case on Friday morning and ignored reporters’ questions while entering the committee room in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, according to ABC News.
“We want to know what went on during the prosecution, when many believe that Epstein was awarded a sweetheart deal,” Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told media on Friday.
“We’re going to ask a lot of questions about this,” Comer added. “This is going to be a pretty hard-hitting deposition.”
Friday’s deposition hearing occurred after the House committee on Monday obtained files related to the case, including a “birthday book” note alleged to have been written by President Donald Trump decades ago.
The president has denied writing the note and said it is a forgery.
Acosta was Trump’s Labor Department secretary for more than two years during the president’s first term.
He resigned amid controversy over his handling of the Epstein case as new charges were entered for alleged sex trafficking and other related offenses in 2019, CNN reported.
While he was a U.S. attorney, Acosta negotiated Epstein’s 2008 plea deal that resulted in the former hedge fund manager pleading guilty to state charges in Florida in exchange for avoiding potential federal charges.
The plea deal required Epstein to serve 13 months in thePalm Beach County jail and register as a sex offender, but he had work release.
Although Epstein did not face federal charges, Florida officials had asked Acosta to review the case after accusing a state prosecutor of mishandling the matter, according to a 2020 NPR report.
Epstein committed suicide in a New York City jail ahead of his federal trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
The House committee recently released more than 33,000 pages of Epstein file documents and said more will be released.
The documents released so far are redacted to protect witnesses and block child abuse materials.