Report: Alex Acosta Said He Was Told Jeffrey Epstein "Belonged to Intelligence" And "To Leave It Alone"

Best-selling author Vicky Ward reported Tuesday that Alexander Acosta told the Trump transition team when asked about his handling of Jeffrey Epstein's case that "I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone."

From Vicky Ward, The Daily Beast, "Jeffrey Epstein's Sick Story Played Out for Years in Plain Sight":
Epstein's name, I was told, had been raised by the Trump transition team when Alexander Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Miami who'd infamously cut Epstein a non-prosecution plea deal back in 2007, was being interviewed for the job of labor secretary. The plea deal put a hard stop to a separate federal investigation of alleged sex crimes with minors and trafficking.

"Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?" Acosta had been asked. Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he'd had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He'd cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein's attorneys because he had "been told" to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. "I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone," he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no comment when asked about this.)

[...] In 2007 and 2008, as the FBI prepared a 53-page indictment that would charge Epstein with sex crimes, Epstein's powerful legal team played the influence card.

After the one meeting with then-U.S. Attorney Acosta, where presumably "intelligence" was mentioned, the indictment was shelved and, instead, Epstein signed a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors