Acosta Defends Epstein Deal: ‘He Needed to Go to Jail’ (2)

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta today defended his decade-old plea deal for disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“Times have changed and coverage of this case has certainly changed since” 2008, he said. “Facts are important and facts are being overlooked.”

“We believe that we proceeded appropriately, that based on the evidence, there was value to getting a guilty plea and having him registered” as a sex offender, Acosta said, stopping short of declaring that he had no regrets. “Look, no regrets is a very hard question.”

As a federal prosecutor in 2008, Acosta helped broker a plea agreement with Epstein’s lawyers that ...