U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, Image via Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons.
One of the lawyers for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking and abuse wants to focus more attention on the former Republican U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta. The former Bush administration prosecutor was later chosen as President Donald Trump's labor secretary.
Speaking to CNN on Monday morning, lawyer Jack Scarola said that some of his clients named names and none of those names have been released by the Justice Department documents.
"And what I think is particularly significant is the fact that in 2007, nearly 20 years ago now, the Southern District of Florida's federal prosecutors prepared a 60 count indictment detailing the sexual abuse of minors in which Jeffrey Epstein was engaged. That 60 count indictment was supported by an 82 page prosecution memorandum detailing the evidence supporting those allegations," said Scarola.
"Had that federal indictment been filed and prosecuted, there is no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein would have been convicted back in 2007 and would have served a lengthy jail sentence that would have ended, presumably, the abuse that continued long after that. The real questions that need to be answered in connection with this investigation is why that federal prosecution never occurred, and instead, Jeffrey Epstein was permitted to plead guilty to a relatively minor offense in state court in Florida," Scarola said.
He noted that Epstein served just 13 months and spent most of that time on "work release," where he worked in an office for a charity that he created specifically so he could have a job to go to.
"It is alleged that during the period of time that he was on work release, his abusive pattern continued," said the lawyer. "Those are the questions that need to be answered. We need to see that indictment. We need to see the 82 page prosecution memorandum and most significantly, we need to see the internal communications within the justice department about why that case was not prosecuted."
Scarola specifically named Acosta, saying that he had direct communications with Epstein's defense team, "under very unusual circumstances." Those details must be included in the Epstein files through memos and communications.
"There is nobasis for failing to releasethose kinds of documents," he closed.
Acosta spoke to the House Oversight and Reform Committee in Sept. 2025, and chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said that the committee wanted to find out "who dropped the ball" in the Florida investigation case, ABC News reported.
"Was it Acosta? Was it the FBI? Was it the local prosecutors? Was it the Department of Justice? Those are the questions I think we need to know, because that was part of what the victims asked us to do," Comer said at the time.