Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida, supervised by then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, offered a non-prosecution agreement in July 2007, which Epstein signed in September and led to his guilty plea and incarceration in June 2008. All of that occurred while George W. Bush was president.

The NPA, signed without notifying the victims, was contingent upon Epstein pleading guilty to state charges, registering as a sex offender, and serving 18 months in the county jail, followed by 12 months of house arrest.

A 2020 investigation by the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility found Acosta, having chosen a state-based resolution of a federal investigation, to be responsible for the NPA and the actions taken in its implementation.

Acosta was appointed by Trump as Secretary of Labor in 2017, but stepped down in 2019 due to the controversy surrounding his role in the NPA.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Oklahoma Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims.

Sources

• United States Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida’s Resolution of Its 2006–2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation
• United States Department of Labor Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta
• NPR Alexander Acosta Steps Down As Labor Secretary Amid Epstein Controversy

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