re: Case against Jeffrey Epstein (Bidens’ blackmailed by China)

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Justice Department opens probe into Jeffrey Epstein plea deal
BY JULIE K. BROWN
FEBRUARY 06, 2019 04:19 PM

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The Department of Justice has opened an investigation into Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta’s role in negotiating a controversial plea deal with a wealthy New York investor accused of molesting more than 100 underage girls in Palm Beach.

The probe is in response to a request by Sen. Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was critical of the case following a series of stories in the Miami Herald. The Herald articles detailed how Acosta, then the U.S. attorney for Southern Florida, and other DOJ attorneys worked hand-in-hand with defense lawyers to cut a lenient plea deal with multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2008. The Herald’s three-part series, Perversion of Justice, was cited by Assistant Attorney General Stephen E. Boyd in his letter to Sasse. DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility will head the investigation, he said.

“OPR has now opened an investigation into allegations that department attorneys may have committed professional misconduct in the manner in which the Epstein criminal matter was resolved,’’ wrote Boyd in the letter dated Wednesday.

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The case has raised fundamental questions about whether well-connected, wealthy people wield influence over prosecutors and others in the justice system. Epstein had a wide circle of powerful friends, including Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, lawyer Alan Dershowitz and a former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak.

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The Office of Professional Responsibility, which acts much like a police department’s internal affairs division, is notoriously secretive with its probes, and they rarely become public, she said. But with Sasse and other lawmakers calling for the investigation, DOJ may be under pressure to be more transparent with its findings.

“It is a good sign that OPR’s letter to Senator Sasse indicates that it will share its results at the conclusion of the investigation, but those results will have to be viewed in the context of OPR’s limited powers,’’ she said, adding that OPR doesn’t have the power to subpoena witnesses.

Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general, has urged Congress to allow him to conduct a probe, noting that OPR’s investigations often shield prosecutors accused of wrongdoing.

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