Attorney General Bill Barr can look past a lot of things: senatorial insider trading, lying to the FBI, a pandemic that’s killed a quarter-million Americans and is on track to kill as many still. But the absolute incompetence of his former Cabinet colleague vis-à-vis the whole Jeff Epstein thing is too obvious and egregious for even as committed a partisan as Barr to overlook.
A Justice Department report has found that former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta exercised “poor judgment” in handling an investigation into wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was a top federal prosecutor in Florida.
You don’t say. Still, this is Bill Barr, and Alex Acosta is a former Trump official, so he’s not going to go too far in the dressing-down.
Though the report faulted Acosta for his judgment, it concluded that his actions in arranging the deal did not constitute misconduct, and that none of the prosecutors involved committed misconduct in their interactions with the victims. The conclusions are likely to disappoint the victims, who have long hoped the internal investigation would hold Justice Department officials accountable for actions they say allowed Epstein to escape justice.
Sixty-eight more days, you guys.
Justice Dept.: ‘Poor judgment’ used in Epstein plea deal [AP]