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How Much Justice Can You Afford?
Being a Look at the Problems with Prosecuting a Billionaire
I apologize at the outset that I’m about to wander right off into the legal weeds, somewhere I try not to go on Medium even when addressing legal topics. This time, I just do not see any way to avoid the expedition into esoterica because our Secretary of Labor, yours and mine, Alex Acosta, had a press conference in an attempt to beat back charges that he scratched the back of an allegedly child abusing billionaire in a manner that borders on complicity in the crimes he was sworn to prosecute to the best of his ability.
By now, most people who watch the news have at least a vague understanding that Acosta’s time as a U.S. Attorney was marred by what some call a corrupt plea bargain that allowed the child abusing billionaire, Jeffrey Epstein, to skate on charges that could have put him in the Club Fed for the rest of his biological life. The gist of Acosta’s defense was that he did the best he could with the tools he had and if Epstein was not punished appropriately, the fault lies with Florida prosecutors.
Acosta claims that it was only by dint of his heroic efforts that Epstein had to serve some jail time and, as importantly, had to register as a sex offender. Acosta’s presser was a clinic in the defensive use of smoke and mirrors, and it’s part of the value in the defense that…
