think the big questions are going forward, but also the aspect of this being prosecuted by the public corruption, they don t usually handle these kinds of cases. what does that mean and what are the big questions? keep in mind that many of the prosecutors that were handling this case, including acosta, is no longer with the justice department. the justice department has an investigation under way by the office of professional responsibility. my understanding from talking to people who, by the way, worked in justice at the opr, was that they re not going to have any jurisdiction over acosta or over any of these attorneys who no longer work for the justice department. so what s possible could have happened is since their hands were tied, they could have referred it to the southern district of new york to look at the handling of this by the prosecutors. and that s just a theory, but it is a pretty from what i understand, unusual thing to
mention the girls who are now women who came forward and had the courage to talk to me on camera. that was very, very difficult for them to do after all of this time. they felt betroyed they were betrayed. they weren t told about the deal. they sued. congress is now involved. that s one thing i wanted to ask you before we go. i want you to give me what you think the big questions are going forward, but also the aspect of this being prosecuted by the public corruption, they don t usually handle these kinds of cases. what does that mean and what are the big questions. keep in mind that many of the prosecutors that were handling this case, including acosta, is no longer with the justice department. the justice department has an investigation under way by the office of professional responsibility. my understanding from talking to people who, by the way, worked in justice at the opr, was that they re not going to have any jurisdiction over acosta or over
that is now on how this deal was handled? well, myself and others, we have already we ve already written two letters to the president requesting that he remove acosta. of course, i think it would be better for mr. acosta just to resign. i mean, the irony of it is that part of the duties of the labor department is to prevent labor trafficking and here is a man who said it s okay for this sexual predator to traffic in young girls. no, i don t think he s fit to be in office right now. i think the best thing he could do for this country is to step down. all right. congresswoman lois frankel, thank you for joining us. congresswoman frankel is from palm beach. we got a lot of feedback on the issue of what bill barr did or didn t do with respect to recusal in the epstein case. remember one of the confusing things about this case is that there are two issues we re talking about, the investigation that was opened up in miami in florida and the new york investigation.
sweetheart deal, what did the people of palm beach say? this is your district. these are your constituents. he big-footed his own prosecutors who had a 53-page indictment waiting. well, i can tell you this, the chief of police of palm beach was very upset. he remains very upset to this day and i inquired several months ago i mean, when this started bubbling up again i inquired back at the state attorney s office to try to find out why they had allowed this kind of deal and the state attorney who was there at the time, he is not there now, he is retired, and, you know, the kind of reaction i got was, well, we really didn t think much of these young girls at the time. you know, in terms of acosta, i will say this, if you look at that deal, people were given immunity, why were other people given immunity? why was the deal confidential? why did they shield it from the
involved and he called to just say congratulations. this was really hard fought and well won. and i say that because this really was a point of pride. since you ve added on then i want to add on. you are aware that mr. epstein served that 13 months, he was allowed out during the day and he had to sleep at a county jail, but he was basically allowed to move and go around the community and do whatever he wants and then that became a subject of significant criticism. and i am on record condemning that and i think that was awful. and you would say that was a state you know, that was a problem with the way the state administered the state sentence? yes, and i think it was wrong. now, despite the deal, every senate republican other than pennsylvania s path toomey who didn t vote elected to confirm acosta. they were joined by eight democrats including kaine s virginia colleague mark warner along with angus king.