under federal investigation in florida for his alleged crimes involving sexual exploitation of minors until u.s. attorney alex acosta, now trump s secretary of labor, approved a deal allowing epstein to plead guilty to lesser state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. that deal concealed the full extent of epstein s alleged crimes. president trump told new york magazine in 2002 that epstein was, quote, a terrific guy who was, quote, a lot of fun to be with. he has even said he likes beautiful women as much as i do, and many of them are on the younger side. no doubt about it, jeffrey enjoys his social life. that s the president of the united states talking. today trump sought to distance himself from epstein. i had a falling out with him a long time ago. i don t think i ve spoken to him for 15 years. i wasn t a fan. i feel very badly actually for secretary acosta, because i ve
they were abused by epstein either in florida or in new york or in new mexico or in the virgin islands. some place, all in u.s. jurisdiction. i think that s almost inevitable. it s about time people did, that because in the old days, they didn t show up with allred. they didn t have an allred. exactly. and i think we re going to go into that phase, and i think it s going to be the allegations are going to trickle out more and more and more. and meanwhile, as you said, of course the democrats are going to want to look at this. you know, this is a matter for congressional oversight as well. it just is. it s the secretary of labor. and this is something that was known about his past. the questions were never fully answered. southern district of new york now wants to answer has given us a partial answer. but it s congress duty to find out what s up. i would like to think the secretary of labor of all people would be looking out for little people, the people that don t
thanks for watching the beat tonight. that does it for me. we ll be back here at 6:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow with a lot of special stuff, but don t go anywhere because hardball with chris matthews is up next. bad company. let s play hardball. good evening. i m chris matthews in washington. tonight jeffrey epstein, the shadowy hedge fund manager and multimillionaire is behind bars in new york after the southern district charged him with sex trafficking of minors and with conspiracy. epstein pleaded not guilty and faces up to 45 years in jail. epstein s power gave him entree to the world s most powerful, rubbing shoulders with the saudi crown prince, donald trump, and former president bill clinton. more than a decade ago, he was
into the graphic nature of his jabba the hutt behavior here, but the criminal part is the trafficking, the movement across state lines, how does the law get defined here with such an incredible penitentiary sentencing if somebody s properly sentenced? so essentially, sex trafficking is the moving of individuals here, minor victims across state lines for the purposes of sexual abusing them. and that is exactly what prosecutors and federal investigators have found to be the case here. we know that jeffrey epstein had his residence here in new york as well as in florida, new mexico, virgin islands. he has a vast amount of wealth, and he would essentially through use of phone calls and probably emails, would set up appointments with these underaged victims to meet him in these other residences to sexual
acosta s deal with epstein were known at the time of his confirmation hearing. eight democratic senators by the way to keep this even steven here still voted for the republican colleagues to confirm him with them. and today senator amy klobuchar was among the first of the democratic presidential counties calling for epstein to resign following epstein s indictment yesterday. criticizing the leniency of epstein s 2007 plea deal, senator klobuchar tweeted since when do underage girl sex ring traffickers get to go to their office every day while they serve their time? i didn t vote for former florida u.s. attorney acosta to begin with, and he should step down. joining me right now is the senator herself, senator amy klobuchar. what does this look like to you? yeah. how did acosta come to give this guy this sweetheart deal where he could go to work every day, treat him like he committed a small crime with mitigating circumstances? why would he do this? when i was a prosecutor, you