The epstein investigation, i can enf state his recollection of this matter is completely wrong. He said if mr. Acosta was concerned with the case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 53page indictment his office drafted. Instead, he brokered a secret plea deal that resulted in a nonprosecution agreement in violation of the victims rights act. He concludes should not be allowed to rewrite history. And here is some of the real history, its a passage from the miami heralds prize winning investigation of the allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, friend and neighbor at the time of donald trump, friend of president clinton and prince an true and as you know, epstein is facing similar federal charges 11 years later in new york and im quoting, epsteins scheme began to unravel in march of 2005 when the parents of a 14yearold girl told Palm Beach Police she had been molested at his mansion. The girl confessed she was brought there by two other girls and those girls pointed to two more girls who had been there. By the time detectives tracked down one victim, there were two and three more to find. Soon there were dozens, dozens of underaged girls. The Palm Beach Police chief who supervised the investigation telling the herold, we didnt know where the victims would end. Thats what the u. S. Attorneys office stepped into in 2007 and 2008 so many charges in fact they filled 53 pages, enough to put epstein away for the rest of his life. Instead, in whats been described as a highly unusual agreement, epstein was put on the sex offender registry and allowed to plead guilty to a prostitution charge he searched 13 months essentially part time in the Palm Beach County jail. He was actually allowed to leave jail and go to his office six days a week. Now terms of the agreement were kept secret from the accusers until after the fact unlawfully according to a recent court ruling. In addition, it immunized any unnamed coconspirators and shut down any federal investigation in the jurisdiction. Today a secretary acosta went before the public and said that taking epstein to trial would have been quote rolling the dice end quote. Even though Justice Department figures show that u. S. Attorneys brought more than 3600 similar cases between the years 2004 and 2013. Acosta repeatedly shifted responsibility for the decision on to career prosecutors. He repeatedly lamented that times were different back then as if back then or 50 years ago instead of 2008 when all of this occurred. The would be thing acosta did not do was apologize to the alleged victims or say hed do anything differently. Secretary, a lot of people are watching this News Conference including several young women that say they were teenagers when Jeffrey EpsteinSexual Assaulted them. They say they went to you looking for help and they didnt hear back from you until it was too late. Do you owe them an apology . So, youre raising the issue of victim notification. And in the documents that ive circulated, ive addressed the issue of victim notification, as well. Okay. So thats not answering the question asked let alone offering any kind of apology. And no regrets here, either. Listen. So standing here today are you basically saying that you feel that you did everything you could, you got the best deal you could get and you have no regret regrets . We believe that we proceeded appropriately. Federal judge says otherwise, the new indictment in fact suggestions otherwise, as well. The fact that dozens of accusers had no say in the deal, that certainly says something just not to the labor secretary. Do you really have nothing else to say to these victims beyond that you should come forward and that places burden on children . Else do you have to say . Youve avoided addressing them directly. That . To be clear thanks is not all i said. You know, i think if i recall and i obviously dont have a transcript here but, you know, what ive said previously is look, i have seen these interviews and i cant i generally cant begin to fathom what these victims have been through. I dont think that anyone that has not been in this situation can begin to fathom. The closest i can come is to think what would i feel like if one of my girls was going through this . Well, keeping them honest, nobody doubt what is a father would do to protect a child. The question tonight is what did a Public Servant, that Public Servant who is serving the cabinet of the Trump Administration do or not do to protect everyones children . Jim acosta were going to talk to him shortly joining us now is the miami heralds julie brown thats done the definitive reporting on the epstein deal and largely responsible for the spotlight on this episode. Thank you for joining us. Secretary acosta seemed to argue this plea deal was the best that he could do, is that true . Well, thats his belief and there are certainly people in his office that agree with him, but i think a lot of Law Enforcement people have been on here all day, on cnn all day explaining that there were other options. First of all, if he felt like he didnt have enough evidence or that some of which all the evidence he had was remarkable in my opinion and other experts opinions but even if he felt that this was a little shaky and he couldnt get a conviction, he should have followed what his fbi wanted, which they wanted they were already finding evidence that this went beyond palm beach. The fbi files show they were traveling to new york and new mexico to interview witnesses. Now the reason why they were doing that is they were understanding that this kind of crime, this kind of sex pyramid scheme involving young girls isnt something that he probably would just do in palm beach when he traveled so regularly. It would be natural for the fbi to examine whether he was doing it elsewhere so had they stuck with the case and not done this plea agreement perhaps they would have realized that this was a much bigger operation. And just in terms of this operation, how big was this . How long did this go on for . Is that how far were you able to trace this back in terms of what he was doing . It seems like he was starting to do it at least in florida since like 1998. He there were a couple of girls who came forward that were in his circle, lets say since that time. And it continued all the way up until the agreement practically until the agreement was signed. And he would get one girl, a teenager to then try to recruit others, as well . Right. Is that right . He would get his foothold in somehow with he had recruiters and schedulers and they would go to spas for example around palm beach and find these young spa attendants and talk to them about coming. Look, we want to recruit you to this wealthy man that wants you to give him massages. That was the code word they always used and so the girl would come and, you know, shes very young. She goes to high school. He would say, you know, whats your life like . He would especially pray on girls that were in unfortunate circumstances, very poor or even on the verge of homelessness and he would say well, look, ill pay you for a massage, he would molest them. If they felt uncomfortable, he would, which they frequently did, he said thats fine ill pay you for every girl you bring me. When Palm Beach Police were investigating this, it was like, you know, leslie was here and she was brought by mindy and amanda and you go to mindy and amanda and they say these two other girls brought me. He was doing this, two, three, four times a day girls were coming in and out of his mansion. Two or three or four times a day . Yeah. Different girls . Yes. Yes. And secretary acostas office, i understand they had drafted an indictment against epstein. It was never filed. Is it why was that . Do we know . Well, you know, he hired the best lawyers that someone of his means can hire and he was very shrewd about it. He hired lawyers that were politically connected. You know, mr. Accoosta was an alumni of the Kirkland Ellis law firm and epsteins attorney with the law firm and kenneth star was with the law firm. Some of the other lawyers were former u. S. Prosecutors in the miami office so they knew, you know, who they knew acosta. It was for the most part a boys club of lawyers. Julie, if you could, stay with us. I want to bring in kia roberts, the former Senior AssistantDistrict Attorney in kings county in Brooklyn New York and paul who served as prosecutor in the same office. Paul, one thing that struck me about what acosta said today is a question he didnt really answer which was why didnt he just keep investigating . If he had all these victims identified that needed more evidence, why not push ahead as julie said . The fbi was going farther a field. Yeah, youre absolutely right, anderson. He was according really traffic ticket treatment to a crime that couldnt wind up with 45 years of exposure, prison exposure. All you have to do is look at the indictment that was handed down and unsealed in new york on monday. That indictment actually reaches back to the year 2002 to palm beach to epsteins mansion in palm beach and includes the incidents that were very much under acostas jurisdiction at that time. Over a decade later, new york prosecutors were able to put together a case against him when Acosta Claims no case was possible at that time. There were lots of federal crimes that were possible here because telephones were used, computers were used, airplanes and boats were used with respect to the commission of the crime all of this would have generated federal jurisdiction. Yet he walked away and really gave a sweet heart deal in negotiations by the way with ken starr who was the lawyer who recruited him to come to kirkland and ellis when acosta was working as an attorney in private practice, so just a lot of strangelooking things went on in this case. Is there ever any kind of time limit put on an investigation like this . Absolutely not. There are a lot of things like that that could make the situation strong. We could go on and on for hours. There does exist a statute of limitations for certain crimes but in this instance, the investigation had reached kind of one of the amepexes which he had been charged. Once that happens and one victim turns into two and 12 turns into 24, you have to collect the evidence, do a full and thorough investigation and see where it goes and puts you. I can not imagine a judge in the world with these serious facts would not have allowed you to fully and thoroughly investigate the case and take us to his logical conclusion. Julie, secretary acosta put a lot of blame on the career prosecutors in his office for decisions that were made in this case. To be clear, he was the boss . I mean, at the end of the day he had final say on what happened here, right . Right. He made a lot of this meeting which i focused on in my story how he met privately with jay, epsteins attorney far from his office in miami at a marriott in october. And he made much of the fact that well, you know, there is nothing to that meeting because that deal was signed in september before that meeting ever happened. And if you look at the record there was paper signed in september but they were hotly negotiating that until the point he agreed in court in june of 2008. There was a lot of stuff happening and there is also a letter that jay wrote back to acosta after that ok mectober meeting saying thank you very much, im glad we discussed this and a reminder here, you agreed not to tell any of the victims about this deal. So it was at that meeting we suspect that he arranged for the secrecy aspect of it, which, you know, thats the biggest question here, right . If it was such a good deal, did he seal the deal so nobody could find out what it was. Thats incredible that, i mean, hes blaming career prosecutors but going to the secret meeting out of town. I mean, that that just seems highly unusual, doesnt it . Paul, is that normal . Not at all normal. As a matter of fact, all meetings take part in a prosecutors office. In this case, he went to a hotel for a breakfast meeting. So it was clearly intended to keep the negotiations secret and then he ultimately negotiates a deal where the victims are not going to be notified about anything. He gets it very nice thank you letter from kirkland and ellis, the defense firm, very unusual. Why wouldnt the victims be notified . I get why the defense wouldnt want the victims to be notified but prosecutors working for the people. Absolutely. So its shocking and inexplicable and completely unprecedented. When i was a homicide prosecutor in brooklyn, one of the most unique and meaningful parts of the trial would conclude with the victims family and in a homicide situation and the victim itself when the victim was alive and they were able to give something called a victim pact statement. That was them talking to the judge and looking the defendant in the eye. This is what you did and this is how it affected me and my family. That was a hugely important and therapeutic process for victims and the fact this was denied to these 30 plus young women that have the courage and fort titud to assist is heartbreaking and cruel. Yeah. I want to thank you. Julie brown in this age where reporters are under the gun and being called all sorts of things, your reporting is critical in exposing the story and really nobody would be here, you know, the victims would not have a voice at this point if it were not for you. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Coming up, the latest from the white house including reaction from secretary acostas performance and reporting on the bogus Conspiracy Theory too gee see for right wing media and the Trump Administration to actually check. The death of a dnc staff there claimed he was gunned down by asse assassins and the alternative explanation it appeared to offer in the russia investigation. This was a phony story and tonight, we now know where it originated. 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So far they feel secretary acosta handled himself well earlier today. I talked to one official this evening that said he offered some information to his defenders out there who are trying to counter this criticism that he was too lean jennient. The Vice President said they were glad to see secretary acosta step forward but much of this is driven by the president , anders anderson, who does not appear at this point to be in the mood to unload the labor secretary from what i understand talking to a Senior Administration official, he wanted secretary acosta to go out there and fight for his job and the president wanted to fight for calls fz eving his resignation and the president s attitude about those detractors was quote screw them. Well, in terms of his job security, should he be breathing a sigh of obviously, there were a lot of things he left unsaid or refused to answer or, you though, apparently answered incorrectly or was rewriting history according to the official. Thats right. That is what that state prosecutor, former state prosecutor is saying down in florida, secretary acosta has a recollection of vents completely wrong. I will tell you, anderson, weve seen this white house and president say in the past about previous officials that he would like to see a various cabinet member stay on board when they have come under intense scrutiny but i talked to one Senior Administration official who said he cauti