House Oversight Chair Asks Acosta to Clarify Epstein Testimony
Representative Robert Garcia
(Bloomberg) — The Republican chairman of the House oversight committee on Friday asked Alex Acosta, the former US Attorney who signed off on disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s controversial 2007 plea deal, if he wanted to clarify his recent testimony to the panel.
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Representative James Comer’s request follows a report by Bloomberg News that cited emails from Epstein’s private Yahoo account to show that Acosta’s office investigated Epstein for money laundering as part of a sex-crimes probe 17 years ago. Acosta told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in September that he didn’t recall any discussion of “potential financial crimes” as part of his office’s Epstein investigation.
Acosta’s attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, responded on Friday to Comer in a letter, which was obtained by Bloomberg. “Mr. Acosta’s recollection was, and is, that the Southern District’s investigation was focused on the sex crimes that took place in Palm Beach, yet given the passage of time, this does not rule out prosecutors’ seeking financial records and investigating potential financial crimes as part of the ongoing sex crimes investigation.”
Neiman’s letter also said that Acosta approved the terms of a plea deal that federal prosecutors offered Epstein in July 2007. And, citing Bloomberg’s reporting, he said, “the cadence of financial records requests increased in August 2007.” Neiman declined to make any additional comment on Friday.
Bloomberg’s report, which was based on a trove of 18,000 emails sent to and from Epstein’s private Yahoo account, also cited a former law enforcement official familiar with the matter to reveal previously undisclosed details of the probe’s financial-crimes aspect: It lasted 18 months and turned up at least tens of millions of dollars in questionable financial transactions, according to the former official, who asked not to be named to discuss a sensitive investigation. Emails show the investigation also examined allegations that Epstein operated an unlicensed money transmittal business.
The federal investigation ended with a non-prosecution agreement; Epstein pleaded guilty to two state-level sex offenses in Florida in 2008.
Democratic members of the oversight panel also cited Bloomberg’s story Friday in calling upon Comer to authorize a series of subpoenas to nearly two-dozen major banks about any accounts they held for Epstein.
A federal prosecutor requested that a grand jury issue subpoenas for “every financial transaction conducted by Epstein and his six businesses” dating to 2003, the emails show. Bloomberg’s Jason Leopold explains.Source: Bloomberg
In a letter to Comer, Representative Robert Garcia, the panel’s ranking member, and his 20 Democratic colleagues said the new details about the financial-crimes probe warranted further scrutiny of the banks and any dealings they had with Epstein.
“Over decades, Epstein used his vast wealth to exploit young girls and women,” the letter said. “Evidence indicates that his finances were managed by several premier financial institutions and numerous other banks that had complete visibility into his transactions. Epstein remained a prized client at these firms due to the magnitude of his financial assets and his prominent social connections, despite increasingly serious evidence of his misconduct.”
The lead prosecutor on the case, Assistant US Attorney Marie Villafaña, prepared an 82-page prosecution memo in May 2007 that recommended Epstein be charged with financial crimes including money-laundering.
“These facts generate new questions regarding Epstein’s financial activities, and Congress must obtain all relevant information by issuing subpoenas to the responsible financial institutions,” the committee’s Democratic members wrote.
“Chairman Comer has been clear he intends to get bank records,” said a statement from Jessica Collins, Comer’s communications director on the oversight committee. “The Treasury Department is fully cooperating and providing suspicious activity reports; we are in active discussions with the banks already; and we’ve released over 44,000 pages of documents. Democrats didn’t need to send a letter. Democrats should instead focus on reopening the government.”
The committee has been probing the government’s handling of the Epstein case since the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded in July that no new records from the 300 gigabytes of data that make up the Epstein files would be released. That decision reversed promises that President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi had made to do so.
The oversight committee has received and released numerous documents about Epstein that it received from his estate, notably a 2003 book celebrating Epstein’s 50th birthday that contained lewd messages sent to him by his friends and associates, including Trump.
In September, the panel’s Republican members said in a statement that they planned to “pursue additional Epstein bank records,” but so far they have yet to issue any subpoenas to the financial institutions. In their letter, committee Democrats identified 21 banks that they want Comer, a Kentucky Republican, to authorize subpoenas to, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of New York Mellon; Bank of America; Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.
“These financial institutions had extensive roles in managing his financial accounts that are critical to our investigation,” Garcia, a California Democrat, said in a statement. “Full bank records will tell us much more about the network of Epstein’s illegal activities, identify his associates, highlight questionable transactions, and reveal people and institutions who made his crimes possible.
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