Mega Edition: Alex Acosta And His Epstein Interview With OIG Inspectors (Part 22-23) (3/12/26)

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1:04some extent US attorneys when they take the job realize that part of their job is to take the slings and arrows and you know there are instances when a USA's were accused of misconduct and I have always sort of felt that was I don't want to say below the belt but that's not what they take pay cuts that they take to go into federal service and you know I think the media coverage of this case has been unfair and has lost a lot of the complexities it's not surprising because I mean here we're talking about a lot of those complexities and it takes a fairly sophisticated discussion but I think it's particularly unfair on redacted question in your attorney's written response he used the term relentless to characterize the team of lawyers the defense lawyers and in the daily beast article that you wrote you referred to the year long assault on the prosecution and the prosecutors you noted that the defense was more aggressive than any of which I or the prosecutors in my office had previously encountered you noted that the defense investigated prosecutors

2:09and tried to disqualify to and I believe that those two are redacted and redacted is that correct answer that's correct question and you also raised or noted or asserted that there were investigations into the family lives of individual prosecutors accusations of bias and misconduct against individual prosecutors and even the thread of a book on prosecutorial zeal do you still regard that characterization as accurate answer I do you know whether I would use those same words now we can spend a lot of time talking about it and I'd want to think about it but I do think that that's accurate I think this really was a raised earth type of matter and in the office typical interactions the prosecutors know they have to come back to the office and so they would not sorry not the prosecutors it's getting late the defense counsel and so they would not it's not just the accusations against the attorneys but the mischaracterization I could go through the record

3:09and there are several instances where my words or other USA words were being mischaracterized or we're going back to one of the redacted emails people walk out of the meeting believing they have an agreement and then that's unwound that is not I don't know if that's the typical in Washington but that's certainly not typical in the Miami office question all right in the daily beast article I think you also use the term pack of dillows answer yes question what did you mean by that in particular answer could I see could I question I was afraid you'd ask I'd have it right in front of me and I don't at the moment mr. adacted are you talking about the to whom it may concern letter mr. adacted yes a Costa yeah question thank you and it's in reference on the second number page of this copy to personal pack of dillows in the middle of the page answer also individual prosecutors and their families looking for personal pack of dillows that provide a

4:11so redacted was my recollection she wasn't investigated redacted and I haven't encountered that in other cases I recall at one point they looked in redacted and redacted family and his background and I thought that was a little bit out of line now the next like I don't know 17 or 18 lines are all redacted at that point I was trying to convey is that this is not a typical behavior by the defense council and despite all of this my point was despite all of this we did not budge question and again that's not the focus of the question like redacted once again the whole answer question all right are there any other examples where defense council came to you that you have not otherwise addressed with allegations about someone did they ever raise or imply that there were that there was information regarding you or whatever respect that was in the nature of a sort of a threat or a veiled warning answer so the book reference was that I might be personally embarrassed

5:15by pursuing this matter because I would be subject of the chapter in a book on prosecutorial overreach answer and who is going to write that book do you know answer professor Dershowitz question okay did you consider him a professional friend at all answer I had not to my recollection met him I understand in this letter I sort of grouped him in but I'd say for the record that it's hard to know what my intent was in 2011 but that's for simplicity of grouping individuals because I did go to Harvard I may have run into him at Harvard but he was not my professor I didn't work for him as a teaching assistant I had some interest in criminal law so I may have chatted with him but that would have been it question and did you consult with him at all in connection with your efforts your interest and potentially teaching or being involved in the sort of law school world either at Harvard or at Florida international or anywhere else answer not to my recollection

6:15at some point when I applied for the deanship I wasn't aware of the deanship until so let's take this let's take this in part I thought about taking or looking at Harvard for a teaching position to my recollection I never followed through on that question uh-huh answer I knew Alina Kagan and may have had a conversation with her about what would have been preliminary how does this process work but I don't recall talking if I took it that far and I'm not saying that I did this was a long time ago I never sort of went through the way law schools hire is very they call it a meat market take that for what it's worth it's something that happens at the hotels here at the Marriott Hotel on Connecticut and it's very formalized process I never went through that I don't recall any conversation with professor Dershowitz about that to the extent I was thinking about it it'd be natural for me to talk to or adapt it but I don't recall talking to him with respect to a professor Dershowitz with respect to FIU the dean process is very decentralized to the extent

7:20of faculty members spoke to him I don't know to my recollection and again this is a long time ago I did not ask for a reference or a letter or something to that regard although I may have it was a very long time ago I was also no longer active in this case at the time question all right and what about with respect to that same process on your part Ken star who actually was a dean of the law school at the time did he provide you with reference or advice answer not to my recollection question all right answer as the letter from Ken at the end there was by that time this was over there was some degree of tension between us on my resolution of this matter question but it also appeared to be tension that both of you were eager to leave aside answer I'm a big believer and I had good relationships with the defense team I think lawyers can disagree and not be disagreeable and we would be in a better profession if we all learn to do that question so with the

8:22world there is a sort of investigative journalist author named redacted answer yes question do you know that name answer yes question did you ever speak with her answer so she was the recipient of the to whom it may concern letter at the daily beast question oh really answer yes question all right all right thank you we didn't know that did she comment back to you on it answer it was a long time ago I don't recall question so she wrote a book called trafficking have you read that about this case answer she did I haven't read it recently but I read it a while ago question and she says in that book that you told her a few years after the mpa was signed as she writes he felt incapable of going up against those eight powerful attorneys he felt his career was at stake did you say that to her answer not to my recollection what I tried to do was for the record provide this letter to her and the purpose of this letter was to say the exact

9:25opposite which is and you know we have this you know and she had in this New York Times and I think the New York Times called it what's the word like apology does anyone know yeah apology apology it's a fancy way of saying you're explaining yourself answer yeah I looked it up and it's a little more derogatory than explaining myself because I felt the need to look it up but the New York Times called this letter an apology a question mm-hmm answer and this was recently and I say this because then folks read the letter they read it as this is why you know I think sometimes they selectively read language the prosecutors and agents in the case and what followed was a year long assault I used the word assault as it was more aggressive than anything in which I or the prosecutors in my office had previously encountered mr. Epstein hired an army of legal superstars Harvard professor Dershowitz former judge and then pepper dine lodging Ken star former deputy

10:29assistant to the president then Kirkland and Ellis law partner J. Lefkowitz and several others including prosecutors that formerly worked in the u.s attorney's office the child exploitation section I'm not sure who that was of the department of defense question department of defense answer no no in child exploitation and obscenity section of the justice department defense attorneys next requested a meeting with me and they read that as saying there were all these powerful lawyers in the case but they then go on to talk about it despite this army of attorneys the office held firm to the terms first presented to mr. black in the original meeting question so what I understand you saying is that the monopoly this pantheon of attorneys did not have the influence on you that's alleged answer and the purpose of this letter as to despite all of that we held firm so how can you say that there's influence if we held firm craving the coffee flavor you love but

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14:39individuals came on board so it's not like these terms were developed because oh now these individuals are on board question all right and of course we haven't talked about the work release issue but I think that speaks the record speaks for itself on that so I'm not sure I'm clear did you have an interview or give have a conversation with misredacted or just center this letter answer I spoke with her briefly saying I'm not going to speak on the record I'm not going to address even off the record details of the case but I will provide a letter to you I've had a lot of requests over the years to talk about the case there were enough requests coming that I thought it was important to provide a statement to defend the actions of the office I didn't want it to be one reporter in particular because I did not want to play favorites and so I provided a to whom it may concern letter that was a public letter but then I gave it to her all right folks were in a wrap up right here and in the next episode dealing with the topic we're going to pick up where we left off all of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description

15:43box what's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the Epstein Chronicles in this episode we're diving right back in to the Alex the Costa interview with the OIG investigators and we're getting close to the end here question and just one thing on work release issue did you tell the defense that the US attorney's office would not object if he got work release as long as he's treated like every other defendant answer so I don't recall what I may or may not have said specifically around work release my recollection of our general position is you're pleading and stay court to incarceration of 18 now it's 18 months it was 24 whether it was 18 or 24 this would have been any conversation I would have had would have been after the agreement was signed it's our expectation that he be treated just like everyone else if it was typical to provide that kind of work release in these cases that would have been news to me I certainly would not have

16:44expected that and I think based on our subsequent communication with the state attorney's office that was not what our office envisioned by the same token I don't want to think our office envisioned that he be treated worth that the typical offender question well did you know that redacted was in fact trying to make sure that he didn't get work release answer yes and so I don't see any reason why I would have contradicted that that's my point question all right you've mentioned the number of times that the sexual offender registration was one of the three important prongs for you and the office answer yes question what was it that you saw the sex offender registration as accomplishing answer so to some extent it's putting the community on notice that irrespective of whether he's in Florida or elsewhere he's a registered sex offender to some extent I don't know if this but I'll say it anyhow this was a serious crime and there's a public sanction associated with this and I thought to the extent that he committed the types of acts that typically

17:49are associated with registration that should go forward but the primary motivation there was put the public on notice that he is a registered sex offender question and did you see any conflict with that as being the goal with the provision in the mpa that the mpa was going to be kept confidential and the communication in which the us attorney's office was having with the defense about continuing to keep things confidential do you see any inconsistency between those two answer no in that I genuinely was of the opinion that the mpa would go public and certainly his public his state court plea would be public and his registration would be public and so what he did would be known question and given what you know about these offices back and forth on notifying the victims do you think looking at the entire course of conduct of the office that the victims were treated fairly and with dignity and respect answers so I want to be careful not because I'm fudging

18:51but because it's a complex question if looking back in hindsight we know that there would be what was it two eight month periods do we have an agreement do we not have an agreement is this concluded is this not concluded is this an ongoing investigation how do we deal with all these notification issues if we had foreseen all of that I think I've said before that something I certainly think should have been considered and it's very possible we would have done something very different but that was not foreseen and so it's then a very difficult judgment to be made because there is an agreement there is concern as to if we go to trial how do you address this there is you know going to the affidavit at least one instance and I'll merging my recollection here and my knowledge after the fact because your question sort of calls for an after the fact assessment so you've got the redacted affidavit which points out the defense council did all they could but is using this to impeach and weaken witness credibility in a case where there's already

19:52questions around witness credibility and so it's a very imperfect situation with discretionary judgments to do the best to sort of balance all of these factors is that the best outcome probably not but that's that's where we were and that's why I think this case would have been very different than it was October 24th he would have gone in and pled and taken his time and served his time like many other people have done as opposed to mount all these legal challenges that we then had to work through question and I'll preface my question with the fact that we're still investigating this we've made no conclusions with respect to this but if OPR determines that your office should be criticized for its handling of this does the criticism fall on you or does it fall on your senior managers because a non-prosecutor you are relying on them to keep you informed and for their judgment answer so I was US attorney I certainly relied on my staff but ultimately I was

20:55US attorney and I don't think it's justifiable or fair to sort of say this was on them I was sufficiently aware of matters that it was my office and while I'll say that it was I might not recall this or I was relying on a b or c for guidance or to handle the matter ultimately I think those judgments always sort of bubble up question in your press conference you reference I think July 10th 2019 press conference you reference victims what they went through was horrific you said and then you said I've seen the videos I've seen the interviews I have seen the interviews on television of the victims and their stories just to be clear are you talking about interviews and television coverage and videos recently or back in 2006 answer recently question okay I just wanted to be very clear about that the US attorney manual requires us all in the department to conduct the fair even handed administration of the federal criminal law what's your view as to how the handling of

21:58this case imported with that principle answer so I don't think it was fair and even handed you know after the fact may look back and say that two years may not you know it shouldn't have been a manifest injustice standard it should have been sort of denovo let's treat this like a new prosecution that's a judgment you'll all make but those judgments were made with the eye towards fairness and impartiality and once those judgments were made despite all the attorneys involved and despite all the litigation and all the stuff all the appeals to DC you know we stuck to that position and I think that speaks to the way the office approach the matter question all right I spoke sort of offline earlier about an issue that was raised in the press conference that was not clearly answered on your part in that context and the question was is this on page 15 of the internet transcript of that press conference you were asked whether you ever made aware of Mr. Epstein as an

22:59intelligence asset of some sort and you in your response said you could answer it couldn't address it directly because of guidelines can you clarify first of all were you ever made aware of that answer if you was I'm not aware of it question all right the defense counsel ever say to you that Epstein had that status answer not to my recollection question all right answer and to clarify I also don't know where the press reports from multiple sources not from multiple sources but from multiple media outlets that I told someone that he was an intelligence asset I don't know where that came from so there are questions that I may be asked publicly that I don't think it's right for me to comment as to what classified information I may or may not have because that's not the kind of stuff you'd get into but the answer is no and no question all right without reservation answer no and no all right excellent thank you a couple of final questions answer can I address

24:03as a second issue that has come up at times question yes answer there are also media reports that this was because of cooperation in some financial matters I don't know where that may have I don't know where that may have come from answer all right thank you and we are familiar with that what you're referring to answer was there cooperation related to financial matters question we didn't ask you about it answer okay question as you can tell OPR obtained many electronic records mainly emails but other electronic holdings from the department the department of justice however has not been able to find or recover a portion of your email account as US attorney that contained emails received by you between May 26 2007 and March 2008 finding great candidates to hire can be like well trying to find a needle in a haystack sure you can post your job to some job board but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along which is why you should try zippercrooter

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27:09payroll this bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing Megastore profits they deserve it don't they tell congress stop the Durban Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition answer correct question a period of time rather relevant to this we've obtained many records of course from senders and from other people copied so we have many of the records but the fact is there's a gap in the holdings and this is despite the fact that as you know doubt no the law requires that us attorney records be maintained and archived indefinitely can you give us any insight any idea how that might be the case answer I can't and my recollection was after several issues that took place the department had some sort of records retention software that automatically retain the emails is that not accurate question there was there was a switch over from a period in which the record retention responsibility resided with each US attorney office and at the

28:14switch over it became centralized answer right question and this appears to have sort of gotten lost in the he gets cut off here by Acosta answer been caught in the switch over my recollection is that there was some automatic retention mechanism question okay answer and I can't address that although there's certainly a full sum record question but just to ask the inevitable question did you take any action to discard destroy or dispense with any official records related to this matter answer not to my recollection I think there's a full sum record and not to my recollection question all right and is there any particular gap that you've discerned in the records that where that we've provided to you answer not that I recall do you have the emails that I sent out of curiosity answer we do answer okay so you have the sent but not received question yes answer just checking question and likewise we retrieved from the federal record center

29:16records that were boxed up and sent there hard copy documents after your term ended and there is nothing that relates to the Epstein case there were records that were maintained that were kept in the main office after you left because because it was an ongoing matter but do you have any idea why there are not any in those records of yours that were sent answer so I have a recollection that when I left there were some binders that I passed along to redacted because it was an ongoing case and we sort of had binders out of that sort of had correspondence back and forth all right and you've already made we've already asked you about the facts but you addressed sort of a broader statement to us for the record about the case is there anything else you want to tell us at this point answer give me a second to think this through question in fact if you'd like to take a quick break and talk to your attorney and that will be the last question answer do we need a break mr. adacted no mr. adacted your attorney says no a Costa I'll follow up on this

30:19nothing that I if something comes up my understanding is that were received the transcript and have enough time given the length of this to review and comment question exactly yes and for the record when the transcript is prepared which should be within a couple weeks will ship that off to you and your attorney we'll ask you to review it to make not only any corrections but clarifications and to add to it if you feel you have read something that it needs to be clarified or expanded upon you're invited to do so answer and if I could ask one other question i'm not familiar enough with the way OPR operates and this may be weird so you may not be prepared to answer if there's a report as opposed to a letter which is what I typically am familiar with will that report be shared in advance for comment or is that determined mr. adacted i'm going to defer to mr. adacted for that mr. adacted that's a question that doesn't need to be on the record do you have anything else that you'd

31:20want to put on the record before we close out acosta i do not mr. adacted all right thank you i want to extend our great appreciation for your willingness to come in and help us with this case all right we're off the record all right folks so there you have it the complete and unabridged version of Alex Acosta's interview with the OIG inspectors all of the information that goes with this episode can be found in the description box warning the following zippercruder radio spot you are about to hear is going to be filled with f words when you're hiring we at zippercruder know you can feel frustrated for learn even like your efforts are futile and you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine fortunately zippercruder figured out how to fix all that and right now you can try zippercruder for free at zippercruder.com slash zip with zippercruder you can forget your frustrations because

32:22we find the right people for your roles fast which is our absolute favorite f word in fact four out of five employers who post on zippercruder get a quality candidate within the first day fantastic so whether you need to hire four 40 or 400 people get ready to meet first rate talent just go to zippercruder.com slash zip to try zippercruder for free don't forget that zippercruder.com slash zip finally that zippercruder.com slash zip access to affordable credit helps me pay my employees that I don't really need it inflection is killing me but who cares big retailers and making record profits that's why we support the German Marshall credit card bill see banks and credit unions help small businesses make payroll this bill would cut the vital resources they need while increasing megastore profits they deserve it don't they tell congress stop the German Marshall money grab for corporate megastores paid for by the electronic payments coalition