Patel is deflecting- The FBI has the files, he knows it. Patel is claiming he’s hamstrung by the original investigation- I don’t believe that. However, Acosta fell on the knife for Trump previously. I think he’s going to do it again. Will the make the Epstein problem disappear? It shouldn’t.
Team Trump Finds Someone To Throw Under the Bus
Tuesday’s Senate hearing featuring FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t shed a ton of light on the substance of the Jeffrey Epstein files. But it was hugely significant in another way: It signaled a new political effort by the Trump administration to ascribe blame.
And the target is none other than a former top Trump administration official – one whom Trump very notably once defended.
Testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel seemed to make a point to fault Alexander Acosta, who was US attorney in Florida in the late 2000s and cut a nonprosecution agreement with Epstein. That deal came during the George W. Bush administration, years before Trump in his first term picked Acosta as labor secretary.
Patel twice brought Acosta up unprompted, including in his opening statement, during Tuesday’s hearing.
“I’m here to testify that the original sin in the Epstein case was the way it was initially brought by Mr. Acosta back in 2006,” Patel said at the start of the hearing.
He said Acosta’s limited searches of Epstein and the nonprosecution agreement hamstrung the federal government’s ability to hold Epstein accountable and share information.
Raskin responded to Patel, saying that the FBI's release of documents has "nothing to do with what those courts have," accusing Patel of going against comments he made before becoming FBI director where he suggested that the federal government was shielding information regarding the Epstein case and that the FBI director has direct control of the Epstein files.
Later, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who filed a discharge petition for the release of the Epstein files, challenged Patel on the FBI director’s claim — which he made before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday –– that there is no credible information that Epstein trafficked women to anyone other than himself. In doing so, Massie noted that alleged victims of Epstein have provided interviews to the FBI which detail allegations, according to Massie, against at least 20 men.
In another testy exchange, Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell said he “called b——-” on Patel’s claims about courts preventing the release of documents. Swalwell also repeatedly tried to get Patel to answer “yes or no” to a question about whether he told Attorney General Pam Bondi that the president’s name appeared in the Epstein files. Patel never answered directly and the whole exchange ended up in a shouting match between the two.
I watched some of Patel’s testimony- The level of childishness was shocking. But a narrative is being created nonetheless.
House Democrats on the Oversight Committee said that during the ongoing closed interview, Acosta would “not admit that Jeffrey Epstein received a sweetheart deal.”
Ranking Member Robert Garcia said Acosta would not “claim any responsibility” to the Epstein survivors, adding “he had no knowledge of what happened to those victims, even to this day.”
His office and the FBI had picked up the case — which involved allegations of sexual exploitation of dozens of minor girls — after the Town of Palm Beach Police Chief expressed outrage at the way the case was being handled by the state prosecutor, who had presented the case to a grand jury, returning a single count indictment against Epstein for solicitation of prostitution.
“The goal here was straightforward,” Acosta said in July 2019, four days after Epstein was arrested in New York on child sex-trafficking charges. “Put Epstein behind bars, ensure he registered as a sexual offender, provide victims with a means to seek restitution, and protect the public by putting them on notice that a sexual predator was within their midst.”
Still, the congressional committee’s investigators are expected to press Acosta on a number of fronts, particularly on his decision to enter into plea negotiations in the summer of 2007, while a 60-count draft federal indictment against Epstein was gathering dust in the office of the lead prosecutor on the case.
Yes, Acosta claimed today he had no idea what happened to the victims even to this day. Does that make sense ?
He fell on the knife for Trump previously and he’s going to do it again!
One reply on “Patel Scapegoats Acosta for Epstein troubles”
https://pennyforyourthoughts2.ca/2025/08/21/trump-epstein-administration-better-placed-to-release-files-then-courts/
The Trump administration is in a better position than the federal courts to release materials that would satisfy public curiosity about Jeffrey Epstein, US District Judge Richard Berman said.
“A significant and compelling reason to reject the Government’s position in this litigation is that the Government has already undertaken a comprehensive investigation into the Epstein case and, not surprisingly, has assembled a ’trove’ of Epstein documents, interviews and exhibits,” the judge wrote. “And, the Government committed that it would share its Epstein investigation materials with the public.
“The government’s 100,000 pages of Epstein files and materials dwarf the 70 odd pages of Epstein grand jury materials,” the ruling said.
Deflect, conflate and scapegoat- The Trump administration has the files