Judge Zloch criticizes U.S. Attorney Acosta and prosecutor Villafania for secretive Epstein plea deal

write a treatise for the judge in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him to soften the stinging language in his order. Senior U.S. District Court Judge William J. Zloch copied Acosta on his order, noting, “The court is at a total loss as to why the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, as well as the Assistant United States Attorney assigned to the above-styled cause, found it appropriate to intentionally withhold ... information from the court.” <Sp_ Marie Villafana2.jpg> A. Marie Villafafia was the lead federal prosecutor in the Jeffrey Epstein sex case. The U.S. attorney’s office’s handling of the prosecution, which led to a plea to minor charges in state court, has been harshly criticized. Later that year, Acosta and Villafafa put together a plea bargain for Epstein, a multimillionaire money manager who sexually abused nearly three dozen teenage girls at his mansion in Palm Beach. The deal, a federal judge ruled last month, was intentionally kept from his victims in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. While the two cases are unrelated, it shows that both Acosta and Villafana had been warned about the importance of victim disclosure in sex crimes cases before the Epstein agreement. They nevertheless forged ahead with a pact with Epstein that violated the law. U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth A. Marra wrote: “When the Government gives information to victims, it cannot be misleading. While the Government spent untold hours negotiating the terms and implications of the [agreement] with Epstein’s attorneys, scant information was shared with victims.” This comes as Acosta, who is now the U.S. secretary of labor, is facing mounting scrutiny for his oversight of the Epstein case. On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say whether President Trump has full confidence in Acosta, noting that Acosta’s involvement in the Epstein case is “currently under review.” The Justice Department launched a probe in January into whether Acosta, Villafafia and other prosecutors committed professional misconduct. Francey Hakes, who worked in the Justice Department’s Crimes Against Children unit, said Zloch’s comments were so brutal that it should have deterred Acosta and Villafafia from keeping the deal secret. “Tt is highly unusual for a court to allege an assistant U.S. attorney has intentionally withheld information. That allegation is like dropping a bomb in the legal community,” she said. The story behind a Palm Beach sex offender’s remarkable deal HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021751