Ex-Palm Beach County State Attorney Calls Alex Acosta’s Comments on Epstein Case ‘Completely Wrong’
During his press conference Wednesday on the Jeffrey Epstein case, Labor Sec. Alex Acosta defended his role and said the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office “was ready to let Epstein walk free.”
Barry Krischer, the Palm Beach State Attorney at the time, has a statement out tonight saying Acosta’s recollection is “completely wrong.”
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office,” he says, “produced a 53-page indictment that was abandoned after secret negotiations between Mr. Epstein’s lawyers and Mr. Acosta. The State Attorney’s Office was not a party to those meetings or negotiations, and definitely had no part in the federal Non-Prosecution Agreement and the unusual confidentiality arrangement that kept everything hidden from the victims. No matter how my office resolved the state charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office always had the ability to file its own federal charges.”
NEW – The Former State Attorney Barry Krischer responds to Acosta: “I can emphatically state that Mr. Acosta’s recollection of this matter is completely wrong.” pic.twitter.com/1lfULeb3CT
— Michael Del Moro (@MikeDelMoro) July 10, 2019
For the record, you can read here for Miami Herald investigative journalist Julie Brown‘s in-depth reporting on the Epstein case and the role of Krischer’s office in particular:
There were really just two people willing to risk their careers to go after Epstein: Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter and Detective Joseph Recarey…
In their first on-the-record media interviews about the case, Reiter and Recarey revealed new details about the investigation, and how they were, in their view, pressured by then-Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer to downgrade the case to a misdemeanor or drop it altogether.
