The FBI “wanted to arrest [Epstein] in [the] Virgin Islands during a beauty pageant...where he is a judge” in May 2007 but ultimately did not take him into custody, just months before he would cut a deal that would protect him from federal sex crime charges, NBC reports. He surrendered to law enforcement officers in 2008 and was convicted on child prostitution charges. The FBI supervisor on the case was “extremely upset” at being denied the opportunity to arrest him, according to the Justice Department. The DOJ also found that Alex Acosta, Donald Trump’s former Labor Secretary and at the time a U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, showed “poor judgement” in offering the deal but did not engage in professional misconduct. Acosta said in a statement Thursday that the report “fully debunks allegations that the USAO improperly cut Epstein a ‘sweet-heart deal’ or purposefully avoided investigating potential wrongdoing by various prominent individuals.”
