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1 agreement was signed.
2 It's our expectation that he be treated just like
3 everyone else, if -- if it was typical to provide that kind
4 of work release in these cases, that would have been news to
S me. I certainly would not have expected that, and I think
6 based on our subsequent communications with the state
7 attorney's office, that was not what our office envisioned.
8 By the same token, I don't think our office envisioned that
9 he be treated worth that the typical offender.
10 Q Well, did you know that was in fact trying to
11 make sure that he didn't get work release?
12 A Yes. And so, I don't see any reason why I would
13 have contradicted that, is -- is my point.
14 Q All right. You've mentioned a number of times that
15 the sexual offender registration was the -- one of the three
16 important prongs for you and the office.
17 A Yes.
18 Q What was it that you saw the sex offender
19 registration as accomplishing?
20 A So, to some extent it's putting the community on
21 notice that, irrespective of whether he's in Florida or
22 elsewhere, he's a registered sex offender. To some extent, I
23 don't know if this is -- but I'll say it anyhow. This was a
24 serious crime, and there is a public sanction associated with
25 this, and I thought to the extent that he committed the types
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1 of acts that typically are associated with registration that
2 that should go forward, but the primary motivation there was,
3 put the public on notice that he is a registered sex
4 offender.
5 Q And did you see any conflict with that as being a
6 goal with the provision in the NPA that was -- that the NPA
7 was going to be kept confidential, and the communications in
B which the -- in which the U.S. Attorney's Office was having
9 with the defense about continuing to keep things
10 confidential? Do you see any inconsistency between those
11 two?
12 A No, in that I -- I genuinely was of the opinion
13 that this NPA would go public, and certainly his public
14 his state court plea would be public, and his registration
15 would be public. And so, it would -- what he did would be
16 known.
17 Q And given what you know about these office's back
18 and forth on notifying the victims, do you think, looking at
19 the entire course of conduct of the office, that the victims
20 were treated fairly, and with dignity and respect?
21 A So, I want to be careful, not because I'm fudging,
22 but because it's a complex question. If, looking back in
23 hindsight, we knew that there would be a -- what was it? Two
24 eight months period, when -- do we have an agreement, do we
25 not have agreement, is this concluded, is this not concluded?
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1 Is this an ongoing investigation?
2 How do we deal with all these notification issues?
3 If we had foreseen all of that, I think I've said before,
4 that -- that something I certainly think should have been
5 considered, and it's very possible we would have done
6 something very different.
7 But that was not foreseen. And so, it's then a
8 very difficult judgement to be made, because there is an
9 agreement. There is concern as to if we have to go to trial,
10 how do you address this?
11 There is, you know, going to the
12 affidavit, at least one instance -- and I'm merging my
13 recollection here, and -- and my knowledge after the fact,
14 because your question sort of calls for an after the fact
15 assessment.
16 So, you've got the affidavit, which
17 points out that defense counsel did all they could, but is
18 using this to impeach and weaken witness credibility in a
19 case where there's already questions around witness
20 credibility.
21 And so, it's a very imperfect situation with
22 discretionary judgements to -- to do the best, to sort of
23 balance all these factors. Is that the best outcome?
24 Probably not, but that's where the -- that's where we were,
25 and that's why I think this case would have been very
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1 differently if what was it, October 24
2 Q MM-hmm.
3 A -- he would have gone in and plead and taken his
4 time and served his time like so many other people have done
5 as opposed to mount all these legal challenges that we then
6 had to work through.
7 Q And I'll preface my question with the -- with the
8 fact that we're still investigating this. We've made no
9 conclusions --
10 A Mm-hmm.
11 Q -- with respect to this, but if OPR determines that
12 your office should be criticized for its handling of this --
13 A Right.
14 Q -- matter, does that criticism fall on you, or does
15 it fall on your senior managers? Because as a non-
16 prosecutor, you were relying on them to keep you informed,
17 and for their judgement.
18 A So, I was the U.S. Attorney. I certainly relied on
19 my staff, but ultimately, I was the U.S. Attorney, and I
20 don't think it's justifiable or fair to sort of say this was
21 on them. I was sufficiently aware of matters that -- that --
22 it was my office, and -- and while I'll say that I was -- I
23 might not recall this, or I was relying on A, B, or C for
24 guidance, or to handle this matter, ultimately, I think those
25 judgements always sort of bubble up.
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1 BY MS.
2 Q In your press conference, you reference -- this is
3 the -- I think July 10, 2019 press conference. You
referenced victims, what they went through was
A Mm-hmm.
6 Q -- horrific, you said, and then you said, I've seen
7 these videos. I've seen the interviews. I have seen the
8 interviews on television of these victims, and their stories.
9 Just to be clear, are you talking about interviews and
10 television coverage and videos recently, or back in 2006
11 and --
12 A Recently.
13 Q -- 2007? Okay. I just wanted to be very clear
14 about that. The U.S. Attorney's manual requires us all in
15 the department to conduct the fair, even handed
16 administration of the federal criminal laws. What's your
17 view as to how the handling of this case comported with that
18 principle?
19 A So, I do think it was fair, and even handed. We --
20 you know, after the fact, may look back and say that two year
21 may not have -- you know, it shouldn't have been a manifest
22 injustice standard. It should have been, you know, a sort of
23 a de novo, let's treat this as a new prosecution.
24 That's a judgement you'll all make, but -- but
25 those judgements were made with an eye toward fairness and
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1 impartiality, and once those judgements were made, despite
2 all the attorneys involved, and despite all the litigation,
3 and all the -- all the stuff, all the appeals to Washington
4 and the -- you know, we stuck to that position.
5 Q Mm-hmm.
6 A And I think that speaks to the way the office
7 approached this matter.
8 Q All right. We -- I -- we spoke sort of offline
9 earlier about an issue that was raised in that press
10 conference that was not clearly answered on your part in that
11 context, and the question was -- and this is on page 15 of
12 the internet transcript of --
13 A Right.
14 Q -- that press conference. You were asked whether
15 you were ever made aware that Mr. Epstein was "an
16 intelligence asset of some sort." And you -- you in your
17 response you said you couldn't answer it -- couldn't address
18 it directly because of guidelines. Can you clarify -- first
19 of all, were you ever made aware of that --
20 A If he was --
21 Q -- assertion?
22 A -- I'm not aware of it.
23 Q All right. Did defense counsel ever say to you
24 that Epstein had that status?
25 A Not to my recollection.
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Q All right.
2 A And -- and to clarify, I also don't know where
3 press reports from multiple sources -- not from multiple
4 sources, but from multiple media outlets that I told someone
that he was an intelligence asset.
6 I do not know where that came from. If -- if I can
just -- so, there are questions that I may be asked publicly,
8 that I don't think it's right for me to comment as to what
9 classified information I may or may not know, because that's
10 not the kind of stuff you'd go into, but the answer is no,
11 and no.
12 • All right. Without reservation, without any --
A No, and no.
• All right. Excellent. Thank you. A couple of
▪ final questions. As you can tell --
16 A Can I -- can I --
17 Q Yes.
18 A -- address as second issue that has come up at
19 times?
20 Q Yes.
21 A There are also media reports that this was because
22 of cooperation in some financial
23 Q Me-hmm.
24 A -- financial matters. I don't know where that may
25 have -- I don't know where that may have come from.
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1 Q All right. Thank you, and we are familiar with
2 that, what you're referring to.
3 A Was -- was there cooperation related to financial
4 matters?
5 Q We didn't ask you about it.
6 A Okay.
7 Q As you can tell, OPR obtained many electronic
8 records --
9 A Yeah.
10 Q -- mainly e-mails, but other electronic holdings
11 from the department. The Department of Justice, however, has
12 not been able to find/recover a portion of your e-mail
13 account as U.S. Attorney that contained e-mails received by
14 you between May 26th, 2007, and March 2008.
15 A Correct.
16 Q A period of time rather relevant to this. We have
17 obtained many records of course from senders and from other
18 people copied. So, we have many of the records, but the fact
19 is, that's a --
20 A Mm-hmm.
21 Q -- gap in the holdings, and this is despite the
22 fact that as you no doubt know, the law requires that U.S.
23 Attorney records be maintained and archived --
24 A Right.
25 Q -- indefinitely. Can you give us any insight, any
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idea why that might be the case?
2 A I can't, and my recollection was after -- after
3 several issues that took place, the department had some sort
4 of records retention software that automatically retained
5 these e-mails. Is that not accurate?
6 Q There was a -- there was a switchover from --
7 A Right.
8 Q -- a period in which that record retention
9 responsibility resided with each U.S. Attorney's Office, and
10 at the switchover, it became centralized.
A Right.
And this appears to have sort of gotten lost in
13 the --
14 A Been caught in the switchover. I -- my
15 recollection is that there was some automatic retention
16 mechanism --
17 Q Okay.
18 A -- and I can't address that, although there's
19 certainly a fulsome -- a fulsome record.
20 Q But just to ask the inevitable question --
21 A Right.
22 Q -- did you take any action to discard, destroy, or
23 dispense with any official records --
94 F. Not --
7 Q -- related to this matter?
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1 A Not to my recollection. I think there's a fulsome
2 record, and not to my recollection.
3 Q All right, and is there any particular gap that
4 you've discerned in the records that we've provided to you?
5 A Not that I recall. Do you have the e-mails that I
6 sent, out of curiosity?
7 Q We do.
8 A Okay. So, you have the sent, but not received.
9 Q Yes.
10 A Just checking.
11 Q And lik , we retrieved from the federal records
12 center --
13 A Right.
14 Q -- records that were boxed up and sent there, hard
15 copy documents, after your term ended, and there is nothing
16 that relates to the Epstein case. There were records that
17 were maintained that were kept in the main office --
18 A Right.
19 Q -- after you left, because it was an ongoing
20 matter, but it -- do you have any idea why there are not any
21 in the records of yours --
22 A So --
23 Q -- that were sent?
24 A So, I have a recollection that when I left, there
25 were some binders that I passed along to , because it was
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1 an ongoing case, and we sort of had binders out that sort of
2 had correspondence back and forth.
3 Q All right, and you've already made we've
4 we -- I asked you about facts, but you addressed a sort of a
5 broader statement to us for the record about the case. Is
6 there anything else you want to tell us at this point?
7 A Give me a second to --
8 Q Sure.
9 A -- sort of think this through.
10 Q In fact, if you'd like to take a quick break and
11 talk to your attorney, and that will be the last question.
12 A Do we need a break?
13 MR. : No.
14 MS. : Your attorney says god no.
15 THE WITNESS I will -- I will follow up on this.
16 MS. All right.
17 THE WITNESS Nothing that I -- if something comes
18 up, my understanding is that we're receive the transcript,
19 and have enough time given the length of this to review and
20 comment.
21 BY MS.
22 Q Exactly, yes, and for the record --
23 A Right.
24 Q when the transcript is prepared, which should be
25 within a couple of weeks, we'll ship that off to your
EFTA00009225

Pac,-
1 attorney.
2 A Mm-hmm.
3 Q We'll ask you to review it, to make not only any
corrections, but also clarifications, and to add to it --
5 A Mm-hmm.
6 Q -- if you feel having read something that it needs
7 to be clarified or expanded upon, you're invited to do so.
8 A And if I could ask one -- one other question. Is
9 there -- and I'm not familiar enough with the way OPR
10 operates, and this may be suigeneris, so you may not be
11 prepared to answer, if there is a report as opposed to a
12 letter, which is what I typically am familiar with, will that_
13 report be shared in advance for comment?
14 Q I am going to --
15 A Or is that to be determined?
16 MS. I am going to defer to Ms.
17 for that.
18 MS. : That's a question that doesn't need to
19 be on the record. Do you have anything else that you'd want
20 to put on the record before we close out?
21 THE WITNESS: I do not.
22 MS. All right.
23 MS. : All right. Thank you. I want to
24 extend our great appreciation for your willingness --
25 THE WITNESS No problem.
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1 MS. -- to come in and help us with this
2 case.
3 THE WITNESS So, so, let me -- now that we're off
4 the record, let me say --
5 MS. : Are we off the record?
THE REPORTER: Not yet.
THE WITNESS Not yet? Oh.
MS. No?
9 THE REPORTER: You didn't say it.
10 MS. : All right. That's it. We're off
11 the record.
12 (Whereupon, at 8:38 p.m. the interview of r".
13 Alexander Acosta was concluded.)
IA * * *
15
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CERTIFICATE
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA )
IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA )
I, Beth Roots, Notary Public, before whom the foregoing
deposition was taken, do hereby certify that the witness
whose testimony appears in the foregoing pages was duly sworn
by me; that the testimony of said witness was reported by me
by electronic record, and thereafter reduced to typewritten
form; that said deposition is a true record of the testimony
given by said witness; that I am neither counsel for, related
to, nor employed by any of the parties to the action in which
this deposition was taken; and, further, that I am not a
relative or employee of any attorney or counsel employed by
the parties thereto, nor financially or otherwise interested
in the outcome of this action.
Beth Roots
Notary Public in and for the
District of Columbia
My commission expires:
April 30, 2020
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