Page 64 - State Case News Today

>> secretary, just one more question. >> doug christian from talk media news. >> yes. >> you said that the victims were not prostitutes, but the agreement was he was jailed for prostitution charges, not for sex trafficking. can you just state what the distinction was? >> the agreement was this was a state -- heres why this is hard. this was a state case. he was arraigned. a state grand jury returned a prostitution charge against him, a solicitation charge, if i recall. that was a state grand jur...

Tom. >> secretary, a lot of people are watching this news conference including several young women who say that they were teenagers when jeffrey epstein sexually assaulted them. they say that they went to you looking for help and they didnt hear back from you until it was too late. do you owe them an apology? >> so youre raising the issue of victim notification. and in the documents that ive circulated, ive addressed the issue of victim notification as well. the career prosecutor in this case ha...

He pled guilty to that state case. i think all of that is significant and theres a lot of pressure on him to explain exactly what happened and why he reached that plea deal, what chuck schumer called a sweetheart deal. and he said he did the best he could with the evidence he had at the time. i expect were going to hear more of that from acosta. does he survive this? president trump yesterday defended him but did leave the door open for changing his mind. he said hes going to look into exactly w...

>> reporter: mr. secretary. doug from talk media news. he said the victims were not prostitutes, but the agreement was he was jailed for prostitution charges, not -- or not for sex trafficking. can you say what the distinction is? speak with the agreement this -- heres why this is hard. this was a state case. he was arraigned. a state grand jury returned a prostitution charge against him, a solicitation charge, if i recall. there was a state grand jury. he was allowed to self surrender by the st...

>> im sure. thank you. lets get more on the breaking news. here in the situation room, youve been going through the legal documents around this 2007, 2008 case when alex acosta was the u.s. attorney prosecuting him. what did you find out? >> we found out there were bare knuckle tactic thats were used by the high profile lawyers. including ken starr, the lawyer who had investigated bill clinton. what we found was that there were a lot of letters exchanged between two where they were trying to get...

Case, the victims would have the opportunity to receive restitution. epstein would be requested to pay for them to hire a lawyer, to bring a case against him. a case in which he would have to plead no contest, and provide them with restitution. and the concern -- these are the words of the career prosecutopr she did not want to share with the victims that the office was attempting to secure for them the ability to obtain monetary compensation, because she is aware that if she disclosed that, and...

>> secretary, one more question. >> sure. >> yes, doug crihristian from tk media news. you said the victims were not prostitutes, but the agreement was he was jailed for prostitution charges, not for sex trafficking. can you just say what the distinction was? >> the agreement was this was a state. heres why this is hard. this was a state case. he was arraigned. a state grand jury returned a prostitution charge against him, a solicitation charge if i recall, that was a state grand jury. he was al...

>> secretary, a lot of people watching this news conference, including several young women who say they were teenagers when jeffrey epstein sexually assaulted them, they say that he went to you looking for help and they didnt hear back from you until it was too late. do you owe them an apology? >> you are raising the issue of victim notification. in the documents that i have circulated, i have addressed the issue of victim notification as well. the career prosecutor in this case had a difficult ...

And attorney as well. kristen, this is all squarely on acostas plate right now. hes having a news conference at 2:30. obviously we want to hear what he is going to say. you have some background on whats going on at the white house. there was reporting that there was some concern about him not from the president but others on the white house staff. >> he is embattled right now and there was already concern about acosta, concerned he wasnt carrying out the presidents deregulation agenda effectivel...

Because double jeopardy only applies if its federal, and federal you cant charge another federal case. this was a state case actually. the federal deal was a non-prosecution agreement. it was never charged in the first place. we dont know whether new victims are coming forward, but they did make a call for new victims at the press conference. it will be interesting to see if they get new conduct. remember, what the nonprosecution agreement in florida was about was florida based conduct. what the...