Page 20 - Work Release Program News Today

Coverage right now. >> thanks so much, joe. hi, there, im stephanie ruhle. we begin this morning with the growing calls for president trumps labor secretary alexander acosta to step down. one day after the legal controversy surrounding billionaire financier jeffrey epstein erupted here in new york city. epstein appeared in a courtroom monday pleading not guilty to charges he sex trafficked girls as young as 14 from 2002 to 2005. and he paid them hundreds of dollars in cash for, you guess it, s...

Horrific. with the evidence available more than a decade ago, prosecutors insisted he go to jail and put the world on notice he was a sexual predator. now there is an opportunity for bring him more fully to justice. joining me now is kelly odonnell. secretary acosta putting a very favorable gloss on what the so-called florida prosecutors -- he was the lead u.s. attorney did -- he had a lenient one year sentence with a lenient work release program. >> reporter: able to leave a county jail for as ...

Democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders. my apologies, senator. secretary acosta was the u.s. attorney. it was his final decision. lots of questions have been raised by lots of reporting from the miami ha herald. victims were never notified about the deal, and he got a generous work release program. >> what i think that verdict, and the treatment of mr. epstein indicates is the ugly two tier criminal justice system we have in america. if youre a billionaire charged with sex trafficking ...

Trove of lewd photographs of young looking women or girls including what are clearly labeled cds of photographs by various categories. todays charges have renewed focus on epsteins previous arrest in florida for sex crimes involving minors and the non-prosecution agreement he made with the feds back in 08. epsteins lawyers worked out a deal with the then u.s. attorney alex acosta. he would be the now labor secretary in the trump government. the deal acosta agreed to allow epstein to plead guilty...

Young looking women or girls including what are clearly labeled cds of photographs by various categories. todays charges have renewed focus on epsteins previous arrest in florida for sex crimes involving minors and the non-prosecution agreement he made with the feds back in 08. epsteins lawyers worked out a deal with the then u.s. attorney alex acosta. he would be the now labor secretary in the trump government. the deal acosta agreed to allow epstein to plead guilty to less serious state charge...

He had his schedule where, you know, two, three of them would come every single day. so it wouldnt be surprising that -- since he had the same organization in place that that same kind of operation existed in new york as well as in florida. >> and how -- how publicly known -- i mean, among the people who knew jeffrey epstein, was this something that was known? this was something that he was doing or was this a secret operation, where as you said the employees knew, but outside that group of peop...

Focus on epsteins previous arrest in florida for sex crimes involving minors and the non-prosecution agreement he made with the feds back in 08. epsteins lawyers worked out a deal with the thenacosta. he would be the now labor secretary in the trump government. the deal acosta agreed to allow epstein to plead guilty to less serious state charges, required that he register as a sex offender, serve about a year in jail most of it in a work release program with liberal rules of attendance at his no...

The cabinet. hash tag, acosta resign. the white house has not said anything about this, and the more that comes to light, the more baffling it is what alexander acosta did. why wouldnt he tell the victims that he was making this sweetheart deal with jeffrey epstein by which jeffrey epstein, he could have served life in prison. he ended up getting 13 months, but he was able to go to his office and work for six days a week. >> yeah. the go to the work release program from jail is a new one for me,...

This case is now being charged by the public corruption unit, not the sex trafficking unit. what do you make of that ? >> i make of the fact that he got out of that -- mr. epstein -- the 2008 charges. unusual. you mentioned -- i will get back to your question. but you mentioned that he served the state prison sentence. he was on work release. you go from at that point a prosecution that could end you in life and you are on this work release program where you go to jail. >> that was after dozens ...

Decade. cnns erica hill is in new york. erica, epstein got an unusually lenient plea deal in florida in 2008 serving just over a year in jail with a generous work release. now hes facing decades in prison and some of his friends and associates should also be worried. >> absolutely. lets walk through that first deal that you just mentioned, that plea deal that was referred to as both a sweetheart deal and pretty much the best deal that someone in his case could get. this was in 2008. keep in mind...