DOJ opens investigation into handling of Jeffrey Epstein sex offender case

The Department of Justice (DOJ) said it has opened an investigation into its attorneys’ handling of a plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of molesting more than 100 girls in Florida.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) launched the probe, according to a letter he received from DOJ.

{mosads}“OPR has now opened an investigation into allegations that Department attorneys may have committed professional misconduct in the manner in which the Epstein matter was resolved,” the DOJ wrote.

Sasse pressed the DOJ following a bombshell Miami Herald report in November that said Epstein, a Palm Beach millionaire, was offered a plea deal sentencing him to 13 months after he was accused of running a sex ring that trafficked teenage girls.

In the deal, Epstein, who has been linked to President Trump and former President Clinton, pleaded guilty to two prostitution charges, while he and “any potential co-conspirators’’ were given immunity from further prosecution.

U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, who at the time was a federal prosecutor, was involved with the deal from more than a decade ago, the Herald reported.

“Jeffrey Epstein is a child rapist and there’s not a single mom or dad in America who shouldn’t be horrified by the fact that he received a pathetically soft sentence,” Sasse said in a statement Wednesday. “The victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation – and so do the American people.”