Alexander Acosta | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2017 | |
| 27thUnited States Secretary of Labor | |
| In office April 28, 2017 – July 19, 2019 | |
| President | Donald Trump |
| Deputy | Patrick Pizzella |
| Preceded by | Tom Perez |
| Succeeded by | Eugene Scalia |
| Dean of theFlorida International University College of Law | |
| In office July 1, 2009 – April 28, 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Leonard Strickman |
| Succeeded by | Antony Page |
| United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida | |
| In office June 11, 2005 – June 5, 2009 | |
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Marcos Jiménez |
| Succeeded by | Wifredo A. Ferrer |
| United States Assistant Attorney General for theCivil Rights Division | |
| In office August 22, 2003 – June 11, 2005 | |
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | Bradley Schlozman (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Wan J. Kim |
| Member of theNational Labor Relations Board | |
| In office December 17, 2002 – August 21, 2003 | |
| President | George W. Bush |
| Preceded by | William Cowen |
| Succeeded by | Ronald Meisburg |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rene Alexander Acosta (1969-01-16)January 16, 1969 (age 57) |
| Party | Republican |
| Spouse | Jan Williams |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,JD) |
Rene Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969)[1] is an American attorney and politician. A member of theRepublican Party, he was appointed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush to theNational Labor Relations Board, and later served as theassistant attorney general for civil rights and theU.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He is a former dean ofFlorida International University College of Law. He is widely known for offering a controversialplea deal to convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein, granting immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein. As part of the plea deal, Epstein served 13 months in a minimum-security county jail.[2] He was also allowed to leave the facility up to 12 hours a day.[2]
In 2005, police inPalm Beach, Florida, began investigating Epstein after a parent reported that Epstein had sexually abused her 14-year-old daughter, and in 2008, Acosta approved the aforementioned plea deal.
From 2017 to 2019, Alexander Acosta served as the 27thUnited States secretary of labor. PresidentDonald Trump nominated Acosta to be Labor Secretary onFebruary 16, 2017, and he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate onApril 27, 2017. After Epstein's arrest in July 2019 onsex trafficking charges, Acosta faced criticism for his role in the 2008 non-prosecution agreement. He resigned from theTrump administration on July 19 and was replaced byEugene Scalia. Since March of 2025, Acosta has been a member of the board of directors ofNewsmax and serves as its Audit Committee chair.[3]
Acosta is the only son of Cuban immigrants.[4][5] He is a native of Miami, Florida, where he attended theGulliver Schools. Acosta received aBachelor of Arts degree in economics fromHarvard College in 1990, and received aJuris Doctor degreecum laude fromHarvard Law School 1994.[6] He is the first member of his family to graduate from college.[5]
Following law school, Acosta served as alaw clerk toSamuel Alito, then a judge on theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, from 1994 to 1995.[7] Acosta then worked at the office of the law firmKirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C., where he specialized in employment and labor issues.[8] While in Washington, Acosta taught classes onemployment law,disability-based discrimination law, andcivil rights law at theGeorge Mason University School of Law.[9] Acosta was a member of the Board of Trustees ofGulliver Schools, where he served a past term as board chairman.[10]
Acosta served in fourpresidentially appointed, U.S. Senate-confirmed positions in theGeorge W. Bush administration. From December 2001 to December 2002, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in theCivil Rights Division of theU.S. Department of Justice.[11] From December 2002 to August 2003, he was a member of theNational Labor Relations Board for which he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions.[12]
Then, he becameAssistant Attorney General for theCivil Rights Division on August 22, 2003,[13] where he was known for increasing federal prosecutions against human trafficking.[14] Acosta authorized Federal intervention in an Oklahoma religious liberties case to help assure the right to wearhijab in public school,[15] and worked with Mississippi authorities to reopen the investigation of the 1955 murder ofEmmett Till, a 14-year-old black youth whose abduction and murder helped spark thecivil rights movement.[16][17] He was the firstHispanic to serve as Assistant Attorney General.[18]
While leading the Civil Rights Division, Acosta allowed his predecessor,Bradley Schlozman, to continue to make decisions on hiring.[19] A report by theinspector general and theOffice of Professional Responsibility later found that Schlozman illegally gave preferential treatment to conservatives and made false statements to theSenate Judiciary Committee. Those findings were relayed to the office of theU.S. attorney for the District of Columbia,[11] but Schlozman was not prosecuted.[19] While it put the primary responsibility on Schlozman, the report also concluded that Acosta "did not sufficiently supervise Schlozman" and that "in light of indications [he and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sheldon Bradshaw] had about Schlozman's conduct and judgment, they failed to ensure that Schlozman's hiring and personnel decisions were based on proper considerations."[11][19]
In 2005, Acosta was appointed as theU.S. attorney for Southern District of Florida, where his office successfully prosecuted the lobbyistJack Abramoff, the terrorism suspectJosé Padilla, the founders of theCali Cartel, andCharles McArther Emmanuel, the son of Liberia's former leader.[11][20] The district also targetedwhite collar crime, prosecuting several bank-related cases, including one against Swiss bankUBS. The case resulted in UBS paying $780 million in fines, and for the first time in history, the bank provided the United States with the names of individuals who were using secret Swiss bank accounts to avoid U.S. federal income taxes.[21]
Other notable cases during his tenure include the corruption prosecution of Palm Beach County Commission chairman Tony Masilotti, Palm Beach County commissioner Warren Newell, Palm Beach County commissionerMary McCarty,[22] and BrowardsheriffKen Jenne; the conviction ofCali Cartel foundersMiguel andGilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, for the importation of 200,000 kilos of cocaine, which resulted in a $2.1 billion forfeiture; and thewhite-collar crime prosecutions of executives connected to Hamilton Bank.[23] Acosta also emphasized health carefraud prosecutions. Under Acosta's leadership the district prosecuted more than 700 individuals, responsible for a total of more than $2 billion in Medicare fraud.[24]
In August 2007, Acosta's office entered into negotiations withJeffrey Epstein about a plea agreement.[25] On September 24, 2007, Epstein signed anon-prosecution agreement, a day before the prosecutor in the case was prepared to indict him.[26] Over the subsequent months, Epstein sought to negotiate the terms of the agreement and pressured Acosta to removeMarie Villafaña, the prosecutor on the case.[26] In 2008, as U.S. attorney, Acosta approved a federal non-prosecution agreement, a secret agreement that would later be unsuccessfully challenged in court for violating theCrime Victims' Rights Act and was cited as a defense in the case ofGhislaine Maxwell, with Epstein.[27]
In March 2005, thePalm Beach Police Department began a 13-month undercover investigation of Epstein, including a search of his home, based on reports that he was involved withsex trafficking of minors.[28][29]Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation resulted in a 53-pageindictment in June 2007.[28] Acosta, who was the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, agreed to a plea deal,[30] to grant immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein, along with four named co-conspirators and any unnamed "potential co-conspirators". That agreement "essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein's sex crimes". At the time, this halted the investigation and sealed the indictment.[31][32]
In 2017, Acosta was nominated forU.S. Secretary of Labor byDonald Trump. His handling of the Epstein case was discussed as part of his confirmation hearing. On November 28, 2018, as rumors circulated that Acosta was being considered as a possible successor to Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions, theMiami Herald published an investigation detailing Acosta's role in the Epstein case.[28] That story revealed the extent of collaboration between federal prosecutors and Epstein's attorneys in their efforts to keep victims from learning of the plea deal. TheMiami Herald described an email from Epstein's attorney after his off-site meeting with Acosta: "'Thank you for the commitment you made to me during our Oct. 12 meeting,'Lefkowitz wrote in a letter to Acosta after their breakfast meeting inWest Palm Beach. He added that he was hopeful that Acosta would abide by a promise to keep the deal confidential. 'You ... assured me that your office would not ... contact any of the identified individuals, potentialwitnesses or potential civilclaimants and the respective counsel in this matter,' Lefkowitz wrote."[33] TheMiami Herald reported that certain aspects of Acosta's non-prosecution agreement violated federal law, stating: "As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls—or anyone else—might show up in court and try to derail it."[33] Victims, former prosecutors, and the retiredPalm Beach police chief were among those quoted criticizing the agreement and Acosta's role in it.[33]
On February 21, 2019, a ruling in federal court returned Acosta's role in the Epstein case to the headlines.[34] The decision to keep the deal with Epstein secret until after it was finalized was found to be a violation of theCrime Victims' Rights Act of 2004 (CVRA), which requires notifying victims of the progress of federal criminal cases. The CVRA was new and relatively untested at the time of the Epstein non-prosecution agreement. In 2008, representatives for two of Epstein's victims filed a lawsuit (Jane Doe #1 and Jane Doe #2 v US) in federal court aiming to vacate the federal non-prosecution agreement on the grounds that it violated the CVRA.[33] For more than a decade, the U.S. Attorney's office denied that it acted in violation of victims' rights laws and argued that the CVRA did not apply in the Epstein case.[35]
The government's contention that the CVRA did not apply was based on questions of timing (whether or not CVRA applied prior to filing of federal charges), relevance (whether the CVRA applied to non-prosecution agreements), and jurisdiction (whether the case should be considered a federal case or a state case under the CVRA). U.S. District JudgeKenneth Marra rejected those arguments in the February 21, 2019 ruling, finding that the CVRA did in fact apply and that victims should have been notified of the Epstein non-prosecution agreement in advance of its signing, to afford them the opportunity to influence its terms. At the conclusion of his ruling, the federal judge in the case noted that he was "not ruling that the decision not to prosecute was improper", but was "simply ruling that, under the facts of this case, there was a violation of the victims rights [for reasonable, accurate, and timely notice] under the CVRA."[36]
TheEleventh Circuit affirmed Marra's decision, but then sittingen banc revisited that decision and ruled otherwise, inDoe No. 1 v. United States, 749 F. 3d 999 (11th Cir. 2021)[37] and in February 2022 theRoberts Supreme Court decided to let that judgment rest.[38] The court found that the CVRA did not create a right for victims to sue the US government if no indictment was actually filed. Following theHerald investigation and related news coverage, a group of 15 Democratic members ofCongress submitted a formal request to theU.S. Department of Justice for review of Acosta's role in the Epstein deal,[39] and several editorials called for Acosta's resignation or termination from his then-current position asU.S. Labor Secretary.[40][41] In February 2019, the Justice Department'sOffice of Professional Responsibility notified SenatorBen Sasse that it had opened an investigation into Epstein's prosecution.[42][43]
On July 6, 2019, Epstein was arrested by theFBI–NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force on sex trafficking charges stemming from activities alleged to have occurred in 2002–2005.[44] Amid criticism of his mishandling of the Epstein case, Acosta resigned his role as Secretary of Labor effective July 19, 2019, after a public outcry.[45] An anonymous source claimed that when Acosta was vetted for his cabinet post in theTrump administration, he stated "I was told Epstein 'belonged to intelligence' and to leave it alone."[46]
According to an internal review conducted by theDepartment of Justice'sOffice of Professional Responsibility (OPR), which was released in November 2020, Acosta showed "poor judgment" in granting Epstein a non-prosecution agreement and failing to notify Epstein's alleged victims about this agreement.[47][48] In the report, Acosta denied that Epstein was an intelligence asset. The OPR report also stated that it found no evidence that Epstein was a cooperating witness or an intelligence asset.[49]
James Hill ofABC News remarks that in "an appendix to the report, OPR revealed there was an 11-month gap in Acosta's incoming emails that coincided with the time frame of the Epstein investigation and negotiations over the deal. ... After being informed of the "data gap" at a briefing for victims and their attorneys last week,Cassell [Paul Cassell, a representative for Epstein's accusers] said he was stunned, because he and his co-counsel Edwards have been seeking those emails for several years in their litigation on behalf of the victims, and they had never been told about the issue." According to Hill Cassell also questioned why they had not been told years earlier.[50]
At the 2021 trial ofGhislaine Maxwell, prosecutors with theU.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York proved, in abeyance of Epstein's sweetheartplea deal with Acosta, that she was guilty on five counts related tosex trafficking.[51] On 17 September 2024, three judges at theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld Maxwell's five convictions and sentence. In response, her lawyer said in September 2024 that she would appeal to theUS Supreme Court.[52][53] The petition, in docket number 24-1073,[54] asked whether an agreement by one federal prosecutor (to wit, Acosta) binds his colleagues across the country.[55] However, on October 6th the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.[56]
On 25 August 2025 theHouse Oversight Committee issued asubpoena to Acosta requesting his testimony in the Epstein file. His name was not in the initial batch of subpoenas the committee sent out in August, which includedBill Clinton andHillary Clinton. His testimony was on September 19.[57] During his September 2025 testimony, Acosta said he did not recall any discussions of "potentialfinancial crimes" in the Epstein investigation. In October 2025,Bloomberg News uncovered email correspondence that showed that Acosta's office did discuss financial crimes and that Acosta was copied on correspondence about it. Records related to the financial crimes investigation were stored in a folder titled, "Money Laundering."[26]
On July 1, 2009, Acosta became the seconddean ofFlorida International University College of Law.[58] He spearheaded the effort to establish theMaster of Studies in Law in banking compliance,Bank Secrecy Act andanti-money-laundering at FIU Law.[18] On December 31, 2013, Acosta became the new chairman ofU.S. Century Bank,[59] the largest domestically owned Hispanic community bank inFlorida and one of the 15 largest Hispanic community banks in the country. During his tenure as chairman, U.S. Century Bank had its first year-end profit since the start of theGreat Recession.[4]
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PresidentDonald Trump announced in apress conference on February 16, 2017, that he would nominate Acosta to fill the position ofSecretary of Labor after the nomination ofAndrew Puzder waswithdrawn.[60][61][62][63][64] Acosta was recommended byWhite House counselDon McGahn.[65]
Acosta has twice been named one of the nation's 50 most influential Hispanics byHispanic Business Magazine. He serves or served on the Florida Innocence Commission,[66] on theFlorida Supreme Court's Commission on Professionalism,[67] Florida Supreme Court's Access to Justice Commission,[18] and on the Commission for Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities.[68] In 2008, Acosta was named as one of the 100 most influential people in business ethics by theEthisphere Institute.[69]
TheSenate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions held confirmation hearings on March 22, 2017, and Acosta's nomination was reported out of the committee on March 30, 2017.[70] On April 27, 2017, Acosta was confirmed as Secretary of Labor by theU.S. Senate in a 60–38 vote. He received the support of eightDemocratic Senators and allRepublican senators exceptSenator Pat Toomey, who did not participate in the vote.[71] On April 28, 2017, Acosta was sworn in byVice PresidentMike Pence.[72]
In 2019, Acosta proposed cutting the funding of his department's International Labor Affairs Bureau from $68 million in 2018 to under $20 million in 2020. That agency combatshuman trafficking (includingchild sex trafficking),child labor andforced labor internationally.[73][74]
During Acosta's confirmation hearing, he discussed the need and his support ofapprenticeship as aworkforce development tool to close theskills gap.[75] On June 15, 2017, President Trump signed Executive Order 13801, "Presidential Executive Order Expanding Apprenticeships in America", establishing the Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion with Acosta serving as the chair.[76][77] The task force held five public meetings and issued their final report to President Trump on May 10, 2018.[78][77] Following the task force final report, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the following initiatives to expand and promote apprenticeship opportunities:
Acosta announced that the Trump administration maintained a goal of one million new apprentices. FollowingJeffrey Epstein's arrest in July 2019, on sex trafficking charges, Alexander Acosta faced fresh calls to resign.[82] He resigned asSecretary of Labor effective July 19, 2019.[83] President Trump, standing next to Acosta, said he would have been willing to have him remain.[84][85] Trump said "This was him, not me" and called him a "great, great secretary".[84][85]
Since March of 2025, Acosta has been a member of the board of directors ofNewsmax, a cable company based inBoca Raton, Florida. He serves as its Audit Committee chair.[3] Acosta chairs the board of the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), a U.S.-based nonprofit that builds coalitions in Republican-led states to advance governance reforms focused on economic dynamism and institutional strength. SLI organizes business and civic leaders to advocate for policies that reduce bureaucratic and regulatory burdens while enhancing state competitiveness and self-governance. Noah Wall and Nate Fischer founded the organization. Board members include Ed Corrigan, former vice president for policy promotion at theHeritage Foundation, andKevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation's president.[86][87] SLI published a study examining how national professional associations and nonpartisan policy groups influence state agencies. The study argued that these organizations were driving the implementation of progressive policies in Republican-led states.[88]
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Bradley Schlozman Acting | United States Assistant Attorney General for theCivil Rights Division 2003–2005 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Marcos Jiménez | United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida 2005–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Dean of theFlorida International University College of Law 2009–2017 | Succeeded by Tawia Ansah Acting |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | United States Secretary of Labor 2017–2019 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Order of precedence of the United States as Former U.S. Cabinet Member | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Cabinet Member |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
