CNN "The Lead With Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Tim Kaine
Interview
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SEN. TIM KAINE (D-VA): Dozens and dozens of teenage girls, middle schoolers, who were preyed upon by this character that President Trump knew.
I mean, if he was going to express any concern about somebody, he should have expressed concern about all these victims who didn't get justice because of the sweetheart deal that Secretary Acosta cut with Jeffrey Epstein.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: During his confirmation hearing, when you asked Acosta about the plea deal, he responded that it was a broadly held decision in the U.S. attorney's office, that a plea sending Epstein to jail and mandating that he ultimately register as a sex offender, that that is a good thing.
You obviously disagree. Why do you think that wasn't the best deal that the U.S. attorney's office could get?
KAINE: Well, even at the time, Jake, his answers didn't add up to me, because he sort of was suggesting, on the one hand, it was a good deal; on the other hand, well, yes, there were pieces of it I didn't like, or there were pieces that I didn't know that much about.
Three things have happened since that confirmation hearing. And I voted against Secretary Acosta for that reason. But three things have happened since that really shine a new light on this.
Number one, "The Miami Herald" did an amazing job. After they saw the hearing, and they saw his answers, they dug back into the circumstances of the plea. And they -- I think they demonstrated that it was a sleazy deal.
Second, a federal judge in Miami in February ruled that the deal wasn't just a lightweight deal, but it was also illegal. The U.S. attorney's office was obligated to inform the victims of the plea deal, and they didn't.
And it wasn't accidental. The court essentially found that they took unusual steps to hide the fact of the deal from the victims. And then the third thing that has happened is, these indictments yesterday of Jeffrey Epstein for additional activities preying upon young women in New York.
So I was very troubled at the time, troubled enough to vote against him and encourage others to do it. But now you have got a lot of new information that's coming out.
The deal that Secretary Acosta cut was illegal. It was secret and they hid it from the victims. It was a sweetheart deal. And, in some ways, Jake, the thing that makes me the maddest is, when Secretary Acosta let Epstein plead guilty to prostitution, these girls weren't prostitutes.
They were middle schoolers who are sex trafficking victims. And allowing him to plead guilty to prostitution is like salt in the wound.
TAPPER: Yes.
KAINE: It's re-victimizing these people to label them as, this is a prostitution crime, when that's not what it was at all.
TAPPER: Yes, a 14-year-old is not a prostitute. She's a victim. She can't consent.
Epstein was very well-connected, friends with Bill Clinton, friends with Donald Trump, friends with Prince Andrew.
Do you know for a fact that any political connections with anyone played a role in how Epstein originally escaped serious punishment?
KAINE: Jake, I don't know that.
But you -- it certainly looks like, if you just look at it from the outside, this guy was a big, powerful, wealthy guy who got a different kind of justice than everybody else gets.
I guarantee you this. There are low-level drug offenders who are getting sentenced by the U.S. attorneys and the district court -- and the federal district court in Miami for much more significant time than this monstrous sex predator got.
And it's hard to conclude that his connections were irrelevant to all of that. And, certainly, "The Miami Herald" reporting suggested it.
Even in New York, there was an effort in New York to get by the -- by the local DA -- to get Epstein's sexual offender registry status downgraded to a more minor listing. And the judge said, are you kidding me? Look at what the facts are in this case.
TAPPER: Yes.
KAINE: So I think that there's a lot more of this story that needs to come out. And we have got to follow it wherever it goes. Whoever was involved
in protecting this guy or in what he was doing, they got to have the book thrown at them.
TAPPER: Do you have confidence that the investigation, the probe going on right now at the Justice Department into whether or not there was anything improper in this plea agreement, do you have confidence that Attorney General Bill Barr can lead, can supervise such a -- such an investigation in an impartial manner of one of his fellow Cabinet secretaries?
KAINE: Jake, I do not have confidence in that.
And that's why I'm so glad that the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York has taken this on. I have confidence in them, that they will do it and they will do it right.
The internal investigation, Senator Patty Murray and I have been urging on DOJ, don't -- don't just let the Office of Professional Responsibility do this. Let the I.G. conduct the investigation. You would be more likely to get something that would be credible and independent out of the I.G.'s office.
They won't let the I.G.'s office do the investigation. They claim, no, this is the kind of thing that can only be done by the Office of Professional Responsibility.
[16:35:01]
We're going to continue to lean on them. But I don't have the confidence that, if you keep this as an in-house matter, that you're going to get the right answer.
But the Southern District of New York, the step that they took yesterday gives me some confidence that these victims -- and there are dozens and dozens and dozens of them -- for the first time, I think they may believe they could finally see justice in this case.
TAPPER: All right, Senator Tim Kaine, thanks.
And I should note that Attorney General Barr did officially recuse himself from this probe because his law firm that he once belonged to did represent Epstein at one point. I just want to make sure that that recusal is on the record.
But I don't think your answer changes any.
Thanks so much for joining us, Senator.
KAINE: Absolutely.
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