Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee gave different accounts of the testimony of Alex Acosta, the former Trump Labor Secretary who initially prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein when serving as a U.S. attorney.

Acosta sat with the panel behind closed doors for several hours Friday, answering questions about his handling of the case.

House Democrats on Friday echoed the testimony of FBI Director Kash Patel, who on Tuesday said the “original sin” in the case was the failure to more aggressively prosecute Epstein from the start.

“It's very clear that Alex Acosta ran a deeply flawed investigation of the Epstein case. That's clear. He also would not admit that Mr. Epstein received a sweetheart deal, which has been widely reported and agreed upon since that deal was actually made by Mr. Acosta and his team,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, said at the close of the interview.

“[He] stands by the decision to have given Mr. Epstein a sweetheart deal — it was only 18 months — and which during that time, he went on to abuse multiple women. In his questioning, he also agreed and stood by those decisions and would not claim any responsibility to the victims, and in fact admitted that he had no knowledge of what happened to those........

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