Wednesday during an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-AL) theorized most of the raged aimed at Labor Secretary Andrew Acosta for his handling of a Jeffrey Epstein case while serving as a U.S. Attorney during the Bush administration had some possible political motivations.
He pointed to Democrats opposing some of Acosta’s acts as head of the Department of Labor.
Byrne, who is also a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, first said Epstein should pay a price if allegations of sexual misconduct are true.
“First and foremost, if the things that have been alleged about Mr. Epstein are true, he belongs in jail,” Byrne said. “And he belongs in jail if not for the rest of his life. Let’s take the criminal part of this and put it over there. He needs justice, whatever the truth is there. If these allegations are accurate, they need to put him in jail forever.”
The Alabama Republican congressman explained there was a political side of it. However, he warned Democrats that if they go “too far,” they would burn themselves given former Democratic President Bill Clinton’s ties to Epstein.
“But secondly, let’s go to the political side of it,” he continued. “I worked with Secretary Acosta a fair amount. You know, he has been in Alabama recently, and he has been great to work with. He is a very smart, very able man who has done a great job over there at the Labor Department. By the way, he has done some things that the Democrats don’t like, which is to be expected. And so part of this is to get at him, but not just to get at him. This is another way to get at President Trump.”
“Now they’re being a little bit disingenuous because who was Mr. Epstein’s friend several years ago? Bill Clinton,” he added. “So, if they go too far here, then what is going to happen is people are going to start saying, ‘Let’s talk about what Bill Clinton did with Mr. Epstein. And I think Democrats are going to find they burn themselves on this issue.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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