Former federal prosecutor explains why a case he tried proves Jeffrey Epstein’s legal defense won’t fly

Former federal and state prosecutor Elie Honig worked in the Southern District of New York where accused child molester Jeffrey Epstein is currently being charged. But he has some disagreements with the way the prosecutors and defense are painting the case.

In his weekly segment explaining the legal side of key cases in the news, Honig said that he disagrees with the prosecutors saying that Americans shouldn't read too much into the case being out of the political corruption division.

"All due respect to my former office, yes, attach significance to that," he said. "It’s very unusual. This case ordinarily would be staffed out of the human trafficking unit which I used to supervise in the organized crime unit. The fact that public corruption is on it tells me there is at least one current or past public official involved in this case, somehow or other."

The other comment he disputed came from the defense team, which intends to argue that Epstein can't be tried a second time for the same crime. Honig explained that Epstein's team has no shot at making the argument stick.

"Double jeopardy is not going to work," he began. "He was never prosecuted formally in Florida. That went to the state. Now he’s being charged federally. We just got a Supreme Court decision two weeks ago that says that is not double jeopardy. Someone can be charged in the state, then federal. No problem."

He said that the defense will likely argue that the deal thay got from former prosecutor Alex Acosta "covers them," but that has already been decided by higher courts too.

"The Southern District of New York has already anticipated this, if you look at their first brief," Honig continued. "They cite a case that happened to be mine -- a mafia murder case that I tried and argued on appeal where this guy got a sweetheart deal from a different district. We took a look at it, charged it correctly and the court of appeals, here in New York said, 'That’s okay.' The sweetheart plea deal he got before does not bind another federal district."

Watch his full take below: