US Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta on Tuesday defended his controversial handling of child sex abuse allegations against Jeffrey Epstein more than a decade ago and said the new charges lodged by Manhattan federal prosecutors could “more fully bring him to justice.”

“The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence,” Acosta wrote on Twitter.

“With the evidence available more than a decade ago, federal prosecutors insisted that Epstein go to jail, register as a sex offender and put the world on notice that he was a sexual predator.”

“Now that new evidence and additional testimony is available, the NY prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice,” he added.

Acosta made the comments amid calls by leading Democrats for him to resign his post in President Trump’s cabinet.

Last year, an award-winning expose by the Miami Herald revealed how Acosta, then the US attorney in Miami, struck a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein amid allegations that the billionaire molested dozens of teens at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla.

That deal led to a plea bargain with Palm Beach prosecutors under which the financier — who could have faced life in prison — served just 13 months of an 18-month sentence.

On Monday, the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office unsealed a two-count sex trafficking indictment that accuses Epstein, 66, of luring numerous underage girls as young as 14 to his Upper East Side townhouse and abusing them while receiving nude “massages.”

Epstein — whose friends have included President Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew — has pleaded not guilty and is locked up pending a bail hearing on Monday.