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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta on Wednesday praised the new case against financier Jeffrey Epstein on sex trafficking charges and defended the role he played as a federal prosecutor in reaching a plea deal with Epstein that has been criticized as too lenient.

“Without the work of our prosecutors, Epstein would have gotten away with” a lesser state charge that would have let him avoid jail time, Acosta told reporters.

(Story refiled to remove extraneous quotation marks in paragraph two)