Epstein Prosecutor Joined White House Bible Study
A month later, fellow Bible study participant Pam Bondi announced no more files would come out
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Alex Acosta, the former federal prosecutor who let Jeffrey Epstein off easy, has joined the White House Bible study.
Acosta, who also served in the first administration of Pres. Donald Trump, is one of several current and former cabinet members who have been involved with the Capitol Ministries Bible study over the years. But Acosta apparently has increased his activities with the group in recent months.
And he’s not the only Bible-study participant involved in the Epstein controversy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was part of the very first White House Bible study in Trump’s second administration, on Feb. 26, as I reported. The week before that meeting, Bondi famously said she was reviewing the Epstein files, “sitting on my desk” for release.
While Acosta doesn’t appear to have remained very active with Capitol Ministries after Trump’s first term, his involvement ramped up dramatically in May.
That’s when Acosta accompanied far-right Capitol Ministries founder Ralph Drollinger to launch new ministries in South America. Then, on June 16, Acosta’s name was added to the list of sponsors of Drollinger’s Bible study in the pamphlet for that week’s lesson.
A month later, Bondi ignited a firestorm with the July announcement there would be no more Epstein files released.
Considering that Attorney General Merrick Garland — appointed by Pres. Joe Biden — had the Epstein files for four years, it seems unlikely that anything incriminating Acosta might be found in them. But it also seems unlikely that the subject hasn’t come up between Acosta and Bondi now that they’re part of the same weekly Bible study.
And Acosta’s light prosecution of Epstein remains a source of speculation and controversy.
Acosta’s plea deal with Epstein, when Acosta was a federal prosecutor in Florida, gave immunity to Epstein’s unnamed co-conspirators. And it violated the laws requiring victim notification. When details of the deal emerged, the outrage led Acosta to resign as Trump’s secretary of Labor.
Then there’s the fact that Acosta reportedly said he was told to back off Epstein because Epstein “belonged to intelligence” — meaning, Epstein was a source for U.S. intelligence — a plausible scenario given Epstein’s high-level international hobnobbing. The Trump Justice Department determined just after the 2020 election that Epstein wasn’t an intelligence source and that Acosta never said he was. But not everyone believes that.
And given the renewed scrutiny on Trump’s relationship with Epstein, the fact that Acosta let Epstein off easy in 2008 and later got a cabinet post in Trump’s first administration already looked squirrely to those who suspect a wide-ranging coverup.
Ironically, Drollinger’s biblical teachings include that one of government’s functions is to punish evil-doing.
It’s not clear when Acosta first began attending Drollinger’s Bible studies in the Trump White House. A 2019 article mentioned Acosta as a participant prior to his resignation.
He remained active, as a listed sponsor, for several months during 2000, online PDFs of the weekly pamphlets show. But didn’t appear again in the weekly pamphlets until this June.
Acosta’s only Capitol Ministries activity that I could find from 2021 through 2024 was attending a December 2023 Capitol Ministries international training conference. The conference was to train discipleship leaders from 20 states and 60 nations how to minister to government officials.
Acosta told them, “You are helping public policy stay on the right side. You are not there to say, ‘This is what you do,’ but rather, ‘This is what Christ says.’”
Acosta’s involvement appears to have reached its most intense in the past few months. In May, he joined a Capitol Ministries junket to at least three South American countries, to launch new ministries there with Drollinger.
On May 26, Acosta shared his testimony about the White House Bible study during a Capitol Ministries launch in Montevideo, Uruguay. In that nation’s “deeply secular society,” the Capitol Ministries website says, Acosta’s presence “lent spiritual and strategic weight to the event, emphasizing the global nature of CapMin’s mission.”
In other words, Acosta was giving Drollinger cred. On May 27, Acosta spoke in Buenos Aires at the launch of Capitol Ministries’ Argentina ministry.
Acosta also spoke during the same trip in Paraguay, during the Capitol Ministries launch there, also alongside Drollinger.
The following month, Acosta was listed as a White House sponsor of Drollinger’s Bible study for the first time since 2020. His name first re-appears on the June 16, 2025, Bible study. It was this Bible study, as I reported later that month, that included Drollinger’s teaching that the Jews killed Jesus.
The story of the crucifixion actually says the Romans executed Jesus. Blaming all Jews for Jesus’s death has been the driving force of antisemitism throughout history. The smear has been rejected by the Catholic Church and other major Christian denominations.
As I’ve previously reported, Drollinger’s teachings include not just standard Republican Christian orthodoxy such as opposition to LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. His Bible study — he also teaches weekly in the Senate and House — has included Biblical opposition to government aid for the poor and immigrants.
Some of Drollinger’s students, such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for instance, have received Drollinger study guides this year teaching that women should be submissive.
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Here I was immensely concerned that the GOP just wanted to take us back to the 17th century when all along the Dillinger “Bible” study Capitol groups want us to go back to BC regarding roles of women.
Then there is the Mad Hatter cockeyed concept that this so called Bible Study group just hums along with knowledge and connections with Epstein’s pedophile pals in the mix never batting an eye???
Bondi and Hegseth have been members.
Repeat: A so called Bible Study group, with pals of Epstein, the convicted child trafficking pedophile, in the mix!
The amount of nausea this generates is unparalleled!
If, and please let there be a when, the Democrats regain some power in DC, they have to fully commit themselves to ignoring what Fox and the other similar media organizations, podcasters, social media blowhards, and influencers say when they do the right thing, with every bit of determination that the GOP has to ignore facts, laws, traditions, and morals in the face of liberal finger pointing.