Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who conducted a four-year investigation into the business, political and personal life of former president Bill Clinton, reportedly pushed the Department of Justice under George W. Bush to drop all child sex trafficking charges against pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new book by Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown.

As reported in the Guardian, Starr used his friends, acquaintances and professional relationships with Republicans in the Justice Department to push it to drop an investigation into Epstein.  Joining Alan Dershowitz on Epstein’s legal team in 2007, Starr sent letters and emails to prosecutors and other officials.

Among the connections he leveraged, Starr wrote an eight-page letter to Mark Filip, who had just been confirmed as deputy US attorney general, on behalf of Epstein seeking the DOJ to drop the case.  Filip had been a partner with Starr at the law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Ultimately, then-U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and future Trump Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta agreed to a plea deal in which Epstein pleaded guilty to two state felony prostitution charges and gave him a non-prosecution agreement in 2008.  Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to one count in state court and was given an 18-month work-release sentence that allowed him to spend up to 14 hours per day outside of jail.  (Acosta was later reprimanded by the DOJ inspector general for a “sweetheart deal” given to Epstein.)

Starr, who resigned as chancellor of Baylor University in 2016 after he worked to suppress campus sexual assault and rape accusations by female students, went on to represent Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial.  Starr also wrote a letter of support in 2013 to a Potomac, Maryland private school in support of a 74-year-old retire teacher who was accused of molesting five girls when they were students at the school.