Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta has broken his silence after mounting criticism over his secret 2007 plea deal with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta sent a series of tweets on Tuesday, saying he is “pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence” against Epstein and that this now offers “an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice.” “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,” he wrote.

Both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have called on Acosta to resign over his involvement in the plea deal previously given to Epstein, which kept Epstein’s victims in the dark and allowed him to work from his office six days a week. Acosta, who was a federal prosecutor at the time, helped broker a deal that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution. A federal judge ruled in February that the deal was unconstitutional. The deal rose to prominence after Epstein’s arrest on Saturday for allegedly sex trafficking dozens of minors between 2002 and 2005.