WASHINGTON — Ex-Miami US Attorney Alex Acosta on Friday blamed everything from “evidentiary issues” to uncooperative witnesses for an infamous plea deal that gave Jeffrey Epstein about a year in prison for a prostitution rap in the mid-2000s.

Acosta admitted to a House panel he felt “remorse’’ that most of that 13-month sentence was also spent on work release after state prosecutors provided assurances to his office that they wouldn’t let the wealthy pedophile walk. 

But he pointed to issues in gathering evidence, as well as cooperation from the victims, for the controversial agreement — while highlighting how it still forced Epstein to register as a sex offender — during a six-hour grilling before the panel.

Acosta testified to the House Oversight Committee that prosecutors in his Miami office struggled with the task of intervening in the state-level case, which had resulted in just one felony charge, according to lawmakers and staff from both parties.

“One of the things that Mr. Acosta has implied is that in talking with some of the victims, there were some that gave answers that weren’t consistent with others,” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters during a break in the interview. “Some wanted to cooperate, some didn’t.”

Due to the “weaknesses” of the case presenting a challenge of getting a guilty verdict at the federal level, the US attorney’s office chose instead to seek a negotiated plea with Epstein’s lawyers, according to Republican and Democratic lawmakers.

“Mr. Acosta expressed concern that if the case had gone to trial and prosecutors lost, it would have sent the message that Epstein had escaped accountability and could continue committing offenses,” also stated a readout of the testimony also provided by staff for the Republican majority.

The lead prosecutor on the case at the time had also cited “evidentiary issues that could jeopardize a conviction if the case went to trial,” the testimony readout noted.

That prosecutor, Assistant US Attorney Marie Villafaña, said in a 2017 statement about the case: “I believed and still believe that a negotiated resolution of the matter was in the best interests of the [USAO] and the victims as a whole.”

Acosta’s lawyer said in a statement that his client affirmed “with today’s knowledge, the 2006 prosecution would have been handled differently, as far more is known about Epstein now than nearly two decades ago.”

“The Palm Beach State Attorney’s originally proposed resolution — no jail time or sex offender registration — was unacceptable to Mr. Acosta and his team,” added the attorney Jeffrey Neiman. “Mr. Acosta made clear that everyone at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including himself, believed the victims.

“During today’s testimony, Mr. Acosta took responsibility for approving the final resolution, admitting that relying on the state system was a mistake,” Neiman also said, adding that Epstein’s sentencing and sex offender registry sent “a message to the community that Epstein’s conduct was unacceptable.”

Members of both parties on the Oversight Committee referred to the result as a “sweetheart deal,” with Democrats railing against the “deeply flawed” federal intervention and accusing Acosta of being involved in a “cover up” to benefit President Trump, a former close associate of Epstein.

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the panel, said Acosta “stood by those decisions and would not claim any responsibility to the victims and in fact said … he had no knowledge of what happened to those victims even to this day,” Garcia said, noting than many Epstein “went on to abuse.”

“It is our understanding from the victims’ attorneys that there were at least 40 minors who gave sworn statements to the FBI — as part of the investigation, before a decision was made in this case — that they had been raped, abused, and trafficked,” added Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).

Neiman shared that Acosta had “viewed the survivors’ recent press conference and told the Committee they were courageous, confident, and eloquent” and “expressed regret that the US Attorney’s Office’s communication with the victims was not more forthright.”

Palm Beach Police Department detectives had referred the case to the FBI after State’s Attorney Barry Krischer brought the single prostitution count in 2006, claiming the indictment didn’t include “the totality of Epstein’s conduct,” according to a 2020 Department of Justice review.

Acosta’s prosecutors ended up crafting a non-prosecution agreement that required Epstein to register as a sex offender, plead guilty to the prostitution charge and another charge of soliciting a minor for sex.