The FBI was ready to arrest Jeffrey Epstein in 2007 while he was judging a beauty pageant in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but missed out on the chance to nab the serial sexual predator because the federal prosecutor on the case wanted to “take his time.”

A few months later, that prosecutor secretly offered Epstein a now-infamous sweetheart deal that kept him out of federal prison and allowed him to serve just 13 months in a jail, with weekend releases…

The missed opportunity in the Virgin Islands left the FBI’s supervisory special agent “extremely upset.”

It also irked Marie Villafaña, who was the lead prosecutor in the Florida investigation of Epstein. She had “intended to file charges by May 15, 2007 and the FBI planned to arrest Epstein immediately thereafter,” Fox News reported. But Villafaña was unable to get authorization from Acosta for an indictment.