Rene Alexander Acosta (born January 16, 1969) is an American lawyer and government official who served as the 27th United States secretary of labor from 2017 to 2019 during the first presidency of Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, Acosta had previously served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. He had also served as dean of the Florida International University College of Law.

As the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida in 2007–08, Acosta oversaw a federal investigation into possible sex trafficking crimes by financier Jeffrey Epstein that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement under which Epstein pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges under Florida state law and received only a 13-month prison sentence. The agreement, which granted immunity from federal prosecution and extended immunity to potential co-conspirators, drew renewed scrutiny in 2019 after Epstein’s arrest in New York on federal sex trafficking charges. Acosta defended the agreement as a strategic decision to secure a conviction amid concerns about trial risk, but it was widely criticized as unusually lenient. Facing bipartisan criticism, Acosta resigned as Secretary of Labor in July 2019.

After leaving public office, Acosta entered the private sector and in March 2025 joined the board of directors of Newsmax, where he chairs the audit committee.

Acosta was born on January 16, 1969, in Miami, the only son of Cuban immigrants. He grew up in Miami, where he attended the Gulliver Schools. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Harvard University in 1990, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from university. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Harvard Latino Law Review and graduated in 1994 with a Juris Doctor, cum laude.

After law school, Acosta was a law clerk to Samuel Alito, then a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, from 1994 to 1995. He then entered private practice as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis, where he specialized in labor and employment matters. While in Washington, Acosta taught classes on employment law, disability-based discrimination law, and civil rights law at the George Mason University School of Law. Acosta was a member of the Board of Trustees of Gulliver Schools, where he served a past term as board chairman.

Acosta served in four presidentially appointed, U.S. Senate-confirmed positions in the George W. Bush administration. From December 2001 to December 2002, he served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. From December 2002 to August 2003, he was a member of the National Labor Relations Board for which he participated in or authored more than 125 opinions.

Then, he became Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division on August 22, 2003, where he was known for increasing federal prosecutions against human trafficking. Acosta authorized Federal intervention in an Oklahoma religious liberties case to help assure the right to wear hijab in public school, and worked with Mississippi authorities to reopen the investigation of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black youth whose abduction and murder helped spark the civil rights movement. He was the first Hispanic to serve as Assistant Attorney General.

While leading the Civil Rights Division, Acosta allowed his predecessor, Bradley Schlozman, to continue to make decisions on hiring. A report by the inspector general and the Office of Professional Responsibility later found that Schlozman illegally gave preferential treatment to conservatives and made false statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Those findings were relayed to the office of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, but Schlozman was not prosecuted. While it put the primary responsibility on Schlozman, the report also concluded that Acosta "did not sufficiently supervise Schlozman" and that "in light of indications [he and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sheldon Bradshaw] had about Schlozman's conduct and judgment, they failed to ensure that Schlozman's hiring and personnel decisions were based on proper considerations."