Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta Resigns Amid Epstein Furor
photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
The head many have been calling for since the details of Jeffrey Epstein’s plea deal were first reported has finally rolled:
President Donald Trump alerted reporters this morning of Acosta’s departure. “This was him, not me,” said Trump as Acosta stood beside him.
Trump, who saw Acosta largely as a source of favorable monthly statistics about unemployment and job growth, called Acosta “a great labor secretary not a good one” and “a tremendous talent. He’s a Hispanic man, he went to Harvard, a great student.” Trump indicated that he was satisfied with Acosta’s explanation for the plea deal in Wednesday’s news conference, saying, “He explained it.”
But Acosta has had a rocky relationship in recent months with other White House officials, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, over the perceived slow pace of deregulation at the department. And one person familiar with the situation said that although Trump initially thought Acosta handled the Epstein controversy well, over the last couple of days the president saw the negative press and didn’t like it.
“POTUS is not a fan of bad press, especially when other people make him look bad,” this person said.
Acosta, a 50-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer, came newly under fire for the lenient 2008 plea deal after Epstein was re-arrested July 6 in New York City and charged with sex trafficking. Under the earlier plea agreement, Epstein served only 13 months of an 18-month term and was permitted daily furloughs to go to the office. Epstein also was required to register as a sex offender and to pay restitution to his underage victims.
At the White House this morning, Acosta told reporters: “Over the last week I’ve seen a lot of coverage of the department of labor. And what I have not seen is the incredible job creation that we’ve seen in this economy. more than 5 million jobs, I haven’t seen that…. I do not think it is right and fair for this administration’s labor department to have Epstein as the focus, rather than the incredible economy that we have today.”
If the Vox article I read is true (and who can tell anymore), Trump said that Acosta made this decision sua sponte. If that is true, he can read writing on the wall much better than Trump (no surprise) and has at least a very small sense of decency.Report
He could have been fired simply because Trump was tired of seeing Acosta’s name on the news instead of his own. Trump’s a firm believer in “No such thing as bad publicity” by all accounts.Report
I was hoping that the reference to a rolling head would refer to something like “corruption charges” and not “quit his job”.
From where I sit, he’s an accessory to whatever Epstein did after the sweet deal was made and ought to be charged as such.Report
I hope that happens, and everyone involved is punished and outed…but I fear this will be like the Heidi Fleiss thing, you get a name or two you already knew, but eventually enough pressure comes to bear it ends up disappearing to protect all but few sacrificial lambsReport
I’m pretty cynical at this point so I bet this does not go to trial (Epstein pleas and is sent somewhere very far away). Or it gets some d-listers at best. Dershowitz and Prince Andrew being the biggest names. If there are lots of rich and powerful guys implicated*, I bet it gets swept under the rug.
*Some of the victims state that they were forced to have sex with older men by Epstein and Maxwell but no names so far except Dershowitz and Prince Andrew. One of the wild theories on how Epstein got his money was by blackmailing guys by revealing that the “eighteen” year old girl they had sex with that night was really fifteen. Plus there is video/photos. If this is true, those names get swept under.Report
I am as well. As I commented, and others have said this too, I fear the comparison will be the Heidi Fleiss things where you get the initial burst but then it fades and most of the big names stay protectedReport
What we know is that a guy who has spent most of his career in government just resigned over the appearance of impropriety rather than hang on. I don’t know if he failed on the Epstein deal, or if he was corrupt, or if Trump forced him out. But he put country and/or president over career, and I respect that. This is the opposite of “deep state” thinking.Report