Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s time in the Trump administration may be growing short, thanks to a highly controversial plea-deal he orchestrated a decade ago for registered sex-offender and newly indicted financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein was charged Monday in New York federal court for alleged sexual misconduct involving underage girls.
It’s the second time Epstein has faced such charges: in 2008 he pleaded guilty to a charge in Florida of soliciting prostitution from a 16-year-old girl.
But in an investigative series last fall, the Miami Herald said accusations against Epstein at that time included running a “cult-like network of underage girls” as young as 14 at his Palm Beach mansion.
Epstein could have gone to prison for life — but in the plea agreement worked out by Acosta, a U.S. attorney in South Florida at the time, he wound up serving just 13 months in a county jail, and was allowed to leave the lockup for up to 12 hours, six days a week, to work at his own office.
Tuesday on Twitter, Acosta defended himself and attacked Epstein, reports Politico.
“The crimes committed by Epstein are horrific, and I am pleased that NY prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence,” Acosta wrote.
Unnamed White House officials told the Washington Post that President Trump “has no immediate plan to force out or fire Acosta,” and Bloomberg cites White House adviser Kellyanne Conway as saying “the labor secretary still enjoys Trump’s support.”
In a tweet Monday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called on Acosta to step down, adding that the plea deal Acosta negotiated for Epstein “was known by @POTUS when he appointed him to the cabinet.”
And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called on Trump to fire Acosta if he won’t resign.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who has said previously that Acosta should resign, renewed her demand on Monday.
“You would hope we would have a president that would care about making sure his secretary of labor didn’t have a terrible smudge like this on his record,” Wasserman told the Post.
“Several Republican members of Congress, however, said … they supported Acosta or were reserving judgment about [him] pending the Justice Department inquiry,” the Post says.
Yet the strain on Acosta appears certain to grow as prosecutors scrutinize Epstein’s recent behavior.
“The indictment unsealed Monday could be just the beginning,” says Bloomberg. “One former administration official said Acosta will face increasing pressure as more documents are revealed in the Epstein case, particularly if they shed new light on what Acosta knew at the time of the [2008] plea deal.”
White House officials “are nervous that Democrats will encourage women allegedly abused by Epstein to testify publicly before Congress, drawing attention to Acosta’s work on the plea deal,” says the Post.
Although the Trump Organization now claims Trump has “no relationship” with Epstein, in 2002 he told New York Magazine that “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy … a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” the Post reports.
