by Fred Lucas
Unable to put to rest questions of his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, Labor Secretary Alex Acosta resigned Friday after serving more than two years in the position.
“A Cabinet position is a temporary trust. I must set aside a part of me that wants to continue my service with thousands of talented professionals at the Department of Labor,” Acosta says in the letter to President Donald Trump. “Therefore, I am offering, and wish for you to accept, my resignation as the United States Secretary of Labor effective one week from today.”
Deputy secretary Patrick Pizzella will serve as the acting secretary of labor after Acosta exits next week, Trump said.
On Monday, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Epstein, a 66-year-old billionaire financier, with the sex trafficking of dozens of young girls, some as young as 14.
In 2008, Epstein reached a deal with federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, run by then U.S. Attorney Acosta at the time, that allowed Epstein to avoid federal prosecution in a case involving multiple charges of sexual abuse, in exchange for pleading guilty in a Florida state court to charges of procuring a minor for prostitution and felony solicitation.
Epstein was placed on the sex offender registry and served just 13 months in county jail, despite an agreement on an 18-month sentence. Epstein was allowed to leave the lockup daily for work release.
In a press conference Wednesday, Acosta answered questions for almost an hour about the case. He explained that his team of federal prosecutors intervened in the case because Florida state prosecutors were about to give Epstein a plea deal to allow the billionaire to elude jail and the sex offender registry. Acosta stressed that the U.S. attorney’s office single goal was to ensure Epstein got jail time and would be on the sex offender registry so others would be aware of his crimes.
Epstein was known for being politically well connected as a major Democratic donor, and associate of former President Bill Clinton.
When departing from the White House Friday, Trump told reporters, “I want to thank Alex Acosta. He was a great great secretary.”
Trump added that Acosta has been a “great labor secretary not a good one.”
Democratic lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York, demanded Acosta’s resignation or firing.
In his letter to Trump, Acosta cited the strong economy and good conditions for workers in the United States.
“We have millions of new jobs, fewer injuries and fatalities on the job, record low unemployment, less regulation and a new-family sustaining career opportunity for the future,” Acosta wrote.
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Fred Lucas is the White House correspondent for The Daily Signal and co-host of “The Right Side of History” podcast. Lucas is also the author of “Tainted by Suspicion: The Secret Deals and Electoral Chaos of Disputed Presidential Elections.”
Background Photo “Department of Labor Building” by AgnosticPreachersKid. CC BY-SA 3.0.
[…] arrangement, crafted in part by former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resulted in Acosta’s resignation from the Trump […]
[…] arrangement, crafted in part by former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resulted in Acosta’s resignation from the Trump […]
[…] arrangement, crafted in part by former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta resulted in Acosta’s resignation from the Trump […]
Acosta should resign. His enabling Epstein to get off easily for the serious offence of trafficking under aged persons for purpose of illicit sex and for sexual assault raises serious doubts about his integrity.
With that said, one question continues to nag me about the Epstein case: the media expose’ about him came only shortly after the expose’ of a far more ugly case of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse of migrant children in Border detention camps run by ICE and the privatized Core Civic Corporation. You can forgive me if, in the back of my mind, I think that the Epstein case was designed as a diversionary tactic by the main stream media to focus attention away from the suffering of migrant children and infants in the hands of racist and perverted ICE officials. Perhaps if the so-called law ‘n’ order and so-called victims’ rights groups can focus attention away from sex crimes being committed by ICE and private prisons against children and infants by dealing with the high-profile Epstein cases (bad in and of themselves) that the national and international community will forget about horrible human rights abuses being committed by our own government against helpless migrant infants, children, and their detained parents. Apparently it’s okay for ICE and privatized custodial staff to do to children what would be rightfully considered a crime when a private citizen like Epstein commits such horrible offenses.
The coverage of Epstein is also causing people to forget that decades of bad U.S. foreign policy towards Mexico and Central America has led to this mess. We have caused disasterous climate change that have destroyed crops there, supported dictators and gangs that force people there to flee to the U.S. borders. In other words, the same people who hate Hispanic immigrants are the same people who drove from their home countries in the first place!
The Epstein story effectively covers this horrible abuse that our country has committed.