CABINET/LABOR/LEGAL/SEX ABUSE/TRUMP PEOPLE “Labor Secretary R. Alexander Acosta on Tuesday [7-9-19] faced fresh calls to resign, and rising pressure from inside the Trump administration, over his role in brokering a lenient plea deal over sex crimes for the New York financier Jeffrey E. Epstein as a federal prosecutor in Miami more than a decade ago. Mr. Acosta, 50, said this week that the plea agreement, in which Mr. Epstein served 13 months in jail after being accused of sexually abusing dozens of young women and girls, was the toughest deal available in a complex and difficult case. The prosecution, he said, would have stood a far better chance of succeeding in the state courts — the same argument he has been making for years…That is not likely to satisfy critics, who have long contended that Mr. Epstein should have faced a far harsher charge than a single count in state court of soliciting prostitution from a minor. The unusual arrangement reached with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office allowed Mr. Epstein to leave the county stockade six days a week to go to work. His jail sentence was for 18 months, but he was released five months early.”
–Glenn Thrush and Patricia Mazzei, “Labor Secretary Acosta Faces Calls to Resign Over Epstein Case,” The New York Times online, July 9, 2019