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<\/a>Andrew Harrer\/GETTY<\/p><\/div>\n
Liz Mair
\nDaily Beast<\/p>\n
Have you heard about the latest scandal engulfing the Trump administration? No, I\u2019m not talking about the president\u2019s efforts to extend his property empire to Russia, and his routine bottom-kissing of Vladimir Putin. I mean the scandal that should by rights be generating even more shock and condemnation: the one involving his Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta.<\/p>\n
If you don\u2019t know the entirety of the disgusting, vile details, that won\u2019t be surprising. They are actually so sordid\u2014both where Acosta\u2019s own alleged actions and those of the criminal he should have done far, far more to bust are concerned\u2014that TV news cannot properly cover them without likely violating broadcast decency standards.<\/p>\n
The Miami Herald<\/em>\u00a0has done a great service to God and country by reporting on this very large skeleton in Acosta\u2019s closet, though\u2014and frankly every American voter should go read the paper\u2019s\u00a0expose<\/a>\u00a0now. Then American voters should demand Acosta\u2019s head immediately.<\/p>\n Since the\u00a0Herald<\/em> first published its piece delving into Acosta\u2019s ethically inexplicable decision to go super, super, duper-easy on pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the labor secretary has apparently been taken out of the running for two potentially big jobs he\u2019d love to have. The first is attorney general (where an actual nominee, as opposed to an unconstitutional \u201cacting attorney general\u201d is desperately needed).<\/p>\n The second is judge on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, a job that Acosta has reportedly had his eye on for quite some time. Earlier this year, Bloomberg\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that there was \u201cwidespread discussion\u201d that Acosta was \u201cbiding his time for a spot on the federal bench,\u201d specifically that circuit, and that he was taking a \u201crisk-averse approach\u201d at Labor in order to enhance or protect his chances of being confirmable.<\/p>\n Quite why Acosta would feel he ever earned or otherwise deserves such a job, in view of his egregious mishandling of the Epstein situation, is a mystery. But clearly, making it to the bench in this capacity was a personal goal\u2014and he probably had higher ambitions even than that (what Circuit Court judge wouldn\u2019t ultimately like to some day be nominated for the Supreme Court?). Now, the truth is, based on what we currently know and in the absence of some seriously exculpatory evidence, he should not be serving as secretary of Labor, either.<\/p>\n Many think of the labor secretary\u2019s job as mostly dealing with union-versus-management issues. But the labor secretary also has other important jobs, among them \u201ccombating international child labor, forced labor, and human trafficking.\u201d That is according to the Department of Labor\u2019s own\u00a0website<\/a>, which also notes that \u201cGlobal estimates\u2026 indicate that 152 million children between the ages of 5 to 17 engaged in child labor in 2016,\u201d and that \u201cChild laborers are\u2026 subject to trafficking for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, Acosta seems to have knowledge of these matters, but it\u2019s not the kind the people who wrote those words on the department\u2019s web site had in mind. If you read the\u00a0Herald<\/em>\u2019s story, Jeffrey Epstein wasn\u2019t a bad guy just because he was a pedophile (and it\u2019s hard to find a worse thing to be than that). It was also because he was trafficking in young girls, and effectively running a ring in which girls he had already exploited recruited others in a de facto pyramid scheme of sickness, perversion, and destroyed lives.<\/p>\n Based on what we currently know\u2014and it\u2019s a lot\u2014Acosta gave him barely a slap on the wrist. Given the scope of Epstein\u2019s apparent activity, and the Department of Labor\u2019s responsibilities, there is a grievous mismatch here. Pretty clearly, the 60 senators who voted to confirm Acosta back in 2017 were nowhere near clued in on what he had done, or failed to do, in this case. Up until last week, very, very few of us were.<\/p>\n How many of us knew that 80 or more girls\u2014most between the ages of 13 to 16\u2014 were abused by Epstein, that detectives\u00a0were<\/a>\u00a0\u201castonished by the sheer volume of young girls coming and going from his house, the frequency \u2014 sometimes several in the same day,\u201d or that Epstein has \u201ctaken the Fifth\u201d more than 200 times in the course of depositions in lawsuits brought by his victims?<\/p>\n How many of us knew that Epstein\u2019s crimes\u00a0likely extended<\/a>\u00a0beyond Florida, to New York and New Mexico and that he was\u00a0allegedly running<\/a>\u00a0a modeling agency to recruit victims as young as 13 from Europe and Latin America? Acosta did; his actions have since been\u00a0compared<\/a> to those of the Catholic Church with regard to shielding pedophile priests.<\/p>\n Not only did Acosta cut a plea deal with Epstein allowing him to serve just 13 months in county jail under about the most lenient conditions conceivable rather than the potentially-on-offer rest-of-his-life-in-federal-prison. Acosta also allegedly \u201cconspired with Epstein and his lawyers to circumvent public scrutiny<\/a>\u201d and\u00a0hampered<\/a>\u00a0victims from exercising their rights to receive notice of court proceedings and appear at Epstein\u2019s sentencing.<\/p>\n You can argue that what is needed now is a full investigation beyond that effectively conducted by\u00a0The Miami Herald<\/em>. That is fair; Congress exists in part to provide oversight of the executive branch and its key players, and while the Department of Labor isn\u2019t one of the integral parts of the administration (it does not deal in, say, national security), when its leadership is engulfed in this level of scandal, that should indeed be investigated by our elected officials in the legislative branch. However, the investigation shouldn\u2019t be needed for Acosta to go; it should be done whether or not he goes.<\/p>\n And let\u2019s be clear: Go, he should. His starring role in the Epstein mess means that he has no business heading up a department with forced labor, child exploitation and human trafficking responsibilities. At best, the scandal shows he\u2019s na\u00efve, overawed-by-the-rich-and-powerful, a light touch where people who should be harshly punished are concerned. At worst, it possibly shows he\u2019s a crooked, possibly morally compromised, power-prestige-and-titles hungry tool who can and will be bought off if it simplifies his career progression\u2014and that his career is what matters, not public service.<\/p>\n You can argue over whether we should have a right-wing, union-hating Labor secretary, or a left-wing, union-coddling one. But no one should be arguing that someone with the level of sub-par ethics that Acosta has surely evidenced here is the right man to head any government department, let alone this specific one.<\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting to want to focus all ethical critiques this week narrowly on the President, his family, and his political and business entourage that clearly, whatever the motivation, has been willing to be far too cozy with and soft on Vladimir Putin and his regime. But the biggest ethical scandal afflicting the federal government right now is only tangentially Trump\u2019s, insofar as he nominated and is now served by Acosta, a man whose time should now be up\u2014and who Trump, frankly, should be demanding exit stage right for both principled and political reasons.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAcosta’s starring role in the Epstein mess
\nmeans that he has no business heading up
\na Department with forced labor, child
\nexploitation and human trafficking
\nresponsibilities.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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