Tag: alex acosta
Donald Trump

Trump Weirdly Offers Warm Wishes For Epstein’s Accused Procurer

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

President Donald Trump horrified many viewers of his Tuesday coronavirus briefing — filled with many lies and distortions about the ongoing pandemic — when he was asked about the fate of Ghislaine Maxwell.

The longtime girlfriend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, who was believed to have engaged in decades of sex trafficking and abuse of young girls, is now in federal custody. She faces multiple charges of participating in sex trafficking with Epstein, who was also a friend of the president before they reportedly had a falling out.

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Trump Nominates Eugene Scalia, Anti-Labor Lawyer, As Labor Secretary

Trump Nominates Eugene Scalia, Anti-Labor Lawyer, As Labor Secretary

Continuing with his “fox guarding the henhouse” Cabinet secretary philosophy, Trump has nominated attorney Eugene Scalia, a son of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, to head the Department of Labor.

In his tweet announcing the nomination, Trump referred to Scalia as “a lawyer with great experience working with labor and everyone else.” That couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The only real experience the younger Scalia has “working with labor” is undermining workers in favor of corporations. As the New York Timenoted, “Scalia has a long record of representing Walmart and other companies that pushed back against unions and tougher labor laws.” Walmart brought Scalia aboard when they were accused of firing corporate whistleblowers.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) noted the nomination of Scalia highlights the utter falsehood of Trump’s ostensibly pro-worker stance. With Scalia, “Trump has again chosen someone who has proven to put corporate interests over those of worker rights. Workers and union members who believed candidate Trump when he campaigned as pro-worker should feel betrayed,” Schumer said.

Scalia worked in the Department of Labor in the George W. Bush administration, but for the last several years he has been an attorney in the private sector at Gibson Dunn. On his profile page at the firm, he details several of his significant litigation wins, and they’re all distinctly anti-labor. For example, he beat the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in a case where the EEOC argued that telecommuting was a reasonable accommodation for a disability. He also bragged about “vacat[ing] the largest [Americans with Disabilities Act] class ever certified.”

As much as Scalia is an enemy of labor, he is a friend to big banks. Mother Jones profiled Scalia in 2014, when he was at the height of his crusade against the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act. Dodd-Frank was passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It increased regulatory oversight for big banks and other parts of the financial sector, and established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Of course, Republicans hated Dodd-Frank, and Scalia has been their go-to lawyer to undermine the law. Mother Jones described him as a “one-man scourge to the reformers who won a hard-fought battle” to pass the legislation.

Scalia replaces the embattled Alex Acosta, who is stepping down over his role in giving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal. Conservative Republicans were happy to see Acosta go. That isn’t because they felt his actions regarding Epstein were repulsive but because they found Acosta insufficiently enthusiastic about gutting labor protections.

They’ll certainly have no such complaint about Scalia.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Despite Copious Evidence, Trump Denies Knowing Sex Offender Epstein

Despite Copious Evidence, Trump Denies Knowing Sex Offender Epstein

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

President Donald Trump denied through a lawyer that he had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who was arrested over the weekend on charges of sex trafficking, the Washington Post reported on Monday. But that contradicts persuasive evidence that they were, indeed, friends.

Perhaps most damning are Trump’s own words, as quoted in a New York magazine article in 2002. Since he was not yet president at the time, and Epstein hadn’t yet faced these charges, Trump can hardly claim that a reporter at the time was trying to contrive a fake relationship between him and the financier. The quote has been making the rounds not only because it shows the friendship between the president and Epstein in the middle of the period in which the alleged trafficking of minors occurred, but because it suggests that Trump may have been aware of the criminal behavior:

“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump booms from a speakerphone. “He’s 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. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

The Post also details a slew of additional “clear evidence” — including testimony by those who knew of their relationship and reports that say Epstein had numerous phone numbers connected to Trump in a contact book.

Asked in February about Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s role in the case, Trump also pleaded ignorance and suggested he knew little about the Epstein case. (Acosta was the U.S. attorney who worked on the lenient and controversial plea deal Epstein received when he first faced these charges. A judge recently ruled that the fact that victims weren’t informed about the plea deal violated the law.)

“I really don’t know too much about it,” Trump said in February. “I know he’s done a great job as labor secretary, and that seems like a long time ago, but I know he’s been a fantastic labor secretary. That’s all I can really tell you about it. That’s all I know about it.”

But these claims to ignorance are also apparently contradicted by another aspect of the Post’s report:

Brad Edwards, an attorney who has represented some of Epstein’s alleged victims, said he sought out Trump in 2009, seeking to interview Epstein’s acquaintances.

“Trump was “the only person who picked up the phone and said, ‘Let’s just talk. I’ll give you as much time as you want. I’ll tell what you need to know,’ ” Edwards said in a 2018 interview on YouTube.

In that interview, Edwards said Trump “was very helpful in the information that he gave and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever.” Edwards said he never took Trump’s deposition.

Edwards on Monday declined to elaborate on the assistance Trump gave.
It’s not just Trump who had ties to Epstein. Another president, Bill Clinton, had been reported to have flown in Epstein’s private jet. Clinton isn’t denying the existence of the relationship, though in a statement from a spokesperson on Monday, he tried to minimize the connection:
President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. He had one meeting with Epstein in his Harlem office in 2002, and around the same time made one brief visit to Epstein’s New York apartment with a staff member and his security detail. He’s not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade, and has never been to Little St. James Island, Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico, or his residence in Florida.
Judge: Labor Secretary Acosta Broke Law In Pedophile Plea Deal

Judge: Labor Secretary Acosta Broke Law In Pedophile Plea Deal

On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s secretary of labor, Alex Acosta, violated the law when he facilitated a lenient plea deal for a serial child sexual predator. But as of now, Trump isn’t planning to fire Acosta. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump is “looking into” the matter and that is “not aware of any changes” in Trump’s confidence in Acosta.

The ruling stems from a 2007 plea deal that Acosta, then a U.S. attorney, struck with Jeffrey Epstein, a Florida billionaire accused of molesting — and in at least one case, raping — more than 80 young women and underage girls. The case received renewed attention after a blockbuster investigation by the Miami Herald late last year uncovered the extent to which Acosta bent over backward to go easy on a child molester.

Under the terms of the deal Acosta negotiated, Epstein served only 13 months in county jail on two reduced charges of soliciting prostitution.

Now, as head of the Labor Department, Acosta is in charge of U.S. policy regarding sex trafficking.

District Judge Kenneth A. Marra ruled Acosta violated the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, a law giving victims the right to know about significant events in their cases. While Acosta and his team spent hours and hours working on the plea deal with Epstein, he kept Epstein’s victims in the dark. According to the judge, Acosta and his fellow prosecutors tried “to conceal the existence” of the plea deal “and mislead the victims to believe that federal prosecution was still a possibility.”

While the case and allegations are horrific, Trump has long known Epstein and had nothing but wonderful things to say about him in the past.

In 2002, Trump called Epstein “terrific guy,” and “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,” Trump added.

Trump’s refusal to fire Acosta for being lenient on a child rapist fits a disturbing pattern regarding Trump’s view of women survivors of sexual abuse. Trump enthusiastically embraced Roy Moore in a 2017 Senate race, even after Moore was credibly accused of being a child predator. The following year, Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, and defended him after credible allegations surfaced that he once attempted to rape someone at a high school party.

Then again, Trump himself bragged about being a serial sexual predator, laughing about “grabbing women by the pussy” and getting away with it.

After the Miami Herald investigation, more than a dozen lawmakers sent a letter to the Department of Justice demanding an investigation into the plea deal. Earlier this month, the department opened an investigation, but it will be limited in scope and led by the Office of Professional Responsibility. The Washington Post notes that the investigation may drag on so long that Alex Acosta may not be in government service by the time it concludes.

But given Trump’s reluctance to stand up for the victims of sexual exploitation, it looks like Acosta could stay in place for quite some time.

Published with permission of The American Independent.