Background check flops
Acosta, Shanahan cases reflect poor vetting
The resignation last week of Alex Acosta, the U. S. labor secretary, was a necessary step. The Labor Department is too important to be distracted by questions about how Mr. Acosta handled a 2008 plea deal in a sex trafficking case involving financier Jeffrey Epstein.
However, the controversies that led to Mr. Acosta’s departure and that of acting Defense Secretary Pat Shanahan a month ago underscore the need for better vetting of Cabinetlevel officials. Perhaps the person in charge of vetting the Trump administration’s nominees should be the next to go.
Mr. Acosta is a former law school dean, U. S. attorney, assistant attorney general and banker, but it was his stint on the National Labor Relations Board that best prepared him to become labor secretary in 2017. In what seemed like a breath of fresh air, the Senate confirmed him with a bipartisan 60- 38 vote. The previous nominee, Andrew Puzder, the former CEO of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurant chains, had bowed out amid questions about his commitment to fair pay and working conditions.
Mr. Acosta was a moderate force in the Labor Department, but his past caught up with him last week.
After federal authorities on July 6 charged Epstein with sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, questions surfaced about lenient treatment in the earlier case.
It involved sex trafficking of minors, too, but Epstein ended up pleading guilty to reduced charges — two state counts of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mr. Acosta, then U. S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, personally had a hand in negotiating the deal.
Epstein had to register as a sex offender, and he served 13 months under a work- release program that let him go to the office for 12 hours a day. If he had been convicted of the more serious charges federal authorities prepared, he could have spent the rest of his life behind bars. Instead, after 13 months, he resumed his jetsetting lifestyle.
Mr. Acosta defended his handling of the case during his confirmation hearings and again after the latest charges were filed. While it’s difficult to go back in time and analyze the behindthe- scenes decisions any prosecutor makes, Mr. Acosta’s conduct is troubling. He would have spent too much time defending himself had he remained in office, so resigning was the responsible move.
His departure came about a month after Mr. Shanahan announced that he was stepping down because of revelations about a nine- year- old domestic dispute with his wife. Mr. Shanahan took over the Defense Department after Secretary Jim Mattis’ resignation Jan. 1, and he was President Donald Trump’s pick to take over the role permanently. Now, the department is run by another acting secretary, Richard Spencer.
The vetting process for Cabinet nominees should be as least as rigorous as that for federal law enforcement and intelligence positions. But it’s full of holes if controversial sex cases and serious domestic disputes either go unnoticed or fail to raise red flags.
Because of his personal foibles, Mr. Trump sometimes needs to be saved from himself. That’s all the more reason to ensure that people considered for top posts in his administration have the background and personality to serve.