Nation & World Glance
Trump defends Acosta but will look into Epstein plea deal
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would be looking “very closely” at Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s handling of a sex trafficking case involving now-jailed billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein. But he also seemed to stand by his Cabinet official, praising Acosta’s performance on the job and saying he felt “very badly” for him.
As for Epstein, Trump — who had once praised the financier as “a terrific guy” — distanced himself from the hedge-fund manager now charged with abusing minors, saying the two had had a falling-out 15 or so years ago. “I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” Trump said.
His comments came as a parade of Democratic presidential contenders and party leaders demanded that Acosta, a former federal prosecutor in south Florida, resign or be fired over his role in a secret 2008 plea deal that let Epstein avoid federal prosecution after allegations he molested teenage girls.
Epstein pleaded not guilty on Monday to new child sex-trafficking charges. Federal prosecutors in New York accuse him of abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them at his homes in Florida and New York. He could face up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Trump repeatedly praised Acosta, calling him a “really great secretary of labor” and “very good” at his job. He suggested it’s not unusual to find past mistakes if you look hard enough.
Judge blocks government lawyers from quitting census fight
NEW YORK — The Justice Department can’t replace nine lawyers so late in the dispute over whether to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census without explaining why they are doing so, a judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman, who earlier this year ruled against adding the citizenship question, put the brakes on the government’s plans a day after he was given a threeparagraph notification by the Justice Department along with a prediction that the replacement of lawyers won’t “cause any disruption in this matter.”
“Defendants provide no reasons, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel,” Furman wrote, noting that the most immediate deadline for government lawyers to submit written arguments in the case is only three days away.
The judge said local rules for federal courts in New York City require that any attorney requesting to leave a case provide satisfactory reasons for withdrawing. The judge must then decide what impact a lawyer’s withdrawal will have on the timing of court proceedings.
He called the Justice Department’s request “patently deficient,” except for two lawyers who have left the department or the civil division which is handling the case.
Validity of Obama health care law at issue in appeal hearing
NEW ORLEANS — With health insurance availability, cost and coverage on the line for millions of Americans, a federal appeals court seemed inclined Tuesday to rule that the core provision of President Barack Obama’s signature health care law is unconstitutional.
Two Republican-appointed judges on a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals peppered lawyers defending the law with skeptical questions, appearing to suggest they might hold that when Congress zeroed out a tax imposed by the law in 2017 it rendered unconstitutional the mandate to purchase health insurance.
It was less clear after the arguments whether the judges also would invalidate the entire health care law, as the Trump administration favors.
The hearing marked the latest development in a 2018 lawsuit by 18 Republicanleaning states claiming that the absence of a tax converts the law into an unconstitutional directive to U.S. citizens to buy a product. A lower court judge ruled in December that it did, and that the entire law must fall as a result. That includes popular provisions such as protection for pre-existing conditions.
As Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod questioned the law’s supporters — attorneys for 20 Democratic-leaning states and the House of Representatives — she said the law’s “command” that people buy insurance appeared intact without the tax penalty and she questioned the mandate’s constitutionality. Judge Kurt Engelhardt seemed to agree. And he pointedly suggested that the courts shouldn’t have to work out what parts of the law should or shouldn’t survive.
Parents of teen fatally shot by Tempe police file $5M claim
TEMPE, — The parents of a teenage boy who was fatally shot by a Tempe police officer in January have filed a $5 million notice of claim against the police department and the city.
Tempe has 60 days to respond to the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.
A city spokeswoman declined comment on the matter Tuesday, citing possible pending litigation.
The claim says 14-yearold Antonio Arce was wrongfully shot Jan. 15 while fleeing from the policeman and holding a replica gun.
Police say Officer Joseph Jaen fired twice because he thought the teen’s gun was real and perceived a threat.
Body-worn cameras show Arce didn’t appear to turn around or point a weapon at Jaen, who was responding to a vehicle burglary.
Jaen resigned from the department in May.
Caught between US and Iran, Europe struggles with diplomacy
BERLIN — France on Tuesday sent a top diplomat to Tehran to urge Iran to scale back its recently increased uranium enrichment activities, a mission underscored by a call from Europe for the Islamic Republic to return to complying with the terms of the unraveling nuclear deal “without delay.”
France, Britain and Germany, who remain a part of the 2015 nuclear accord along with Russia and China, said they planned to convene a meeting of the signatories amid “deep concern that Iran is not meeting several of its commitments.”
They said the meeting to address Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA as the deal is formally known, needed to be “convened urgently,” but they did not say when that would happen.
“Iran has stated that it wants to remain within the JCPOA,” the countries said in a statement. “It must act accordingly by reversing these activities and returning to full JCPOA compliance without delay.”
Europe is under pressure from the U.S. to abandon the accord entirely, as Washington did unilaterally last year, and it also is being squeezed by Iran to offset the ever-crippling effects of American economic sanctions.
That has left the Europeans’ soft-power approach strained to its limits at a time of increasing tensions in the Middle East.
“For the Europeans, it’s going to be difficult not to lose credibility in their position with Iran and also with Washington, by not being too soft, but at the same time acknowledging that there is some truth to what Iran is saying,” said Adnan Tabatabai, a political scientist with the Bonn-based CARPO think tank on Middle Eastern affairs.