U.S. Labor Secretary resigns after Epstein case

WASHINGTON • U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, under fire for his handling of a decade-old sex crimes case against Jeffrey Epstein as a prosecutor, said Friday he would resign, at a surprise appearance with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“I thought the right thing was to step aside,” Acosta told reporters at the White House as Trump departed for campaign fundraisers in the Midwest. “It would be selfish for me to stay in this position.”

He said in a letter to Trump that his resignation will be effective July 19. Trump said Acosta’s deputy, Patrick Pizzella, would be named acting secretary of the department.

“Your agenda, putting the American people first, must avoid any distractions,” Acosta wrote to Trump. “I must set aside a part of me that wants to continue my service with the thousands of talented professionals at the Department of Labor.”

Acosta faced sudden, heightened scrutiny of his dealings with Epstein after federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced Monday they had indicted the financier for additional sex crimes. As the top federal prosecutor in south Florida in 2007 and 2008, Acosta signed off on a lenient plea deal with Epstein that allowed him to resolve earlier charges by serving just 13 months in a county jail and registering as a sex offender. He could have spent the rest of his life in federal prison.

The Manhattan prosecutors said they were charging Epstein for crimes he committed outside Florida, and that they aren’t bound by Acosta’s plea deal. In the latest case, Epstein has been charged with trafficking girls as young as 14 for sex.

Acosta said Wednesday in a news conference that Epstein would have escaped jail time had his office not been involved in the earlier case. But his performance at the news conference was criticized. Acosta repeatedly refused to offer an apology to Epstein’s victims, who didn’t know about the plea deal while it was negotiated.

Trump said he thought Acosta did “a great job” in the news conference.

“In so many ways I hate what he’s saying now because we’re going to miss him,” Trump said. He said he had told Acosta he didn’t have to resign.

“I do not think it’s right or fair for this administration’s Labor Department to have Epstein as the focus,” Acosta said.

Trump also further distanced himself from Epstein, a former associate who has a home in Palm Beach, where the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located. Trump said he had a “falling-out” with Epstein but declined to explain the circumstances.

Alexander Acosta