Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, has resigned following criticism of his handling of a 2008 plea deal with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Trump announced the news on Friday with Acosta by his side at the White House. “Alex Acosta is a great secretary of labor,” Trump said. “I hate to see this happen.” He said he did not ask Acosta to leave the cabinet.
Acosta becomes the latest in a long line of high-profile officials to resign their post. The Trump administration holds the record for the highest turnover of cabinet and White House staff. He said his resignation would be effective in seven days.
Acosta said he did not think it was right for his handling of Epstein’s case to distract from his work as secretary of labor.
“I called the president this morning and told him I thought the right thing was to step aside,” Acosta said, adding that “it would be selfish for me to stay in this position and continue talking about case that’s 12 years old rather than the amazing economy we have right now”.
Acosta was the US attorney in Miami when he oversaw a non-prosecution agreement for Epstein in 2008, which secretly ended a federal sex abuse investigation involving at least 40 teenage girls that could have landed him behind bars for life.
Epstein instead pleaded guilty to state charges and was jailed for 13 months – though he was allowed to leave during the day to work at his luxury office. He paid settlements to victims and is a registered sex offender.
Fresh charges of sex trafficking filed this week against Epstein by federal prosecutors in New York had put Acosta’s role in the 2008 deal under renewed scrutiny. The charges were brought following an investigation by the Miami Herald.
He is accused of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of underage girls from 2002 to 2005 at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida.
The indictment charges that Epstein “enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, minor girls” to “engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash”.
Top Democratic lawmakers and presidential candidates demanded that Acosta resign over his handling of the 2008 plea deal, which a federal judge has said violated federal law because Acosta did not notify Epstein’s victims of the arrangement. The justice department is undertaking an investigation.
Acosta was further criticised for leading efforts to dramatically cut labor department budgets dedicated to combating human trafficking.
Acosta had attempted to clear his name and, encouraged by Trump, held a news conference on Wednesday to defend his actions. Acosta argued his office had secured the best deal it could at the time and was working in the victims’ best interests.
“We did what we did because we wanted to see Epstein go to jail,” he said, refusing to apologize for his actions. “We believe that we proceeded appropriately.”
Pressed on whether he had any regrets, Acosta repeatedly suggested that circumstances had changed since then.
“We now have 12 years of knowledge and hindsight and we live in a very different world,” he said. “Today’s world treats victims very, very differently,” he said.
After federal attorneys in New York announced the new charges against Epstein this week, Acosta tweeted that he was “pleased” by their decision.
“Now that new evidence and additional testimony is available, the NY prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice,” he said.
Epstein, a well-connected financier, was known for socializing with politicians and royalty, with friends who have included Trump, Bill Clinton and, according to court papers, Prince Andrew. None of those people was mentioned in the New York indictment.
“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years,” Trump said in a 2002 New York magazine article. “Terrific guy. 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.”
Trump has since tried to distance himself from Epstein.
Announcing Acosta’s resignation, he said: “Yes, I did have a falling out a long time ago. The reason doesn’t make any difference … I haven’t spoken to him in 15 years or more. I wasn’t a big fan of Jeffrey Epstein, that I can tell you.”
Acosta took on the role of labor secretary officially in early 2017, leading a sprawling agency that enforces more than 180 federal laws covering about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. He was confirmed in the Senate 60-38.
But Acosta had frustrated some conservatives who had been pushing for his ouster long before the Epstein uproar. Among their frustrations were Acosta’s decisions to proceed with several employment discrimination lawsuits and to allow certain Obama holdovers to remain on the job.
Associated Press contributed to this report