Acosta la Vista, Baby

Another Jeff Epstein victim has now come forward with charges against the convicted child predator.  Jennifer Araoz told NBC News about how she was recruited at 14 by an Epstein associate, groomed, and ultimately raped by Epstein at 15.

Araoz's story has been confirmed by several friends and her mother to whom she eventually confessed. Her mother attests to the drastic change in her daughter following the rape. She told NBC that she "noticed a change in her daughter's behavior and appearance around 2002," the time of the attack, when she withdrew, lost weight, and became angry. "I was really scared," the mother said. "She was so anxious but I couldn't figure out why. The anxiety got so bad that she couldn't function and I urged her to go to a doctor."

2002 was the same year that Trump told New York Magazine "I've known Jeff [Epstein] for 15 years. 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." Epstein's proclivities were apparently a joke to Trump.

And now comes new of another damning interaction between Trump and Epstein in 1992, related by George Houraney, a Florida-based businessman who ran American Dream Enterprise. Trump recruited him to provide the "entertainment" for an exclusive party at Mar-a-Lago, a "calendar girl" competition. "I arranged to have some contestants fly in," Houraney told the New York Times in an interview. "At the very first party, I said, 'Who's coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.' It was him and Epstein.   I said, 'Donald, this is supposed to be a party with V.I.P.s. You're telling me it's [just] you and Epstein?'"  

Houraney said he warned Trump about Epstein, and was blown off. "I said, 'Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can't have him going after younger girls.'" He said Trump dismissed his concerns, saying to Houraney "Look I'm putting my name on this. I wouldn't put my name on it and have a scandal." And the fact that Houraney "pretty much had to ban Jeff from my events—Trump didn't care about that." 

It should come as no surprise that our misogynist president doesn't seem to care at all about women-- now come reports that he had agreed to host a stripper golf tournament at one of his golf properties.  Once stories about "stripper-gate" hit the news cycle, Trump's organization pulled the plug on the entire affair just last night.  Just to be clear, the strippers weren't going to be golfing. The plan was to sell the strippers at an "auction" the night before the tournament and have them serve as caddies.  Ball cleaning and shaft polishing were optional.

In the face of all this brouhaha and negative coverage, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta held a press conference in an attempt to deflect the increasing heat for his role in allowing Epstein the pervert to walk away nearly scot-free over 10 years ago.  Acosta was the U.S. Attorney that handled Epstein's sweetheart deal back in 2007-- and he still (incredibly) doesn't believe that Epstein got off easy.  He continues in his efforts to shift the blame to Florida state prosecutors-- saying that they had insufficient evidence to take to court and that he (Acosta) stepped in to stop the billionaire sex predator from getting off with no punishment.  Acosta actually tried to convince people that it was only due to his efforts that Epstein served any jail time and registered as a sex offender.   The problem is that people are now saying that the evidence in the original 2007 indictment was overwhelming.   And after all was said and done, Acosta forgot about the victims-- ensuring that the sweetheart deal was kept secret, and that the victims were never notified (apparently, in violation of the law).  

What Acosta didn't explain is why his office didn’t more fully investigate the allegations against Epstein and get the evidence needed to bring federal charges.  There are reports that, at the time, the FBI was fully prepared to investigate further as it believed victims existed outside the Palm Beach area-- but Acosta's actions shut down the whole operation, going so far as to grant immunity against any unnamed co-conspirators (another highly unusual move).     In addition, Acosta failed to talk about how he and his team were lambasted this year by a federal judge for not notifying victims of the non-prosecution deal, in violation of a victims’ rights law.

During the entire press conference, Acosta was smug, and didn't make a single apology.  He said on several occasions that he "proceeded appropriately"given the circumstances-- but practically no one agrees that he did, including the federal judge overseeing the case reexamining the original non-prosecution agreement.  Observers have commented that telephones, computers, planes and boats were used by Epstein in the commission of his crimes-- which would have given Acosta plenty of opportunities to bring federal charges, even if he thought the Florida state charges were insufficient.

Within hours of Acosta's shameful attempt to defend  his actions, former Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer said in a statement that Alex Acosta was “completely wrong" and "should not be allowed to rewrite history.”

“Secretary Acosta has a disturbing record on sexual and human trafficking that stretches from the horribly permissive plea agreement he gave to Jeffrey Epstein, up to his time now as Labor Secretary," said Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman, who has pointed out that Acosta was also responsible for implementing new Labor Department directives that would impede anti-trafficking efforts. 

This Epstein story promises to be a slow-burning one, with many more victims practically guaranteed to come out of the woodwork and get lots of media coverage during the slow news months in late summer.  So even though Acosta seems intent on hanging on to his job for now, Trump and the GOP are surely going to become more intolerant of the heat and eventually give him the heave-ho.