There’s yet another crook in Trump’s orbit. His labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, has been found to have broken the law when he gave convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal.
A judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors — among them, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta — broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with a wealthy, politically connected sex trafficker and concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims.
It was quite a serious crime. Years of procuring and sexual molestation of kids. More than 30 victims.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra, in a 33-page opinion, said that the evidence he reviewed showed that Jeffrey Epstein had been operating an international sex operation in which he and others recruited underage girls — not only in Florida — but from overseas, in violation of federal law.
“Epstein used paid employees to find and bring minor girls to him.,’’ wrote Marra, who is based in Palm Beach County. “Epstein worked in concert with others to obtain minors not only for his own sexual gratification, but also for the sexual gratification of others.’’
But man, what a slap on the wrist Epstein got.
Instead of prosecuting Epstein under federal sex trafficking laws, Acosta, then the U.S. attorney in Miami, helped negotiate a non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity from federal prosecution. Epstein, who lived in a Palm Beach mansion, was allowed to quietly plead guilty in state court to two prostitution charges and served just 13 months in the county jail. His accomplices, some of whom have never been identified, were never charged.
Left unsaid…that jail sentence was a joke. He got to go home during the day, and just had to check in for confinement at night.
I remember when Lawrence Krauss and Robert Trivers flailed about trying to defend Epstein…and Krauss earnestly telling me at a conference that I should stop criticizing him, he’s a good guy and a friend to science.
I sometimes wonder if, since his own fall from grace, Krauss has ever admitted that he was wrong, and that his arguments were bad and foolish. I haven’t heard. I certainly haven’t had a conversation with him in years.
He probably hasn’t. Last year, this was Krauss’s wife defending him…and Epstein.
This is Lawrence Krauss's wife calling Jeffrey Epstein having sex with 12 year old girls a "lifestyle." https://t.co/TV0G74Loam
— (((Yvette))) (@TheSciBabe) February 27, 2018
You know, Dr Dahl, one other problem with that comment, besides the fact that having sex with a minor is not a “lifestyle”, is that the courts have just determined that he was not punished for his crimes. He is a bad man who got away with it. I wonder if any of the recipients of his largesse are willing to recognize that yet?
By the way, Krauss is still getting gigs, but he’s not quite in demand as he used to be. I see he’s appearing on this YouTube channel next Tuesday…maybe someone should ask him about it.
All the “PizzaGate” people are going to be outraged about this right? Right?
Why the fuck weren’t these employees jailed as well? Surely at some point they must have worked out that they were helping their boss’ pedophilia. I remember watching a documentary about lawyers fighting for Larry Hillblom’s illegitimate children to get their share of their father’s estate. I was half way through it when I realized that no one at any point called him a pedophile. One rule for the rich I guess.
That Miami Herald link is horrifying. And there’s this photo caption…
Emphasis mine.
Epstein is one of the most vile human beings on Earth. But he’s buddies with Trump and has been for decades. I remember, during the 2016 campaign, a woman coming forward who placed Trump and one of Epstein’s sex parties. According to her, she was 16 and paid to service “Mr. Trump”. We never got confirmation on this story because she disappeared and never made her real name public.
It could be complete bullshit from a couple of grifters, but in the case involving Donald Trump, an admitted sex offender (as far as I’m concerned), who paid women hush money, let’s face it, I’m inclined to believe it could have happened.
Trump as a pedophile doesn’t sound like much of a stretch to me.
I almost had a heart attack when I read “This is Krauss’s wife defending him” and then a tweet from SciBabe straight afterwards. Took me a minute to recover enough to see it was her quoting the wife.
“His accomplices, some of whom have never been identified, were never charged.”
You can bet your ass that one of those accomplices is sitting in the White House right now.
I want him and his accomplices charged. Including Democrats like Bill Clinton. Yes, he was a decent president. Yes his wife would have been better than Trump (most likely). But he should have been prosecuted at the time and room made for someone other than Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee for President.
Unlike what some people might say, I want everyone responsible to be prosecuted, not only the people that I don’t like.
@7
color me cynical but I would not hold your breath.
power and all, it never ends like “Don Giovanni” and seldom ends in a manure cart either
one can hope though
uncle frogy
I’m glad Trump is finally getting around to draining the swamp….
#5: I cannot imagine Yvette being Lawrence Krauss’s wife. Unless I also imagine Krauss bobbited and crying on the street shortly thereafter.
“gave Epstein and his co-conspirators immunity”
Hopefully this ruling negates the immunity deal because sure as fucking shit one of the co-conspirators was Trump, and probably a number of other disgusting old men in their social circle.
And Acosta has prosecutorial immunity for his actions. From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosecutorial_immunity
ahcuah @12: IANAL, but isn’t there a huge difference between civil wrongs and breaking federal law?
Alt-X @1
The Pizzagate people are bad enough, but I’m really curious how the Qanon people are taking this. The Hamberdler is supposed to be their big hero working at taking down vast pedophile networks, but he has Acosta in his cabinet. Maybe he has him there because thanks to his hard work ensuring Epstein didn’t face justice he has information that’s useful?
Rob@13. OK, so he cannot be sued in a civil suit. But to tell you the truth, did Acosta violate a criminal statute? The statute he violated said how to conduct his job, but did it have any criminal penalties associated with violating it? I really don’t know.
–Took short time out to look up statute–
I’m pretty sure the statute is:
18 U.S.C. § 3771. Crime victims’ rights
Here’s a link: https://www.justice.gov/usao/resources/crime-victims-rights-ombudsman/victims-rights-act
No criminal penalties that I can see. The only sanctions I can see that would apply are in (f)(2)(D): “disciplinary sanctions, including suspension or termination from employment, for employees of the Department of Justice who willfully or wantonly fail to comply with provisions of Federal law pertaining to the treatment of crime victims; ”
OK, so the Dept of Justice can fire him. Oops. He already doesn’t work there.
@15, accessory to/enabling pedophilia isn’t a crime?
I once got into a Twitter argument with Krauss’s wife in the comment section of a Cristina Rad tweet before I knew who she was. I kinda felt bad, for her, but now that it seems that she’s a rape apologist, I wish that I had been much more confrontational.
Also, sorry to be a nitpick/pedant, but unless I’m missing something, wouldn’t it be more correct to call him a convicted hebephile?
Tabby Lavalamp wrote:
It’s proof to them that the noose is tightening around the Clintons and Democratic party’s necks. The links to Trump are either ignore or rationalized as part of the plot to clean house.
You can’t reason with those who have committed themselves to an baseless idea based on no more than innuendo and inference.
Wasn’t Epstein also connected to that Caribbean resort Rush Limbaugh (allegedly) frequented that specialized in underage Eastern European “hostesses’? Or am I just mixing up my
perverse scandalslifestyles of the rich andfamousinhuman?jamiejag@16: accessory to/enabling pedophilia isn’t a crime?
That’s true in the same way that if a prosecutor does not share exculpatory evidence in a murder case so that the real murderer is never found, then the prosecutor commits the crime of aiding and abetting a murderer.
That is: not in the least.
Now let’s see how much time R.Kelly gets. I wonder if he’ll get to spend his days out at home or in the recording studio.
A hebephile is a pedophile with a thesaurus.
@Khantron:
That reminds me of the time when Ray Comfort (I think, or another bible thumper like Comfort) objected to being called a “bibliophile”. Good times.
There was plenty of room. She won. The fucking. Primary. She got. More. Fucking. Votes.
Like, you don’t have to “get over it” I guess but at least stop fucking Alternative Factsing it.
The only people who nitpick pedophile vs. ephebophile are pedophiles who want to make themselves look better.
ahcuah@20
According to the federal judge reviewing the plea deal what the federal prosecutors did was a crime. Not exactly the least important opinion, if you ask me.
Azkyroth@24
In a rigged primary system she got more votes than anyone else and “won.”
In a corrupt general election she got more votes than anyone else (including my own) and “lost.”