A member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet has resigned amid a furore over charges of sex trafficking against a US billionaire.
Labor Secretary Alex Acosta called the President this morning and decided to step aside, according to Trump.
It comes after calls for Acosta to quit over a plea deal he helped arrange in a previous case involving billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, a former pal of Prince Andrew.
Epstein, 66, pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a minor for prostitution. As part of the plea deal, he was given an 18-month jail sentence.
On Tuesday Epstein, who was once close to Trump, was charged with new underage sex trafficking allegations and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
He was charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. He later pleaded not guilty in a federal court.
Acosta has served in Trump’s Cabinet since April 2017.
From 2005 to 2009 he was the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
It was there that he handled Epstein’s first case involving sex with girls, which resulted in a sentence critics say was far too lenient.
Acosta defended himself earlier this week, disputing that his office let Epstein get off easily.
He argued that had his team not stepped in, Epstein would have only faced one charge from state prosecutors and avoided any jail time.
Trump on Tuesday had called Acosta an “excellent” labor secretary.
But US House Democrats ramped up pressure by asking the Justice Department for a briefing on the plea deal decision.
“We have serious misgivings about Secretary Acosta’s handling of the case and whether the department fairly administered justice,” members of a House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee said in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted earlier this week: “As US Attorney, he engaged in an unconscionable agreement w/ Jeffrey Epstein kept secret from courageous, young victims preventing them from seeking justice.”
Acosta made the announcement while standing next to Donald Trump outside the White House this morning.
The President said Acosta had called him to discuss the decision and that his labour secretary had done a “great job.”
“You can always second guess,” Trump said of the Epstein case in hindsight.
Describing what he told Acosta, Trump said: “I said, ‘You don’t have to do this.”
Trump named Deputy Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella as the acting secretary of Labor.
