President Trump on Friday reluctantly announced that Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is resigning from his post in the wake of the sex-crimes scandal over financier Jeffrey Epstein, telling him: “You don’t have to do this.” Acosta has come under intense criticism in recent days for the lenient prosecution deal he made with lawyers for the child sexual predator while he served as U.S. attorney in Florida in 2007 and 2008. A Miami Herald investigation on Epstein published last November called the plea deal the “deal of a lifetime.” Trump said: “He made a deal that people are happy with, and then 12 years later, they are not happy with it. You’ll have to figure all of that out.” The president also told reporters that the decision to resign was Acosta’s. “I thought the right thing was to step aside,” Acosta told reporters at the White House. “It would be selfish for me to stay in this position.” Trump repeatedly remarked on Acosta’s accomplishments in his Cabinet position and said that he would be sad to see the “tremendous talent” go. “We’re going to miss him,” Trump added. “I hate to see it happen... This is him, not me. Because I am with him.”
