Donald Trump has tried to downplay his relationship with disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein after previously labelling the former Mar-a-Lago guest “a terrific guy”, insisting: ”I don’t think I have spoken with him for 15 years. I was not a fan.”
The financier was arrested and charged in a New York court on Monday with sex trafficking, accused of luring dozens of underage girls to his luxury homes and paying them for sex, a development inspiring Democratic calls for labour secretary Alexander Acosta to resign over his involvement in the Epstein case while working as an attorney in Florida in 2008.
The news comes as the president prepares to host a social media summit at the White House on Thursday, with alt-right meme-makers and a political cartoonist whose work has been branded “blatantly antisemitic” by the Anti-Defamation League in attendance.
Mr Acosta meanwhile addressed his involvement in the Florida case during a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, saying that when he was a federal prosecutor in Florida, his office acted appropriately when it came to the secret plea deal offered to Epstein.
Mr Acosta was asked if he owed an apology to women who said Epstein molested them when they were underage.
He said the prosecution didn’t want to share with the victims that there were efforts to gain restitution for them from Epstein.
He also said there was concern that if negotiations fell through, Epstein’s counsel could use the prospect of restitution to question their credibility.
Mr Acosta said, “In our heart we were trying to do the right thing for these victims.”
Epstein has pleaded not guilty to new charges in New York.
The labour secretary also said he was not intending to resign and that his relationship with the president is “outstanding.”
Additional reporting by AP
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According to CNN, citing the White House, an internal review of Acosta's standing is under way, with the president saying yesterday he felt "very badly" for Acosta.
"You have an incredible responsibility as the chief of this country to take care of every single person, and you need to do better for everyone."
Amy McGrath, a former Marine fighter pilot and the first female captain to fly the F/A-18 on a combat mission, earned herself another accolade on Tuesday when it was announced she broke fundraising records during the first day of her senate campaign race against Mitch McConnell.
Mark Nickolas, campaign manager to Ms McGrath, said the 24-hour fundraising haul amounted to $2.5m (£2m) — the most ever raised on the first day of a senatorial campaign.
The average donation amounted to $36.15 (£28.89) and more than $1m (£799,090) was contributed within five hours of the campaign launch, NBC News reported.
The record-breaking figures arrived after Ms McGrath’s campaign announcement drew national headlines throughout the week, and even a contentious pair of tweets from Donald Trump, who called out the Democratic candidate for past comments she made in an interview and defended Mr McConnell, an ally of the president in the US Senate.
Ben Garrison, who was invited to the White House for a social media summit despite criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and other groups for his “Jewish conspiracy” cartoon and other drawings, has reportedly been uninvited to the Thursday event.
Mr Garrison’s work was described as “blatantly anti-Semitic” and his invitation to the summit drew backlash from activists and media personalities, including CNN’s Jake Tapper, who brought attention to the development on his Saturday night broadcast.
