So Sir Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the United States, has resigned after his remarks about the Trump Administration’s dysfunction — made in private to his own government — were leaked and President Donald J. Trump proclaimed himself “not a fan.”
Everyone but particularly an ambassador should have the right to express his opinion in privacy without fear of reprisals. But in the age of 24/7 social media and Brexit — of which Darroch was apparently not a fan — it was perhaps inevitable that he should be done in. I guess we’ll have to go back to communicating the old-fashioned way — face to face.
“Not a fan”: Darroch should have those words emblazoned on a T-shirt and wear it proudly. Remember, El Presidente wasn’t a fan of the late Sen. John McCain. So Darroch is in good company.
And The Donald had been a former fan of some who are now in the hot seat, including Jeffrey Epstein, who has been charged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York with sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. In 2008, Epstein was convicted of soliciting a 14-year-old girl for prostitution but given only a 13 month in custody with work release sentence in a plea deal worked out by then federal prosecutor R. Alexander Acosta, who is now Trump’s labor secretary. Acosta also failed to inform Epstein’s other identified victims of the deal as required by law.
Now on the hot seat himself, Acosta has blamed Florida’s failure to bring felony charges against Epstein, intimidated victims’ failure to come forward and the notion that he and his team were also threatened, which, I’m afraid goes with the territory of being a federal prosecutor. (This from a man whose ultimate goal is to be a federal judge.) Acosta and his defenders have said they were only trying to prevent more abuse. Critics have charged that he may have been cowed into protecting Epstein’s high-profiled associates.. Former President Bill Clinton traveled some 20 times on Epstein’s private jet. Other Epstein connections include Woody Allen, Prince Andrew, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz.
Look, sex crimes are notoriously tricky to prosecute and there may be aspects of Epstein’s political associations that were above Acosta’s pay grade. But when you’re hired, appointed or elected to do your job, you do your job. No one is above the law and no one who thinks that anyone can be above the law should have anything to do with the execution of the law.
It used to be that Medicare and Social Security were the third rail in politics. Touch them and you die. Now they’re on the table, and the third rail is child molestation and sexual assault. Such charges sank Roy Moore’s bid to become an Alabama senator.
Epstein will probably do hard time in New York, and Acosta will never be a federal judge. His days as Trump’s labor secretary are numbered. Sex crimes are not about sex. They’re about power. And power is a slippery slope among the rich and politically influential who view every “friendship” as expedient.