Anatomy 101

Epstein’s Secret:  Yesterday, while signing an executive order intended to expand treatment options for kidney patients Trump inadvertently rearranged human anatomy by asserting that the “kidney has a special place in the heart.” Speaking later in the day about his involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein affair, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta was far more coherent, however, his delivery was so cold and heartless that it too appeared to betray the bounds of human anatomy.  He attempted to explain away financier/pedophile Epstein’s 2008 plea deal by arguing that it was only because of his herculean efforts that Epstein got any jail time at all, as if a little over a year spent mostly in his own office is real jail time.  Additionally, Acosta threw shade at state authorities in Florida by asserting that their case was so weak that had he left things in their hands Epstein would have gotten off scot free.  We won’t know for a while if Acosta’s presentation impressed Trump, his targeted audience of one, enough to sustain his position in the cabinet but we do know that at least one of those Florida officials who he threw under the bus didn’t buy any of it.  Almost immediately after Acosta stopped speaking Barry Krischer, who served as Palm Beach state attorney at the time that the Epstein agreement was entered into, responding with a “scathing rebuke,” accusing Acosta of trying to “rewrite history.” Krischer basically said the responsibility for Epstein’s inexplicably sweet deal lay with Acosta.  As to Epstein, his troubles continue to mount.  Yesterday another one of his victims emerged from the shadows, describing how she was lured into his nest.  Her story was sadly familiar, she came from a broken, low income family, was targeted near her high school by one of Epstein’s recruiters when she was only fourteen years old and then lured into Epstein’s clutches first as a paid “masseuse,” and then, shortly after she turned fifteen, was forcibly raped by the financier/pedophile. After that horrific experience she fled his mansion, but did not report her rape to authorities as she feared that they wouldn’t believe her version of events.   A lot of things about Epstein remain a mystery.  No one seems to be able to account for his apparent wealth.  For years Epstein claimed to be a money manager for clients willing to give him total discretion over minimum investments of $1 billion however his financial footprint is almost non-existent, although he like his “one time” friend Trump who once hosted him at a private Mar a Lago party attended by just the two of them and 28 girls, appears to have been another client of the increasingly troubled Deutsche Bank.  It’s not even clear how he obtained his huge mansion on Fifth Avenue and 71^st street, reportedly it was gifted by his first billionaire client,  Leslie Wexner, chairman and CEO of L Brands the owner of Victoria’s Secret, who says that he ended his involvement with Epstein around the time of the 2008 case.  Epstein also appears to have gotten off easy with NYC authorities, even though he is classified as a level three sex offender, a category reserved for those who are considered dangerous and likely to reoffend, they failed to make sure that he showed up for the mandated regular check-ins, justifying their inaction by saying that Epstein wasn’t their responsibility because he is, or was until thrown into a NY jail, mostly a resident of the Virgin Islands where everyone knew but apparently ignored his sexual predator activities.  Maybe, just maybe the Southern District of New York attorneys will get to the bottom of the Epstein story.  Certainly it doesn’t help that Attorney General Barr, who recused himself for a minute from the investigation, is now saying that based on the “advice” of the Justice Department’s ethics lawyers he’s unrecused himself from everything except the investigation into Acosta’s 2008 deal. Could that “unrecusal” have come to pass after a request from Trump who may be really, really concerned about what Epstein might say to minimize any future sentence?  Who knows, but even Trump might find it politically impossible to get away with dangling a pardon in front of a pedophile in exchange for his silence.  

Litigation Front:  A second federal judge won't let Justice Department lawyers swap out in the continuing census fight over the citizenship question. Saying that he “cannot fathom how it would be possible, at this juncture, for a wholesale change in Defendants' representation not to have some impact on the orderly resolution of these proceedings," New York Judge George Hazel blocked the move to swap legal teams calling the Justice Department’s reasoning "deficient."  That said, Trump did achieve one significant legal victory yesterday after a Virginia federal appeals court panel ordered the dismissal of an emoluments lawsuit claiming that he had violated the Constitution by collecting profits from government guests at his Washington DC hotel.  The court found that the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia had no legal standing to sue Trump.  A similar case, filed by congressional Democrats, is now before the DC Court of Appeals, and legal experts say the question could wind up before the Supreme Court.  Still paying attention to Trump’s businesses remains an important beat, after the Washington Post’s David Farenthold wrote another one of his follow the money articles, this one detailing Trump’s Doral Florida resort’s plan to hold a “golf with strippers” event, one where the profits were to be shared with a charity, the charity pulled from the event.  The hotel has now cancelled those plans.  

Politics As Usual:  The nation’s intelligence officials including Director of National Security Coats and FBI Director Wray met separately with the House and Senate Intelligence committees yesterday to let them know that there continue to be active threats against US elections.  Unfortunately their warnings failed to sway the obstructive Senate Leader Mitch McConnell’s very firm conviction that passing any legislation to protect the US system is anything more than a Democratic plot to diminish the likelihood of future Republican victories.  As to McConnell who polls poorly even in his home state of Kentucky, Democratic candidate Amy McGrath raised $2.5 million within 24 hours of announcing her candidacy for his Senate spot.  Unfortunately, McGrath, who faces an uphill battle because despite his unpopularity McConnell has even more money and is still favored, then blew off some of her good will by telling a local paper that though she believed Christine Blasey Ford’s accusation, she would have voted for Justice Kavanaugh’s confirmation.  McGrath who is trying to position herself as conservative enough for wavering Kentucky Republicans while moderate enough for Kentucky’s Democrats and the broader audience of Democratic donors may have already blown her chances.  Speaker Pelosi is also trying to satisfy multiple audiences, she’s been dissing her four left wing newbies, Congresswomen AOC, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley, trying to get them to tone down their rhetoric and what she and many of her moderate, more vulnerable coalition members believe are their unhelpful Twitter rants.  In response the not so willing to learn from her elders AOC has counter attacked, accusing Pelosi of targeting women of color.  It’s almost as if AOC puts her interests in advocating for democratic socialism and climbing the Congressional ladder ahead of future Democratic victories.