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The location of the meeting is itself suspicious. Prosecutors and other law enforcement officials normally demand that those seeking a deal come to them. The fact that Acosta didn’t is another sign — if one were needed — that this was a capitulation. It also casts further doubt on the claim that Acosta was capitulating for the purpose of sparing the folks who worked with him in the prosecutor’s office. The key point, though, is that Ken Starr and Jay Lefkowitz were power players in Washington — men who might help Acosta down the road. Readers will be quite familiar with Starr’s background. Lefkowitz was director of cabinet affairs and deputy executive secretary to the domestic policy council under President George H.W. Bush. Under President George W. Bush, Lefkowitz served as general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget and later as deputy director of domestic policy at the White House. Accommodating such influential figures must have seemed like a good career move. Having Starr and Lefkowitz on his side might help Acosta get a judgeship, a cabinet appointment, or a high-paying job back at Kirkland and Ellis. I’m speculating, of course. But my speculation finds support in Acosta’s practice of accommodating the powerful. Much of that accommodation is of Democrats. Indeed, at the time Acosta was working in Miami as a U.S. Attorney, he had alienated some Republicans by such accommodation while at the Department of Justice. Some say he was on the verge of being fired when Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez parachuted him to Miami. The Epstein settlement was a way for Acosta to shore up his standing with some influential Republicans. Will Acosta be able to survive the current scandal? I don’t have a clear sense about this yet. But President Trump, who isn’t bashful about sacking cabinet members, may come to believe (if he doesn’t now) that it’s disadvantageous to have a cabinet member who sold out teenage victims of sexual abuse, especially when the sell-out benefited an ultra-wealthy serial offender. * Some on the left are trying to make something or the fact that Starr, who had investigated Bill Clinton in connection with sexual misconduct, later defended Epstein, a pervert. This is silly. In both instances, Starr was doing his job as a lawyer. Perverts are entitled to a defense and there is nothing hypocritical about investigating Bill Clinton’s misconduct when that was Starr’s job and later joining the team that was defending Jeffrey Epstein. Acosta, by contrast, was on the team seeking justice for Epstein and for his victims. He gave up this quest for reasons that can’t be defended. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030964