Fox News’s Steve Hilton on Monday repeated his call for Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta to resign for his role in helping secure a plea deal for financier Jeffrey Epstein that allowed him to serve just over a year in prison after he was convicted of sex crimes.
Epstein, who was arrested over the weekend on charges of sex trafficking, served 13 months in “custody with work release” after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from underage girls, allowing him to spend 16 hours a day outside of prison in a deal approved by Acosta, then a U.S. attorney.
{mosads}Hilton had previously called for Acosta’s resignation over the deal in December, saying he owed “all of us an explanation and an apology.”
The host of “The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton” reiterated his call on Monday, asking, “Will we finally see some accountability from Alex Acosta?”
“In my view, it really is time for him to go,” he added.
Former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) agreed with Hilton and said he would be “surprised” if Trump did not fire the Labor secretary.
“When you continue to make yourself the issue and distract from the president’s agenda, you no longer need to be serving there, and this is not going to go away,” Chaffetz said. “This case is going to continue on.”
“It’s not anything he has done since President Trump appointed him. This is, as you said, a long time ago. But there’s something about it. It’s so egregious. It’s so revolting. You just think, ‘Come on,'” Hilton said.
Epstein, who was arrested in New Jersey on Saturday, pleaded not guilty to the charges Monday. Prosecutors alleged he sexually abused dozens of girls between 2002 and 2005, and U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said that federal agents recovered nude photographs of apparently underage girls from his mansion in New York.