kick, a word she can't kiss good-bye. gee nikne gee. good evening, a minor part of the news tonight in washington is whether the president's labor secretary alex accoosta will keep his job. the larger story is when he was back, he did all he could to put jeffrey epstein, a man he apparently believed to be a serial child molester and rapist behind bars and before we listen to any of his televised public accounting this afternoon for the decisions he made back then for the deal he cut, for what he did and didn't say to the accusers, the alleged teenage victims, i want to read you some of what the chief palm beach county prosecutor at the same just said about it tonight and i'm quoting, as the state attorney for palm beach county for 16 years, 1993 to 2009 which included the entire period of

the epstein investigation, i can enf state his recollection of this matter is completely wrong. he said if mr. acosta was concerned with the case and felt he had to rescue the matter, he would have moved forward with the 53-page indictment his office drafted. instead, he brokered a secret plea deal that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement in violation of the victim's rights act. he concludes should not be allowed to rewrite history. and here is some of the real history, it's a passage from the "miami herald's" prize winning investigation of the allegations against jeffrey epstein, friend and neighbor at the time of donald trump, friend of president clinton and prince an true and as you know, epstein is facing similar federal charges 11 years later in new york and i'm quoting, epstein's scheme began to unravel in march of 2005 when the parents of a 14-year-old girl told palm beach police she had been molested at

his mansion. the girl confessed she was brought there by two other girls and those girls pointed to two more girls who had been there. by the time detectives tracked down one victim, there were two and three more to find. soon there were dozens, dozens of underaged girls. the palm beach police chief who supervised the investigation telling the herold, we didn't know where the victims would end. that's what the u.s. attorneys office stepped into in 2007 and 2008 so many charges in fact they filled 53 pages, enough to put epstein away for the rest of his life. instead, in what's been described as a highly unusual agreement, epstein was put on the sex offender registry and allowed to plead guilty to a prostitution charge he searched 13 months essentially part time in the palm beach county jail. he was actually allowed to leave jail and go to his office six days a week. now terms of the agreement were kept secret from the accusers until after the fact unlawfully

according to a recent court ruling. in addition, it immunized any unnamed co-conspirators and shut down any federal investigation in the jurisdiction. today a secretary acosta went before the public and said that taking epstein to trial would have been quote rolling the dice end quote. even though justice department figures show that u.s. attorneys brought more than 3600 similar cases between the years 2004 and 2013. acosta repeatedly shifted responsibility for the decision on to career prosecutors. he repeatedly lamented that times were different back then as if back then or 50 years ago instead of 2008 when all of this occurred. the would be thing acosta did not do was apologize to the alleged victims or say he'd do anything differently. secretary, a lot of people are watching this news conference including several young women that say they were teenagers when jeffrey epstein sexual

assaulted them. they say they went to you looking for help and they didn't hear back from you until it was too late. do you owe them an apology? >> so, you're raising the issue of victim notification. and in the documents that i've circulated, i've addressed the issue of victim notification, as well. >> okay. so that's not answering the question asked let alone offering any kind of apology. and no regrets here, either. listen. >> so standing here today are you basically saying that you feel that you did everything you could, you got the best deal you could get and you have no regret regrets? >> we believe that we proceeded appropriately. >> federal judge says otherwise, the new indictment in fact suggestions otherwise, as well. the fact that dozens of accusers had no say in the deal, that certainly says something just

not to the labor secretary. >> do you really have nothing else to say to these victims beyond that you should come forward and that places burden on children? else do you have to say? you've avoided addressing them directly. that? >> to be clear thanks is not all i said. you know, i think if i recall and i obviously don't have a transcript here but, you know, what i've said previously is look, i have seen these interviews and i can't -- i generally can't begin to fathom what these victims have been through. i don't think that anyone that has not been in this situation can begin to fathom. the closest i can come is to think what would i feel like if one of my girls was going through this? >> well, keeping them honest, nobody doubt what is a father would do to protect a child. the question tonight is what did a public servant, that public servant who is serving the cabinet of the trump

administration do or not do to protect everyone's children? jim acosta we're going to talk to him shortly joining us now is the "miami herald's" julie brown that's done the definitive reporting on the epstein deal and largely responsible for the spotlight on this episode. thank you for joining us. secretary acosta seemed to argue this plea deal was the best that he could do, is that true? >> well, that's his belief and there are certainly people in his office that agree with him, but i think a lot of law enforcement people have been on here all day, on cnn all day explaining that there were other options. first of all, if he felt like he didn't have enough evidence or that some of -- which all the evidence he had was remarkable in my opinion and other experts' opinions but even if he felt that this was a little shaky and he couldn't get a conviction, he should have followed what his fbi wanted, which they wanted -- they were already finding evidence that this went beyond

palm beach. the fbi files show they were traveling to new york and new mexico to interview witnesses. now the reason why they were doing that is they were understanding that this kind of crime, this kind of sex pyramid scheme involving young girls isn't something that he probably would just do in palm beach when he traveled so regularly. it would be natural for the fbi to examine whether he was doing it elsewhere so had they stuck with the case and not done this plea agreement perhaps they would have realized that this was a much bigger operation. >> and just in terms of this operation, how big was this? how long did this go on for? is that -- how far were you able to trace this back in terms of what he was doing? >> it seems like he was starting to do it at least in florida since like 1998. he -- there were a couple of girls who came forward that were in his circle, let's say since

that time. and it continued all the way up until the agreement practically until the agreement was signed. >> and he would get one girl, a teenager to then try to recruit others, as well? >> right. >> is that right? >> he would get his foothold in somehow with -- he had recruiters and schedulers and they would go to spas for example around palm beach and find these young spa attendants and talk to them about coming. look, we want to recruit you to this wealthy man that wants you to give him massages. that was the code word they always used and so the girl would come and, you know, she's very young. she goes to high school. he would say, you know, what's your life like? he would especially pray on girls that were in unfortunate circumstances, very poor or even on the verge of homelessness and

he would say well, look, i'll pay you for a massage, he would molest them. if they felt uncomfortable, he would, which they frequently did, he said that's fine i'll pay you for every girl you bring me. when palm beach police were investigating this, it was like, you know, leslie was here and she was brought by mindy and amanda and you go to mindy and amanda and they say these two other girls brought me. he was doing this, two, three, four times a day girls were coming in and out of his mansion. >> two or three or four times a day? >> yeah. >> different girls? >> yes. yes. >> and secretary acosta's office, i understand they had drafted an indictment against epstein. it was never filed. is it -- why was that? do we know? >> well, you know, he hired the best lawyers that someone of his means can hire and he was very

shrewd about it. he hired lawyers that were politically connected. you know, mr. accoosta was an alumni of the kirkland ellis law firm and epstein's attorney with the law firm and kenneth star was with the law firm. some of the other lawyers were former u.s. prosecutors in the miami office so they knew, you know, who -- they knew acosta. it was for the most part a boys' club of lawyers. >> julie, if you could, stay with us. i want to bring in kia roberts, the former senior assistant district attorney in kings county in brooklyn new york and paul who served as prosecutor in the same office. paul, one thing that struck me about what acosta said today is a question he didn't really answer which was why didn't he

just keep investigating? if he had all these victims identified that needed more evidence, why not push ahead as julie said? the fbi was going farther a field. >> yeah, you're absolutely right, anderson. he was according really traffic ticket treatment to a crime that couldn't wind up with 45 years of exposure, prison exposure. all you have to do is look at the indictment that was handed down and unsealed in new york on monday. that indictment actually reaches back to the year 2002 to palm beach to epstein's mansion in palm beach and includes the incidents that were very much under acosta's jurisdiction at that time. over a decade later, new york prosecutors were able to put together a case against him when acosta claims no case was possible at that time. there were lots of federal crimes that were possible here because telephones were used, computers were used, airplanes and boats were used with respect

to the commission of the crime all of this would have generated federal jurisdiction. yet he walked away and really gave a sweet heart deal in negotiations by the way with ken starr who was the lawyer who recruited him to come to kirkland and ellis when acosta was working as an attorney in private practice, so just a lot of strange-looking things went on in this case. >> is there ever any kind of time limit put on an investigation like this? >> absolutely not. there are a lot of things like that that could make the situation strong. we could go on and on for hours. there does exist a statute of limitations for certain crimes but in this instance, the investigation had reached kind of one of the amepexes which he had been charged. once that happens and one victim turns into two and 12 turns into 24, you have to collect the evidence, do a full and thorough

investigation and see where it goes and puts you. i can not imagine a judge in the world with these serious facts would not have allowed you to fully and thoroughly investigate the case and take us to his logical conclusion. >> julie, secretary acosta put a lot of blame on the career prosecutors in his office for decisions that were made in this case. to be clear, he was the boss? i mean, at the end of the day he had final say on what happened here, right? >> right. he made a lot of this meeting which i focused on in my story how he met privately with jay, epstein's attorney far from his office in miami at a marriott in october. and he made much of the fact that well, you know, there is nothing to that meeting because that deal was signed in september before that meeting ever happened. and if you look at the record there was paper signed in

september but they were hotly negotiating that until the point he agreed in court in june of 2008. there was a lot of stuff happening and there is also a letter that jay wrote back to acosta after that ok mectober meeting saying thank you very much, i'm glad we discussed this and a reminder here, you agreed not to tell any of the victims about this deal. so it was at that meeting we suspect that he arranged for the secrecy aspect of it, which, you know, that's the biggest question here, right? if it was such a good deal, did he seal the deal so nobody could find out what it was. >> that's incredible that, i mean, he's blaming career prosecutors but going to the secret meeting out of town. i mean, that -- that just seems highly unusual, doesn't it? paul, is that normal? >> not at all normal. as a matter of fact,

all meetings take part in a prosecutor's office. in this case, he went to a hotel for a breakfast meeting. so it was clearly intended to keep the negotiations secret and then he ultimately negotiates a deal where the victims are not going to be notified about anything. he gets it very nice thank you letter from kirkland and ellis, the defense firm, very unusual. >> why wouldn't the victims be notified? i get why the defense wouldn't want the victims to be notified but prosecutors working for the people. >> absolutely. so it's shocking and inexplicable and completely unprecedented. when i was a homicide prosecutor in brooklyn, one of the most unique and meaningful parts of the trial would conclude with the victim's family and in a

homicide situation and the victim itself when the victim was alive and they were able to give something called a victim pact statement. that was them talking to the judge and looking the defendant in the eye. this is what you did and this is how it affected me and my family. that was a hugely important and therapeutic process for victims and the fact this was denied to these 30 plus young women that have the courage and fort titud to assist is heartbreaking and cruel. >> yeah. i want to thank you. julie brown in this age where reporters are under the gun and being called all sorts of things, your reporting is critical in exposing the story and really nobody would be here, you know, the victims would not have a voice at this point if it were not for you. thank you very much. >> thank you so much. coming up, the latest from the white house including reaction from secretary acosta's performance and reporting on the

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the breaking news, fallout from acosta's explanation of the actions is u.s. attorney 11 year a ago gave jeffrey epstein a sweet heart deal. a brutal statement from the palm beach county state attorney at the time accusing secretary acosta today of rewriting

history. jim acosta joins us now. the white house, do we know what they thought of acosta's performance today? >> so far they feel secretary acosta handled himself well earlier today. i talked to one official this evening that said he offered some information to his defenders out there who are trying to counter this criticism that he was too lean jennient. the vice president said they were glad to see secretary acosta step forward but much of this is driven by the president, anders anderson, who does not appear at this point to be in the mood to unload the labor secretary from what i understand talking to a senior administration official, he wanted secretary acosta to go out there and fight for his job and the president wanted to fight for calls fz eving his resignation and the president's attitude about those detractors was quote screw them. >> well, in terms of his job

security, should he be breathing a sigh of obviously, there were a lot of things he left unsaid or refused to answer or, you though, apparently answered incorrectly or was rewriting history according to the official. >> that's right. that is what that state prosecutor, former state prosecutor is saying down in florida, secretary acosta has a recollection of vents completely wrong. i will tell you, anderson, we've seen this white house and president say in the past about previous officials that he would like to see a various cabinet member stay on board when they have come under intense scrutiny but i talked to one senior administration official who said he cautioned against thinking that secretary acosta will remain in that position forever saying that one day you work for president trump, the next day you don't and that is a very candidate assessment of how things go inside this administration, anderson. as you know, you are useful until you're disposable. anderson? >> yeah, and then you never

worked there initially to begin with. that's on like day three. they like you, fire you and don't know who you are. thanks very much. joining us is a democratic congresswoman kathryn clark who helps oversee funding for the labor department. she tweeted today somehow secretary acosta managed victim blaming but couldn't say the two words we need to hear, i resign. what's your reaction to the reporting that we just heard that white house officials think acosta handled himself well today? >> well, it's certainly not surprising coming from this administration that they continue to side just as secretary acosta did with the powerful, with the wealthy and not with the vulnerable and the children. we have an outrageous case here where secretary acosta, when he was the u.s. attorney sided with jeffrey epstein and his lawyers who he apparently knew from legal circles and decided to

settle this case in secret from the victims, giving very unusual settlement agreements like providing blanket immunity for unnamed co-conspoirators and there is no apology today or nothing that says i regret this. we've just heard blame shifting and evasion and we need to hear those words that there will be responsibility and accountability. >> do you think if he had come forward and said, you know, i regret that deal looking back on it, i wish i had pushed harder, that that would, that would reflect well on him? it certainly is not something obviously the president of the united states likes to hear people, you know, apologizing for something but would that have worked for accoosta better than what he did today? >> well, certainly would have been a start that showing he has

basic human decency but really what this comes down to, if we cannot trust secretary acosta when he is looking at a draft of a 53-page indictment showing a sexual ring that involved minor girls, these were young girls with co-conspirators and jeffrey epstein at the very center. if he chose them and made this very unusual deal that resulted in the most incredibly luxurious sentence i've ever heard of where you go to state jail for 13 months and you get a work release six days a week and the fact that he is now our secretary of labor, he is in charge of making sure that children are not exploited in the labor market, that they are not trafficked. he is in charge of equal pay making sure that workers can be

whistle-blowers and talk about conditions on the job. and he continues to choose the very powerful over victims. so how can we possibly trust him to be a secretary of labor and choose american workers? >> do you find it ironic that acosta said his message to any other of epstein's victims is that they need to come forward given the fact he worked for the president retune outinely attacn they come forward with sexual assault and rain against him? >> yes, ironic -- >> it seems like a case where there is a lack of people coming forward. it seems like there are huge numbers of people. >> there are huge numbers of people coming forward and victims that secretary acosta knew about at the time he made this secret sweet heart deal for jeffrey epstein and it's beyond

ironic, it is really disgusting and it is frightening to think that he thinks it is appropriate to look into a camera and tell victims to come forward when we have his actions and we have the actions of a president that are pa faced with his own rape app gages several weeks ago. his defense is that woman is not my type. this is the administration we're dealing with. this is the actions of this particular secretary. unfortunately, this is a continuation of how this administration expresses that it doesn't believe victims of sexual assault and continues to choose the very wealthy and rig this system for them to the exclusion of everyone else.

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there is breaking news tonight from the persian gulf. u.s. officials tell cnn five armed boats operated by the revolutionary guard tried to seize a british tanker. according to the officials, the iranians ordered then to change course and stop in territorial waters. the british navy escorted and trained them and warned them to back off. they did. the u.s. officials say u.s. aircraft was overhead and recorded video of the incident but nothing so far has been released. cnn fareed cassar say zakaria j. what is iran's game in this trying to accomplish the moves? >> they were trying to retaliate for a similar british move that took place awhile ago but the real story here, anderson, is that you have a ratcheting up of

tensions on almost every front since the trump administration has really tightened the noose on iran that is essentially made it impossible for iran to sell its oil on international markets. the iranians have been backed into a corner and are trying to explore how they can use the leverage they have access through the persian gulf, their interests in lebanon or yemen or close to saudi arabia and putting kind of turning up the heat as much as they can. the trump administration seems to want this, seems to want to add to the pressure but it's not clear to what end. there is no negotiating strategy laid out. there is no diplomatic solution put forward so the danger here is an atmosphere of high tension with both sides not wanting to back down. you can easily see some miscalculations and could lead to some situation i don't think the trump administration wants, which is war.

administration has a lot of pressure on iran but not clear of the strategies or goal. >> i also want to ask you about the resignation of the british ambassador to the united states today that happened. some cables he wrote was leaked in the president was called insei insecure. the thing about this is i mean, this is basically what ambassadors do, u.s. ambassadors do it about leaders of countries they are based in. they send unvarnished opinions on the country and leadership they are serving that is their job, isn't it? >> of course. do you think it -- even to donald trump was it any news that people think that he's somewhat insecure, thin skin narcissist and takes things personally? if that's the case. donald trump is not reading newspapers or watching television. look, the important thing is that the ambassador was saying it in a very contractive way.

he was trying to help ministers his government figure out how to deal with trump and if you read the more detailed version of the leaks, he is saying to them everything toward trump, make it about him. begin by praising him and praising some recent accomplishment he's made and if you look at the ambassador's own dealings and tweets and statements, they all follow that. he lavishly praised trump. so this is a guy doing exactly what his job should be. he was describing his own internal character assessment of trump as you say exactly as ambassadors should do and if trump were not as thin skin -- i mean, the way he is reacted to this it's more like some kind of act of vengeance that a mafia boss wants to take rather than the president who should surely know this is the game of international diplomacy. we don't know what the british -- american ambassador from london is telling trump

about teresa may. this is how the international game works. don't take it personally. get over it. >> yeah, i mean, it's embarrassing -- the president is clearly just embarrassed by it and doesn't like to be embarrassed and is therefore just lashing out even though this is something -- i guess what has gotten lost in the drama are the words, the actual words that the ambassador used, it's something that our closest allies use the words inept and dysfunctional in describing this white house. i mean, it's not unusual. >> what is extraordinary is the reaction of the trump administration and donald trump has completely confirmed everything the ambassador said about the president and administration. >> yeah. yeah. fareed, appreciate it. thanks very much. up next, i'll talk with the reporter who unmasked the culprit behind the most widely circulated and widely debunked theory about russian interference in the election.

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emails and assassins working for hillary clinton murdered him. rich was killed three years ago tonight in what was most likely a robbery. the facts didn't prevent personalities on fox news, even the president's current lawyer from pushing the theory. here is him in 2013. >> it doesn't look like a robbery. it looks like a murder. there is one thing this under cuts is i think this whole russia argument is such a refuse for reality. >> the reality was that the theory flourished. the conspiracy theory flourished. there is a man holding a sign at a rally for president trump in tampa, florida in july of last year. until now we didn't know where the theory originated, now we do thanks to yahoo news in a pod cast series with michael who broke this story. explain to us how this

conspiracy theory actually started. >> yeah, it is a fascinating story. it's sort of an dig into these theories that got traction in '16, '17 and even until today. and what it turns out is that seth rich got killed after a night drinking at a local bar and what the cops concluded is very early on is that this looked like a botched robbery. there had been a string of robberies in that neighborhood where he lived in the weeks before his death and seth rich resisted his assailants. they apparently panicked and shot him in the back. three days later on an obscure website called what does it mean.com they report that in

fact seth rich was on his way to talk to the fbi to reveal corruption about the clintons when he was gunned down by a squad of assassins working for hillary clinton. the prosecutor in charge of the case at the time debra signs talked to us for the first time for this podcast and talked about how frustrated she was about these wild conspiracy theories relating to her case so she asked the u.s. intelligence community to help her figure it out, where are these coming from and what she -- what she got back she says floored her. it turned out that the russian sbr that their version of the cia, their foreign intelligence service had circulated a bulletin making those exact same claims about seth rich that was in that what does it mean.com story about the squad of

assassins working for hillary clinton and from there it took off. it migrated into these alt-right sites and chat rooms and within a few weeks, roger stone, the president's long-time political advisor picked it up, tweeted a picture of seth rich and said another dead body in the clinton's wake. >> and picked up, you know, by fox news people on fox news. >> and from there -- >> repunrepundi -- >> julian assange gave an interview in which he hinted seth rich was his source for the dnc emails and posted a wiki leeks leaks announced a $20,000 reward for information and eventually this made it up to the trump white house in the podcast

rerevererwe reveal text messages and white house senior counselor encouraging a cbs 60 minutes producer to go chase the story calling it a huge story. it was a contract kill obviously. that was in mark 2017 and then in may of 2017 just as the russia story is blowing up fox news picks it up and shouts it to the rooftops. >> i mean, it's incredible. what you're describing is a classic disinformation campaign out of, you know, what was formally the kgb's textbook. >> exactly. >> the fact that it got such wide spread amplification. that's incredible. >> absolutely. there say phrase for what the soviets used to do in the cold war, active measures.

it's a disinformation operation which you plant phony stories or conspiracy memes into foreign media and hope they will migrate and take off. that's exactly what this was. this was a clear russian disinformation operation and i should point out that it wasn't just those bulletins we revealed. the internet research agency, the troll farm in st. petersburg central to the russian interference manipulation of social media during the 2016 election picked up the case. they tweeted it and retweeted about it more than 2,000 times under phony accounts, disskriesdisskrieguised as americans and like pretending to be the tennessee republican party and it was constantly tweeting about seth rich, you know, keeping the story alive m

>> you would thing for the person holding up that sign in tampa or the people doing this on tv f they had decency, they would apologize for doing the bidding of russian intelligence by push thing theory that had no evidence at all. >> no evidence whatsoever. no evidence whatsoever. there was nothing -- the claims were that there was the fbi had onset rich's laptop had found communications with wikileaks complete non-sense. there was nothing to back that up. but, you know, the real emotional core of this story is just what a gut -- how get wrenching this was for the rich family to see their sons, you know, reputation being suggesting he was a leaker and a thief who betrayed his dnc colleagues, mary rich the mother of seth rich, one of those we interviewed for this podcast

talks and says at one point this was like losing my son all over agai again. >> any progress on the investigation into what they believe was the robbery? >> what we've learned is that a -- it has been transferred to the major case/cold case squad with a new detective and a new prosecutor who is now in charge of the case. we have not seen any sign of progress in the last three years. no suspects have been identified, no arrests have been made. debra signs, the former prosecutor says the cops and she were convinced this would be related to this string of robberies, armed robberies in the neighborhood, much in length to drug dealing activity in a nearby housing project. joel rich says that he's talked to the detective and prosecutor recently and they have told him

that they are still actively investigating. they talk about the case every day. and so, you know, we will see whether they can make that breakthrough. >> yeah. >> or on apple podcast, it's called conspiracy land. you can down loud it anywhere, wherever you get your podcasts. >> thanks very much. a serious storm hitting new orleans could become a hurricane. we'll have details on that, the very latest as we continue. but allstate actually helps you drive safely... with drivewise. it lets you know when you go too fast... ...and brake too hard. with feedback to help you drive safer. giving you the power to actually lower your cost. unfortunately, it can't do anything about that.

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life. to the fullest. in a moment, they'll have the latest on flooding in new orleans, but first, chris joins us to see what's coming up on "cuomo prime time." >> i have klobuchar, i have

rangappa, i have yuger and urban, those are waves of immigrants that came into this country and i'm going to be talking to all of them tonight. what is each perspective, klobuchar wants to be our president, we're going to do all of that and the next layer on epstein. the way i'm looking at it tonight is you've got to see this story as a human trafficking story, not just about the rich and the powerful because human trafficking, i did a documentary on it here for hln, it's a bigger problem than we even understand and that's why it shouldn't be ignored in this case. >> all right, chris, i look forward to it. we'll be right back with the latest details from new orleans on the storm that is approaching, the water is rising, could get quite a bit worse. we'll have the full details ahead.

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saying that 10 to 15 implementatiinches of rain could fall within 24 hours. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> welcome to "prime time." the president's labor secretary has learned well from his boss when confronted with wrongdoing, he blamed everyone else involved. one of them is firing back tonight, let's look at what we know and test who is right. the le galties are going to take time. and mr. acosta would resign as labor secretary. will congress force his and it. should it? we have a senator and 2020 hopeful leading the charge on that. we'll ask her about the latest on that and the border fix from senators from her party, senator amy klobuchar here tonight. we also have the president's acting immigration chief sounding the sirens that i.c.e. raids