I have thought the plea deal was a disgrace since I read the Miami Herald article on it back in January. I think Acosta should be fired, and if Trump keeps him he will deserve the heat he's going to get. I think there's a little bit of smoke there with Trump, because he is on the record as socializing with Epstein, and I thought it was curious at the time that Acosta would be appointed to a cabinet position with the Epstein plea deal in his background.
I'd probably put it at about 30-40 percent chance that Trump had some sort of criminal contact with Epstein's girls and probably about 10 percent that he's held accountable for it.
With Clinton, I'd say it's about 60-70 percent likely that he was involved with the girls and 30 to 40 percent likely that he's held accountable.
Reportedly, this was a huge blackmail operation for Epstein, with him hosting parties at his residences and planes with extremely wealthy and politically connected individuals, obviously including Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, who represented Epstein in Miami, and Prince Andrew who is in photos with one of the girls who credibly accused Epstein of forcing her into sex slavery. Epstein reportedly had all of his residences and his plane wired for video, so this has the potential to bring down some big, big names, if the will is there to really investigate it. That will be the question.
In this case, I think there's some chance that the truth (or at least a portion of it) will come out, because both political parties want to nail the Epstein associates from the other party. More likely, everyone will come to their senses and realize swinging the shit end of this stick around isn't good for anyone and try to wrap this up by sending Epstein to jail for a million years. What will be interesting is if he threatens to drop dime in exchange for leniency, which is what I presume got him his original sweetheart no prosecution deal.
