Day 901 of the Trump Administration and the prosecution of a high profile lurid sex crimes case has the president in a tough spot over an old friend. This is the case of Jeffrey Epstein, arrested saturday night when his private plane arrived in the u. S. From paris. His home was raided concurrently. Epstein has been charged with sex trafficking involving young women and underage girls. Over a decade ago epstein was under federal investigation in florida for alleged Crimes InvolvingSexual Exploitation of minors. Then u. S. Attorney alex acosta approved a deal allowing epstein to plead guilty to a lesser state charge of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. The problem is acosta is now this nations labor secretary. And so these latest charges against epstein have renewed outrage over the First Agreement there, and sparked calls for acostas resignation as labor secretary. Today we heard from acosta for the First Time Since epsteins arrest over the weekend. And we read, quote, the crimes committed by epstein are horrific and i am pleased that new york prosecutors are moving forward with a case based on new evidence. With the evidence available more than a decade ago federal prosecutors insisted that epstein go to jail. Register as a sex offender and put the world on notice that he was a sexual predator. Now that new evidence and additional testimony is available, the new york prosecution offers an important opportunity to more fully bring him to justice. Well, today President Trump expressed a sympathetic view of acosta. I met secretary acosta his first time when i made the deal to bring him into the administration. I can tell you that for two and a half years hes been just an excellent secretary of labor. Hes done a fantastic job. If you go back and look at everybody elses decisions whether its a u. S. Attorney or an assistant u. S. Attorney or a judge, you go back 12 or 15 years ago or 20 years ago and look at their past decisions, i would think youd probably find that they would wish they maybe did it a different way. Well have to look at it carefully. Youre talking about a long time ago and again, it was a decision made, i think not by him but by a lot of people. So were going to look at it very carefully. I feel very badly actually for secretary acosta. Well, tonight the New York Times reports, quote, white house officials said mr. Trump regarded mr. Acosta as a loyal and until now no drama member of his cabinet. Mr. Acosta has not spoken with the president about the epstein case recently. According to the washington post, quote, officials at the white house are nervous that democrats will encourage women allegedly abused by epstein to testify publicly before congress drawing attention to acostas work on the plea deal. They add there was no substantial vetting done on acosta until after trump decided to nominate him. Democrats and congress and as you might imagine 15 of the democratic president ial candidates are pressing for acosta to step down or be fired. Republicans have yet to join in. There is growing pressure from other trump allies to move against acosta. This is telling. Nbc reporting tonight that officials inside the administration including acting chief of staff mulvaney have had concerns about acostas performance in his day job, his cabinet job, particularly his perceived lack of urgency on an acting deregulation. Is this a foreshadowing. Politico reporting mulvaney told trump on monday that the continuing drip of damaging information surrounding the 2008 decision would hurt the administration. Indeed tonight mulvaney gave nbc news this response. We quote. I push all of the cabinet secretaries on the deregulatory agenda as it is a top priority of the president. That in no way should be interpreted as displeasure with any cabinet member including secretary acosta. Trumps relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is coming under intense scrutiny. For years in plain edge accomplish the two men socialized together both in new york and florida. In 02 trump said hed known epstein for about 15 years and he was a terrific guy. The ap reports, quote, epsteins personal address book copies of which have been included in legal findings list multiple private numbers for contacting trump, his wife, melania, daughter ivanka, as well as trumps butler, executive assistant and security staff. Back in 2015 the now shuttered website gawker published what it reported was epsteins little black book showing an entry with donald trump with all kinds of numbers. Today trump made an effort to distance himself from epstein. There was no more talk from trump about his friend being a terrific guy. Well, i knew him like everybody in palm beach knew him. People in palm beach knew him. He was a fixture in palm beach. I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I dont think ive spoken to him for 15 years. I wasnt a fan. Here for our leadoff discussion, peter baker, jeremy bash, and back with us here in new york jessica roth. Welcome to you all. Peter, i note that tonight the head of news max and a long time trump friend and whisperer went on cnn in about the last hour and after making clear he and the president had not discussed this, he straight up said its not going to be long concerning acostas time remaining as labor secretary. Where do you see acostas future . Where do you see the president s exposure in this case . Yeah. Thats a great question. Look, you know, well see how this plays out. But this has the whiff of danger for secretary acosta for obvious reasons. President trump doesnt particularly like it when his top advisers come under this kind of scrutiny. Its a distraction from his point of view. Hes going to be asked questions about it. His own relationship with epstein is going to be brought into scrutiny. My colleagues andy carny has a story tonight about a party in 1992 when President Trump then donald trump and epstein had a party down in florida with 28 women and just the two of them. Young women who were provided to them for the purpose of this party. That kind of story is the kind of thing hes not going to want to see continuing to rise, and thats going to probably continue if secretary acosta remains in his post. Let me indeed back you up with a dramatic reading of the writing tonight of annie carny, maggie haberman. It was supposed to be an exclusive party at maralago. Donald trumps members only club in palm beach, florida nvm other than the two dozen or two women flown in to provide the entertainment, the only guests with mr. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Through a mutual appreciation of wealth, women, and years of occupying adjacent real estate in palm beach and on page six, the lives of the two men routinely intersected for decades. If those days if you didnt know trump or epstein, you were a nobody, said a long time Harvard University professor who later served on mr. Epsteins defense team when he was charged with unlawful sex with minors in 06. Peter, this is, indeed, more proof the president lived the life he lived as a civilian to the fullest before we even thought of donald trump in the realm of the presidency. Yeah. We tend to forget that. We tend to forget what kind of a swinging lifestyle in effect he had. He went on howard stern and bragged about his exploits with women, and he obviously is on his third wife, and he was not the traditional model of a president or a future president working out. Thats never stopped him in political life. Hes managed to do what other politicians have not been able to do and sort of move beyond that kind of sensational lifestyle. It would have been enough to stop any other political career. So in that sense, its something that he has managed to handle. But this is a special case. This is a case involving young women below the age of consent. This is not a situation where you can talk about consenting adults. This is this is somebody he at least for one period of life was close to. He seemed to have a falling out with Jeffrey Epstein. Hasnt been close to him for years. What he said today seems to be true. Bill clinton, obviously is going to face scrutiny as a result of this. This is a particularly dangerous area for this particular president. We just had an allegation a couple weeks ago by an author who says that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a clothing store. The more this kind of focus is out there, the more its distracting him from the things he wants to do as he heads into an election year. Counselor, rescue us and take us back into the legal realm. What do you make of the deal that acosta as u. S. Attorney agreed to in florida that led in many ways to this case were talking about tonight . It was an extremely unusual deal. Both the content of it, if you will, and the process that led to it, being put into effect. The content is unusual because its extremely lenient. Notwithstanding the fact that his office had apparently prepared a draft of 50 pains of serious felony charges, that indictment wasnt filed and instead what the deal provided was that epstein would plead guilty to Florida State charges that resulted in him serving, i think it was 13 months in prison. The process was unusual. As understand it in some of the florida litigation, acosta was meeting privately with the defense attorney for epstein off site. Right . Not in his office. Both aspects of that are very unusual. And so it raises a lot of questions that i think acostas going to have to answer in some context whether its if hes called before congress to give testimony or theres an Ongoing Department of Justice Office of professional investigation into this, and that happens to be the piece that attorney general is still saying hes recused from. Jeremy bash, here we are again. We as a nation were promised the best people. The president tonight as rick wilson keeps pointing out, has Three Friends in jail. I know i dont. I dont imagine you do. Thats rather unique. And its another distraction. Its another personnel problem to say the least. Weve had three white house chiefs of staff. Two secretaries of defense. Two secretaries of state. Three Homeland Security secretaries. Two attorneys general. Weve had two cabinet secretaries at hhs at interior resign under a cloud of scandal and now this scandal could sweep in two more cabinet secretaries. Secretary of labor and the attorney general. So when the president promises that he surrounds himself with the best people, you got to ask your question. Ask the question was acosta vetted . Were these decisions undertaken in the Southern District of florida reviewed by the Incoming Administration and if they were, why did they conclude that acosta was fit to serve as one of the Law Enforcement professionals in our nation as labor secretary who is responsible for combatting Human Trafficking . Something doesnt add up. Jeremy, what do you make of the clumsiness of the president s effort to distance himself from epstein, the folks were who were around during this period the 90s in new york, openly referred to these two guys as running mates. Any time the president says i hardly knew him, i barely can remember his name, or something to that effect, its usually a tell that hes exceptionally close to that person. We saw that in the manafort case. We saw that in the cohen case. And also when he says something snide or derogatory like in the case of the Sexual Assault that peter referenced earlier, where he said shes not my type, that usually is evidence of some guilty consciousness by the president. And jessica, by dent of the connection to the president here, remind us, remind the folks watching tonight why we should take this case against epstein so incredibly seriously. Well, we should take the case against epstein seriously even if there werent any connection to the president. The allegations are so serious as a u. S. Attorney said, it shocks the conscience whats alleged here. And i think the case here is important to the victims in this case, and its also important in the broader context of prosecution of child sex exploitation cases more broadly. I thought the commitment to pursuing the cases regardless of the wealth and power and political connection was made clear in the press conference. And so hopefully this will encourage more victims to come forward in this particular case, given the hot line that was established and in future cases. And indeed apparently more people have come forward as a result of that public plea. Our thanks on this tuesday night to our big three for starting us off to peter baker, jeremy bash, and jessica roth. Thank you all three of you. And coming up, new reporting this evening on the justice departments 16hour interview with the former british spy at the center of the Mueller Investigation after all. And later a day after the first democrat gets out of the race, another one gets in today. So much for thinning the herd. But there is another race of interest to update you upon this evening as the 11th hour is just Getting Started on a tuesday night as president lincoln looks on. Most of us dont know how much data we use, but we all know were paying too much for it. Enter xfinity mobile. Americas best lte with the most wifi hotspots, combined for the first time. When youre near an xfinity hotspot, youre connected to wifi, saving on data. When youre not, you pay for data by the gig. Use a little, pay a little. Use a lot, just switch to unlimited. Get 400 back when you buy the new lg g8. Call, visit or click today. What an interesting story today. New reporting revealing that u. S. Justice Department Lawyers flew to the uk while President Trump was last visiting the uk and while they were there, they spent 16 hours interviewing this man, christopher steele, the former veteran british spy who was famously the author of the dossier that bears his name and will forever, the original document that alleged the links between Trump Associates and russians before the 2016 election. A source said steeles information was deemed sufficiently credible enough to extend the investigation of the Inspector General back here at home with the justice department. Meanwhile former trump business associate felix saider was questioned by House Intelligence Committee today about the moscow trump tower project. He spoke to reporters following the closed door testimony. What was revealed about the deal trump tower moscow deal . I revealed everything, all the knowledge i had about the deal i revealed to the committee as well as to every other committee ive testified in front of fully and completely. I answered every question asked of me. Well, lets wait a minute. In fact, the House Intelligence Committee didnt exactly agree with mr. Saters selfassess. A spokesperson released a statement that said while we do not typically comment on closed interviews, we must correct the record. Mr. Sater has not fully cooperated with the committee and he will remain under subpoena until he does so. Today we also learned the House Judiciary Committee will vote to authorize a dozen subpoenas as part of their obstruction of justice investigation. The list includes big names like flynn and kushner and rosenstein and sessions and a reminder were just eight days away from muellers scheduled testimony on the hill. To talk about all of it, back with us tonight is chuck rosenberg, former u. S. Attorney. Former senior fbi official. Also happens to be presently the host of the msnbc podcast called the oath. What do you make of the steele story . First the office of Inspector General at the department of justice and the Inspector General have good reputations. Fair. Nonpartisan, professionals. Thats good news. You can trust their report. Second, mr. Steele didnt have to cooperate with this. Hes a foreign national. He doesnt work for the department of justice. He never did. And so he sat down with them voluntarily. Thats a good sign. He wanted to tell the story and he wanted to make sure that the Inspector General had all the facts at his disposition before he wrote his report. Thats helpful to the Inspector General and will be helpful to us. Well, you may recall how media on the left held up the Mueller Report as being the big document they were waiting for. Ive noted media on the right have held up this Inspector Generals report as what they have been waiting for. Do you think something that never happens these days will happen if he is the man of good repute that you report he is, both sides will respect his findings . I sure hope so. Both sides should respect the report Mueller Report and that harrow wits writes. He is a good man and runs a good office. Its an incredibly important one. The department of justice is made up of human beings. Human beings are fallible. Its the job of the Inspector General to figure out what went wrong and make recommendations to fix it. I dont see it as a left or right issue. Its a Good Government issue. And we should look at the report in that way. Now, chuck, into dicier territory. What do you make of what the attorney general has said in the last 24 to 48 hours about muellers testimony . He at first said he had no problem with mueller testifying and now kind of using a double negative if mueller didnt want to testify, he would support that as well. He used the expression public spectacle. First, do you think its still a slam dunk that we will hear public testimony on Live Television on this network and others