Trump team finds someone to throw under the bus on Epstein

President Donald Trump is flanked by then-Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta while speaking to reporters outside the White House in July 2019. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/File

Tuesday’s Senate hearing featuring FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t shed a ton of light on the substance of the Jeffrey Epstein files . But it was hugely significant in another way: It signaled a new political effort by the Trump administration to ascribe blame.

And the target is none other than a former top Trump administration official – one whom Trump very notably once defended.

Testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patel seemed to make a point to fault Alexander Acosta , who was US attorney in Florida in the late 2000s and cut a nonprosecution agreement with Epstein . That deal came durin