Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Alex Acosta’s resignation Friday amid the mushrooming Jeffrey Epstein investigation made him the latest in a growing list of President Trump’s Cabinet members to depart under a cloud of scandal, plunging an administration that has struggled with record turnover into further upheaval. Trump announced Acosta’s departure in a morning appearance together on the South Lawn, telling reporters that his labor secretary had chosen to step down a day after defending himself in a contentious news conference over his role as a US attorney a decade ago in a deal with Epstein that allowed the financier to plead guilty to lesser offenses in a sex-crimes case involving underage girls. The president expressed regret over Acosta’s decision, calling him a ‘‘great labor secretary’’ and saying he had reassured the secretary that ‘‘you don’t have to do this.’’ ‘‘It was him, not me,’’ Trump said, though behind the scenes he had grown uncertain about Acosta’s future, according to administration aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter. In another development Friday, prosecutors alleged that, soon after The Miami Herald began reporting on his favorable treatment by law enforcement in an early 2000s sex crimes investigation, Epstein paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to people investigators had identified as possible coconspirators. Prosecutors alleged the payments might have been meant to influence the recipients. The prosecutor... Link to the full article to read more