HOUSE OVERSIGHT 030960 The location of the meeting is itself suspicious. Prosecutors and other law enforcement officials normally demand that those seeking a deal come to them. The fact that Acosta didn't is another sign___if one were needed___that this was a capitulation. It also casts further doubt on the claim that Acosta was capitulating for the purpose of sparing the folks who worked with him in the prosecutor's office. The key point, though, is that Ken Starr and Jay Lefkowitz were power players in Washington___men who might help Acosta down the road. Readers will be quite familiar with Starr's background. Lefkowitz was director of cabinet affairs and deputy executive secretary to the domestic policy council under President George H.W. Bush. Under President George W. Bush, Lefkowitz served as general counsel in the Office of Management and Budget and later as deputy director of domestic policy at the White House. Accommodating such influential figures must have seemed like a good career move. Having Starr and Lefkowitz on his side might help Acosta get a judgeship, a cabinet appointment, or a high-paying job back at Kirkland and Ellis. I'm speculating, of course. But my speculation finds support in Acosta's practice of accommodating the powerful. Much of that accommodation is of Democrats. Indeed, at the time Acosta was working in Miami as a U.S. Attorney, he had alienated some Republicans by such accommodation while at the Department of Justice. Some say he was on the verge of being fired when Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez parachuted him to Miami. The Epstein settlement was a way for Acosta to shore up his standing with some influential Republicans. Will Acosta be able to survive the current scandal? I don't have a clear sense about this yet. But President Trump, who isn't bashful about sacking cabinet members, may come to believe (if he doesn't now) that it's disadvantageous to have a cabinet member who sold out teenage victims