His supposed “offense” was declining to prosecute Jeffrey Epstein in return for the billionaire sex predator’s guilty plea in state court (and concomitant jail sentence) when he was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. That is hardly an offense or even scandalous. It’s a professional decision that prosecutors across the country make every day. You can agree or disagree with it, but it is hardly grounds to lose your next job over.

So what is going on here?

The least likely possibility is that there really was something scandalous about Acosta’s decision. That he, or one of his subordinates, got something in return for declining to prosecute Epstein over a decade ago, and so Trump got rid of a bad apple. However, there is absolutely no evidence of this (at least that has been made public) and Acosta’s and subordinates’ actions are perfectly explainable in the absence of illegal inducements. Even if you accept the worst accusations against Acosta coming from Democrats and the mainstream media, that he and his people knuckled under to Epstein’s team of high-powered legal talent, so what? This happens, which is why there aren’t more multimillionaires and billionaires in jail. High-powered legal talent makes a difference. Exhibit A -- a guy named Orenthal James Simpson. That Epstein ended up in prison at all a decade ago is pretty good.

Also unlikely is that Trump unloaded Acosta because Trump himself was somehow involved in Epstein’s crimes and needed to throw someone to the wolves. Trump admitted to knowing Epstein, calling him a “terrific guy” at one point. And Epstein evidently spent some time at Trump’s Mar el Lago resort which Trump confirmed Friday. But Trump also threw Epstein out of the resort when an allegation arose against the fellow billionaire, something backed up by other members of the Florida club, and that Trump announced forcefully to the press from the White House.

Possibly Trump jettisoned Acosta because he looked weak. Trump’s loyalty is situational. He admirably stuck by Brett Kavanaugh in part because the stakes were orders of magnitude higher. On the other hand, Trump goes through direct subordinates like Big Macs. It’s not that Acosta didn’t fire back at his critics, but Trump may have felt the plea deal with Epstein itself made Acosta seem weak -- after all, Trump sees himself as a deal-maker par excellence. The problem here though is that in accepting Acosta’s resignation Trump himself looks a bit weak, as if giving into media and Democrat pressure.

So the most likely explanation is that Trump sacrificed Acosta to penetrate the political smokescreen that the Democrats and media created with the entire Acosta brouhaha. The attack on Acosta was designed to divert attention from the actual involvement of Democrat worthies with Epstein, and most notably former President Bill Clinton.

Compared to Acosta and Trump, Clinton’s relationship with Epstein was and is extremely suspicious, especially given the ex-president’s known sexual predilection (shared with Epstein) for young women, and predatory tactics for getting the same.

Flight logs from Epstein’s private Boeing 727, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” show that Clinton used the aircraft at least 26 times between 2001-2003.

Clinton’s own explanations of his contacts with Epstein have varied. He claims he only met Epstein twice and traveled on his plane four times, but this omits other documented encounters such one the Daily Beast uncovered from an old Palm Beach Post article about a private fundraising dinner in 1995.

In classic Clintonian style, the former President’s explanations are vague enough to allow for parsing and backtracking. For example, Clinton admits to meeting Epstein twice in New York but he also took a flight on Epstein’s plane “to Asia” between 2002 and 2003. The Daily Beast article notes that flight logs indicate Clinton traveled with Epstein on this trip, so if accurate, that’s at least three meetings not two, unless what Clinton really means is that he met Epstein on four flights plus the two New York meetings.

Moreover, the flight log shows that aboard the plane with Clinton and Epstein was the latter’s apparent “groomer” Ghislaine Maxwell and two other women. Maxwell, according to some reports also attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding. Jennifer Araoz, a victim of Epstein who recently appeared on a much-touted “Today Show” interview, reported that she was groomed by an unidentified woman who appears similar to Maxwell.

This is potentially devastating stuff for the Democrats. After all, much of their current identity is based upon the proposition that Trump stole the election from the rightful president, Hillary Clinton. And who is Hillary Clinton but the apologist and enabler for Bill, who very probably was in bed with -- literally and figuratively -- pedophile predator Jeffrey Epstein?

The hysterical and almost totally unwarranted attack on Acosta was a way to divert attention from this. By getting rid of his Labor secretary -- however perhaps unfairly to Acosta —Trump has helped put paid to this red herring, and point attention where it belongs -- William Jefferson Clinton.