welcome to the lead. i m jake tapper. we begin with the politics lead. president trump on defense unloading at the white house as another cabinet secretary leaves the administration under the shadow of scandal, this time labor secretary alex acosta claiming he s leaving willingly to he is not a distraction but privately president trump was stewing over the unwanted attention to the trump administration and the president was worried about the steady stream of revelations to come involving the 2008 plea deal acosta brokers with well-connected multi-millionaire and accused child rapist jeffreyef steen. and president trump went from praising acosta to questioning why the victims had not been notified about that plea agreement ahead of time as mandated by law. and that is a key request many of us have been asking and a