Commerce Secretary Howard Luttonick suggests that Jeffrey Epstein opposed the Department of Justice and refused to have Epstein’s compromised material.
Trump and Epstein statues return to the National Mall
A statue of President Donald Trump holding hands with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to the National Mall a week after it was removed by the NPS.
For months, President Donald Trump appealed to his supporters to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein controversy – calling it a “democratic hoax.”
But Trump’s fellow billionaire and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick apparently did not get a memo.
In a recent podcast, Lutnick discovered how Epstein, Trump’s best friend for over a decade, believed he was “gross” and a “blackmailer.”
“He was gross,” said Lutnick in an October 1 podcast interview with Miranda Devine of the New York Post. Lutnick described Epstein as “the best blackmailer ever,” suggesting that he used a compromised video of a prominent man to get a 2008 lovers contract in Florida amid a child prostitution investigation.
Those comments differed greatly from the memo released by the Department of Justice and the FBI in July, saying that “reliable evidence has been found that Epstein blackmailed a prominent individual” or that he maintains a “guilty client list.”
The White House and the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The mansion next door
Lutnick, former chairman of finance giant Canter Fitzgerald, was once Epstein’s neighbor. Their surprise Upper East Side townhouse shared a wall.
However, Lutnick said his first meeting with Epstein, who died of suicide in Manhattan prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, gave a clear negative impression to the future Cabinet Secretary.
“The right kind of massage”
In 2005, after Lutnick and his wife, Allison, just moved into a newly renovated home, Epstein dispatched an assistant to invite the couple to coffee.
After giving them a tour of the “big living room”, he led them to a room with double doors.
“I thought it was the dining room,” Rutnick said. “And he opens the door and there is a massage table in the middle of the room.
Lutnick said he asked Epstein how often he received a massage to guarantee a table in the middle of the house.
“And he says, ‘everyday,'” recalls Lutnick. “And he becomes strangely close to me. And he says, “And the right kind of massage.” ”
Shortly after the comment, Lutnick said, he and his wife suddenly left Epstein’s mansion.
In “6-8 steps”, it took them to reach their residence, and the couple said he decided that he would “not be in the room with him for social, business, or even charity.”
Epstein has been accused of seducing and grooming many victims, including minor girls, for sexual abuse.
“If the guy was there, he wouldn’t go because he was gross,” Rutnick said.
Devine asked how other prominent men were associated with Epstein when Lutnick could quickly feel that he was a “pervert.”
“Did they see it and ignore it?” she asked.
“No. They’ve joined,” replied Lutnick.
“That’s his MO,” he said. “You know, ‘Get massages, get a massage.’ And I think this guy was the best people ever that happened in that massage room.
Rep. Robert Garcia, a top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on social media that Lutonic’s comments indicated the need for further disclosure. “Committee Lutnick explained what we already know: some of the most powerful men in the nation and in the world were involved in Epstein’s crimes,” writes Garcia. “We won’t stop until we get the perfect truth.”
Epstein Scandal Dog Strap
Trump and Epstein were friends until the 1990s, and fell in 2003 in a controversy over the Palm Beach Estate. Trump said he broke with Epstein as investors had poached staff from his Mar-A-Lago property.
Last month, the House of Representatives Surveillance and Government Reform Committee released a page from the “Birthday Book” given to Epstein in his 50th Birthday includes congratulatory letters from former President Bill Clinton and his influential friend who is suspected of him.
Trump’s alleged message he denied writing was written in the outline of a naked woman.
The president and his supporters have worked furiously to block backlash against the Justice Department and the FBI’s July statement. Many of his supporters, including Trump and FBI director Kash Patel and vice president JD Vance, have previously excited the Biden administration’s conspiracy to protect a child abuser’s plot connected to Epstein.
On October 2nd, after the podcast aired, Garcia wrote to Lutnick, asking him to “collaborate” in an investigation into the possible co-conspirators of Epstein.
“Given his direct interactions and knowledge with Mr. Epstein, in the interest of justice to Jeffrey Epstein and his enabler victims, I request that he sit down for a transcribed interview with committee staff and cooperate with the committee’s investigation,” Garcia writes.
Delay in House votes
In Congress, a bipartisan measure backed by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massey and California Democrat Locanna has 217 signatures from Congresswomen seeking U.S. Attorney General, General Pam Bondy, to release the Justice Department’s Justice Department files at Epstein. Another vote is needed to force a House vote against speaker Mike Johnson’s resistance.
Democrats accused Johnson of delaying the oath of Democrat leader Adelita Grialba, who could help Johnson win a special election in Arizona and release Epstein’s records.
In a podcast interview, Lutnick speculated that Epstein was able to secure a controversial 2008 plea deal in exchange for a video he owned. The deal allowed him to avoid federal sex trafficking accusations.
Instead, Epstein had to plead guilty to lesser charges of soliciting minors for prostitution in Florida court and register as a sex offender. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and was allowed to go to his office for a “work release” while in custody.
Trump’s relationship with Epstein has driven him out since his first term. In 2019, Trump said he “falls out” with Epstein, which he described as a “palm beach fixture” in the mid-2000s.
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House correspondent for USA Today. x You can follow her at @swapnavenugopal
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