U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, breaking with the FBI and the Division of Justice, says he believes high-profile associates of convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein participated in his conduct — and that Epstein might have blackmailed them with incriminating movies.
Requested by the New York Publish’s Miranda Divine on Wednesday’s Pod Pressure One podcast whether or not high-profile associates of Epstein knew of his conduct and simply ignored it, Lutnick stated he believes, “No, they participated. They participated That is what his M.O. was — ‘Get a therapeutic massage, get a therapeutic massage.'”
“And what occurred in that therapeutic massage room, I assume, was on video,” Lutnick stated. “This man was the best blackmailer ever.”
Lutnick, Epstein’s former neighbor, stated he believes Epstein might have traded alleged blackmail movies for a lesser jail sentence within the so-called “sweetheart deal” he acquired throughout his first felony case on state fees in 2008.
“I assume, manner again when, they traded these movies in alternate for him getting that 18-month sentence, which allowed him to have visits and be out of jail. I imply, he is a serial intercourse offender. How may he get 18 months and be capable of go to his workplace throughout the day and have guests and stuff? There will need to have been a commerce.”
The allegations stand in distinction with what FBI Director advised Congress throughout testimony last month.
Ask by Sen. John Kennedy who, if anybody, did Epstein visitors younger ladies to in addition to himself, Patel replied, “Himself. There isn’t a credible data. None. If there have been, I’d convey the case yesterday that he trafficked to different people.”
This photograph supplied by the New York State Intercourse Offender Registry exhibits Jeffrey Epstein, March 28, 2017.
New York State Intercourse Offender Registry
Brad Edwards, a victims’ rights lawyer who has been pursuing the Epstein case for practically 20 years, advised ABC Information that Epstein was largely his personal consumer.
“Jeffrey Epstein was the pimp and the john. He was his personal No. 1 consumer,” Edwards said in an interview earlier this yr. “Practically the entire exploitation and abuse of the entire ladies was supposed to profit solely Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual wishes.”
Edwards stated Epstein lived, primarily, two separate lives: one during which he was sexually abusing ladies and women “each day,” and one other during which he related to politicians, royalty, and titans of enterprise, academia, and science.
“For essentially the most half, these two worlds didn’t overlap. And the place they overlapped, within the cases they overlapped, it appears to be a really small share,” Edwards stated. “There have been events the place a choose few of those males engaged in sexual acts with a choose few of the ladies that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing — primarily women who have been over the age of 18.”
“He was abusing tons of of ladies, if not a thousand. And it is a very small fraction of these ladies that he was sending to males,” stated Edwards.
Edwards stated he’s certain by attorney-client privilege and can’t ethically reveal the names of any of Epstein’s alleged associates with out permission from his purchasers. However he stated he has seen no indication that Epstein stored a listing of these males, or that he made it a observe to make use of these cases to blackmail or extort the boys, although these males might have been legitimately involved that Epstein had compromising data that he may use towards them.
Epstein’s former companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on fees of kid intercourse trafficking and different offenses related to Epstein, is the one affiliate of Epstein’s to be charged in connection together with his crimes.
The Trump administration has been coping with the fallout from its determination to not launch supplies associated to the investigation into Epstein, the rich financier and convicted intercourse offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it introduced in July that no further recordsdata could be launched.
President Donald Trump, who was pals with Epstein within the Nineties, however later had a falling out, has referred to as the push to launch the recordsdata a hoax created by his political rivals.
“It is all been a giant hoax,” Trump told reporters in July. “It is perpetrated by the Democrats and a few silly Republicans, and silly Republicans fall into the web. And they also attempt to do the Democrats’ work.”
Lutnick, in his interview with Divine, described Epstein as “gross.”
“I say to him, ‘Therapeutic massage desk in the course of your home? How typically do you will have a therapeutic massage?'” Lutnick stated. “And he says, ‘Each day.'”
“After which he will get, like, weirdly near me, and he says, ‘And the proper of therapeutic massage,'” Lutnick stated.
