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 habits — and that Epstein might have blackmailed them with incriminating movies.
Requested by the New York Publish’s Miranda Divine on Wednesday’s Pod Power One podcast whether or not high-profile associates of Epstein knew of his habits and simply ignored it, Lutnick mentioned 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 mentioned. “This man was the best blackmailer ever.”
Lutnick, Epstein’s former neighbor, mentioned he believes Epstein might have traded alleged blackmail movies for a lesser jail sentence within the so-called “sweetheart deal” he obtained throughout his first felony case on state prices in 2008.
“I assume, manner again when, they traded these movies in change 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 might he get 18 months and have the ability to go to his workplace in the course of the day and have guests and stuff? There should have been a commerce.”
The allegations stand in distinction with what FBI Director informed Congress throughout testimony last month.
Ask by Sen. John Kennedy who, if anybody, did Epstein visitors younger girls to in addition to himself, Patel replied, “Himself. There is no such thing as a credible data. None. If there have been, I might convey the case yesterday that he trafficked to different people.”
This picture supplied by the New York State Intercourse Offender Registry reveals 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 almost 20 years, informed 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 12 months. “Almost the entire exploitation and abuse of the entire girls was meant to learn solely Jeffrey Epstein and Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual wishes.”
Edwards mentioned Epstein lived, basically, two separate lives: one wherein he was sexually abusing girls and ladies “each day,” and one other wherein 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 mentioned. “There have been events the place a choose few of those males engaged in sexual acts with a choose few of the women that Jeffrey Epstein was exploiting or abusing — primarily ladies who have been over the age of 18.”
“He was abusing a whole bunch of girls, if not a thousand. And it is a very small fraction of these girls that he was sending to males,” mentioned Edwards.
Edwards mentioned he’s sure by attorney-client privilege and can’t ethically reveal the names of any of Epstein’s alleged associates with out permission from his shoppers. However he mentioned 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 lads, although these males might have been legitimately involved that Epstein had compromising data that he might use in opposition to them.
Epstein’s former companion Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on prices of kid intercourse trafficking and different offenses linked 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 can be launched.
President Donald Trump, who was associates with Epstein within the Nineteen 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 an enormous 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 try to do the Democrats’ work.”
Lutnick, in his interview with Divine, described Epstein as “gross.”
“I say to him, ‘Therapeutic massage desk in the midst of your home? How usually do you have got a therapeutic massage?'” Lutnick mentioned. “And he says, ‘Day-after-day.'”
“After which he will get, like, weirdly near me, and he says, ‘And the correct of therapeutic massage,'” Lutnick mentioned.
