Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick broke with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) assessment on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by saying he was the “greatest blackmailer ever” during a Wednesday interview with the New York Post.
During an appearance on “Pod Force One,” Lutnick directly contradicted the DOJ’s conclusion in July that no evidence suggested Epstein blackmailed prominent people with a “client list,” stating that he made his fortune off of blackmail. He alleged that powerful people such as Prince Andrew and Microsoft founder Bill Gates got massages from Epstein on his island.
“They participated. That’s what his MO was. ‘Get a massage, get a massage.’ And what happened in that massage room I assume is on video. This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That’s how he had money,” Lutnick told journalist Miranda Devine.
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A spokesperson for Gates told the New York Post that Lutnick’s claims were “absolutely false” and that Gates only ever discussed philanthropy with Epstein.
Lutnick suggested that any incriminating videos of prominent people in the massage room were traded in exchange for a plea deal in 2008 that resulted in Epstein only getting sentenced to 18 months in prison. The commerce secretary added he has not spoken to President Donald Trump about Epstein.
“I mean, he’s a serial sex offender. How could he get 18 months and be able to go to his office during the day and have visitors and stuff? It must’ve been a trade. So my assumption is, and I have no knowledge, but my assumption is there was a trade for the videos because there were people on those videos,” Lutnick said.
When he lived next door to Epstein, Lutnick said that he witnessed a massage table located in the center of one of the rooms in Epstein’s house. The disgraced financier got “weirdly close” to Lutnick to inform him that he got the “right kind of massage” every day. Lutnick and his wife quickly grew uncomfortable and immediately left the residence, the commerce secretary said.
“In the six or eight steps it takes to get to his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick said. “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. That guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross.”
Trump said in July that he ended his friendship with Epstein after he “stole” spa workers from Mar-a-Lago, including then-17-year-old Virginia Giuffre, who alleged that she was recruited to Epstein’s island to perform sexual acts. Epstein’s longtime partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, told U.S. deputy attorney general Todd Blanche that Trump was a “gentleman in all respects” and “never” saw him in an inappropriate setting.
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