Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared to contradict FBI Director Kash Patel’s declare that Jeffrey Epstein by no means trafficked his victims to different folks whereas speaking about his private expertise with the disgraced financier and intercourse offender again after they have been neighbors in New York Metropolis.
Recounting a skeevy interplay he had with Epstein throughout an look on Wednesday’s episode of the New York Publish’s “Pod Force One” podcast, Lutnick mentioned he suspects Epstein was not solely forcing younger ladies and women into intercourse acts with folks he knew however was additionally blackmailing these high-profile buddies and associates with incriminating footage of the interactions.
Whereas touring Epstein’s Manhattan condo together with his spouse, Lutnick remembered being baffled by why any residence would wish a devoted “massage room.”
Chip Somodevilla through Getty Photographs
“I say to him, ‘Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?’” Lutnick recalled. “And he says, ‘Every day.’ And then he gets, like, weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”
Lutnick claimed to consider that Epstein’s “massage room” was a part of his scheme to extort wealthy and influential buddies who “participated” in his abuse.
“They get a massage, that’s what his M.O. was. ‘Get a massage, get a massage,’ and what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video,” he theorized. “This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever. That’s how he had money.”
Lutnick’s speculation appeared to undermine claims Patel made throughout a tense Senate Judiciary Committee listening to final month, the place on Sept. 16, he mentioned his company had “no credible information” to recommend Epstein trafficked women to buddies or associates.
“If there were,” Patel added on the time, “I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.”
