Transcription
This Epstein scandal is rocking the Trump White House again, this time featuring confirmed visits to the notorious Epstein Island, where the man you see on your screen, along with the president, Trump's Commerce Chief, visited a confession he made for the first time today, after many years of lying about it. There are several strands this story we'll get into, but we begin with really something right out of a movie plot. And we've been reporting on this, if it sounds familiar, you may remember the evidence in the timeline that we've been showing you. What you see on the timeline includes Mr. Lutnick, who had said that he cut off all contact with Epstein. All contact. Dinners in New York, emails, what have you. And you see there later Epstein talked about blackmail. So he was accusing this man he said he'd cut off all contact with, of blackmail. Something that Pam Bondi and others inside DOJ say still didn't happen. And yet those three million new files that you see on the far right part of our timeline included Lutnick emailing about visiting the island, which put a lot of pressure on his public denials. And today, what we've been tracking here, and what so many in Congress, of course, and independent investigators and journalists have been tracking, has now blown up in Mr. Lutnick's face in the White House. Lutnick confessing only now that he's under oath today, faced with the damning emails that we've reported, that we told you about, that others, including the survivors, demanded be released precisely because they didn't believe people like Mr. Lutnick, who made a big show of both denying any past contact with Epstein, having cut off contact. He said, and still talking about him. And I'll show you about some of what he said because it fits into the larger question about how high this goes in United States government. These are also files and emails that President Trump has tried to hide for for years. And so while there might be a kind of dramatic, or some would even say prurient interest in some of this, believe me, honest law enforcement prosecutors, to say nothing of the survivors, care a lot. Donald Trump standing by Lutnick, standing by him even as he visited the island and lied about it. There are also reports today that we discussed last night with one of the journalists who broke the story, that another part of the files suggest that Trump was telling law enforcement he knew a lot about Epstein's crimes, or alleged at the time of what were allegations in Florida. So I'm going to show you more of that tonight. There are different strands of this, as I said, but we zeroed in on Lutnick precisely because it's a big problem to have these kind of people exercising power when they feel, whatever their motivations are, the need to lie about their history with Epstein. So he testified now today that he visited the island in 2012. So we know he's been lying about that for years, as mentioned, as we showed you on the timeline. Now, what's different? Well, the files are out, putting on the pressure, and lying about it today would have risked committing a perjury crime. Those other lies that I'll show you were in public, not under oath. Bottom line, Lutnick is now retracting something he's lied about for many years, claiming that in 2005, he cut off ties with Epstein. And if you happen to watch this program regularly, you may recall that we've discussed this. We discussed what the evidence was amounting to. Last night on this program, I was careful to note that Lutnick had not addressed this or clarified the emails. And so while the emails suggested he went to the island, we weren't even reporting that yet as fact because it had not been fully confirmed. Now Lutnick confesses, Trump White House stands by him. There are many questions remaining, including if it was an innocuous visit with his family, why go to such great lengths to hide it?
Senator Van Hollen hammering Lutnick today. Said you were disgusted, would never have any contact with him again. Did you in fact make the visit to Jeffrey Epstein's private island? I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. To suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012, I don't recall why we did it, but we did it. Mr. Secretary, again, as I said, there's not an indication that you yourself engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein. It's the fact that you believe that you misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements, suggesting that you'd cut off all contact when in fact you had not. You you realize that, you know, this visit took place after he'd been convicted, right? It went on like that. The senator sort of trying to address this fairly. No one who cares about the actual facts is trying to do guilt by association. In other words, those emails regard the visit, which show that he lied about it, only he knows why he lied about it. But that is completely separate from other material that suggests, like we showed the other day, a DOJ suspect list that suggests people were involved in, for example, the crimes. What was a sex trafficking ring? As the senator said, and I'll repeat for clarity, Mr. Lutnick's not accused of that kind of thing, but he kept lying about this in an almost dramatic fashion, which I'll show you. So he says he visited the island with his family, with his wife, kids, and nanny, and as you mentioned, I should say as Van Hollen mentioned, that's the state of play. But why lie about that if it was just that? And are we getting the whole truth now when the only thing he's admitting to, copping to, is what's caught up in the emails? Are there other meetings? Was there other help? Remember, one of the key points about why this is bigger than just a personal scandal which people could deal with is the amount of evidence that suggests Mr. Epstein was given special treatment, which allowed him to continue these crime sprees, which hurt all these people. So now you have someone who's caught lying about this, who's in the Trump cabinet, who's part of this group of people who have ties to Epstein, who were hiding it. And this is the same guy, as I'll show you, who says Epstein was a blackmailer, which again, the government has not confirmed or charged him for.
Now, the receipts go a long way. It was 2012. Lutnick wrote, "Hi Jeff, we're landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon, planning to head over to St. Bart's/Anguilla on Monday at some point. Where are you located? Exact location for my captain." This sounds very much like trying to go, definitely do the meetup. And Epstein said, "Come Saturday or Sunday lunch. Little St. James on the map behind Christmas Cove." Lutnick responds, "Okay. Lunch on Sunday. See you then." And later an Epstein assistant sent the message to Lutnick which included, "Nice seeing you." This is what lawyers would call multiple corroboration contexts that suggest the meeting took place, although it's not like we have a photo or a video or that kind of record. Now, that's 2012. Lutnick claimed very publicly that the last time he actually saw Epstein was seven years earlier. I say to him, "Massage table in the middle of your house, how often?" The problem is he was lying. And nothing about the meeting or today's confession suggests that he got confused and forgot, but rather this was a kind of brash, big lie, a way to say, "Well, I definitely cut it all off." And meanwhile, he and apparently his wife, who's only in this because of him, no one's throwing a lot of stones at her publicly, did go back and see him. How many times? Well, he's admitting to and denying any wrongdoing. And the White House says Trump stands by Lutnick. Of all the people who could continue to play these roles funded by you, the taxpayer, the president wants to keep on board someone who's been caught visiting Epstein Island. Even if it was apparently on the records just for lunch.
There's also new evidence in the files about Epstein's recording, which relates to something I'm going to quote Lutnick on these questions about what Epstein was up to. These photos show a camera perched over a suite of bathrooms. Other photos reveal what could be a kind of elaborate long-term surveillance room, because the door says, and is it truth in labeling or not? But it says "24-hour surveillance." The files have new details about how Epstein had one of the people in his employ work on small hidden cameras. This was back in 2014. The aide responding, "I'm installing them into Kleenex boxes now." Remember what we've said, these files, millions of them, are voluminous. The New York Times tracked this down and did the other corroborative reporting. You can't just necessarily learn something from each random email, but there are many stories in the Times and other papers right now, and we've done our own reporting, as we've told you, pulling on these threads. The new revelations we got first here on The Beat last night from Miami Herald journalist Julie K. Brown, recorded Howe in July 2006, Trump called the Palm Beach police chief at the time, and saying Epstein's activities with teenage girls were well-known. "Thank goodness you're stopping them. Everyone has known he's been doing this." Which, as I've mentioned, could be a positive if you say that's a person in the community talking to law enforcement in the service of potentially stopping something bad. Of course, it's Trump who is tied back into this in many ways, socially and otherwise. We're learning this because apparently the chief told the FBI this in a 2019 interview, which would have stayed secret except for the files coming out. Trump telling the chief, allegedly, or at least according to his account, that he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present. "Trump got the hell out of there." Again, that would sound like a good thing, and yet it also contradicts what we've seen Trump and some of his officials seem to want to do to create distance from Epstein when he became such a public, toxic national story. For example, here was Donald Trump in 2019. Two questions, are you kidding? Why did you have to? No, I had no idea. I had no idea. I haven't spoken to him in many, many years. But I didn't have. No. To deny what was in a controversy, he said he had no idea. This police chief, who again, was talking to the FBI in 2019, would seem to be credible. He knows he has to tell the truth or face legal sanction when you talk to the Feds. And was also someone who had credibility because he had tried to go after Epstein and was interfered with by Washington. If you remember the timeline and those problems. This chief says Trump also, Epstein's associate, was the operative, that she was evil. Focus on her, he said. And so, again, we're dealt with situations here that can be complex. If a person really was trying to to help law enforcement go get Epstein and Maxwell for the right reason, that could be a good thing. But why would that same person go to such lengths to publicly lie about that knowledge? And newly relevant, Trump won't even rule out a pardon for Maxwell, who again, the FBI chief says he knew all the way back then was evil. We've heard that Maxwell's prepared to speak honestly if only granted clemency by Trump. She pled the Fifth yesterday. Where Donald Trump ever engaging in sexual activity with an individual introduced to him by you or Jeffrey Epstein? I invoke my Fifth Amendment right to silence.