Karoline Leavitt cuts short White House briefing after reporter asks about Commerce chief Lutnick’s Epstein island admission

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt abruptly interrupted a briefing with reporters on Tuesday after a reporter asked about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The question came hours after Lutnick answered questions from congressional lawmakers. Documents published by the Ministry of JusticeIt has been revealed that she misled the public about the extent of her ties to the convicted pedophile sex trafficker, who killed himself in prison while awaiting trial.

Leavitt was about 20 minutes into one of his regular briefings with the White House press corps when a reporter asked whether President Donald Trump would stand by Lutnick, who admitted to members of the Senate Commerce Committee earlier in the day that he had visited Epstein’s. famous private islandLittle St. James.

He said Trump “fully supports” Lutnick and called him “a very important member of President Trump’s team.”

But instead of allowing reporters to further investigate Trump’s views on Lutnick or ask other questions, Leavitt launched into a monologue berating reporters for not asking about various positive statistics the administration has touted on issues important to the president.

“I want to point out that there are a lot of achievements in the news this week that people in this room haven’t asked about — you keep asking questions about the same topic — so let me restate those for you,” he said.

Leavitt then began recounting a list of past topics, including last Friday’s stock market results, an announcement by a medical group opposing gender reassignment surgery on minors, or recent declines in the national crime rate.

“Then we’ll get back to business. The President is very busy tonight, and you’ll see him promoting his administration’s energy policy at an event in the East Room tomorrow,” he said.

He then turned and left the room, accompanied by a group of aides.

Leavitt also answered a question about another document that cited a second-hand report alleging that Trump spoke to the Palm Beach, Florida, police chief about Epstein and that “everyone” knew about the pedophile’s illegal activities with minors.

Although she would not confirm whether the alleged 2006 phone call actually took place, she claimed that Trump had always been “honest and transparent” about his relationship with Epstein, who was once one of his closest friends before the two men had a falling out in the early 2000s.

Lutnick, a longtime friend of the president who is seeking to become Treasury Secretary after serving as finance chief for Trump’s 2024 campaign, has been similarly “honest and transparent” about his ties to the deceased rapist.

While he’s telling New York Post In October, she announced that she had cut off contact with Epstein, her onetime next-door neighbor, after a 2005 encounter that she claimed left her so uneasy that she swore she would “never be in the same room with that disgusting person again.” Documents released by the Justice Department showed that Lutnick maintained ties to Epstein not only as late as 2018 — a year before he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges and long after he remained in prison at the state level. committed crimes related to his prey on young girls – even arranging a visit to Epstein’s so-called “rape island” in 2012.

The commerce secretary admitted under questioning from Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday that he visited the infamous landmass that is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“I had lunch with him while we were on the boat for a family vacation. My wife, four children and my nannies were with me,” he said.

“We had lunch on the island for an hour, that’s true, and we left with all my children, my nannies and my wife… I don’t remember why we did that.”

Lutnick also claimed in his statement that he “did not have any relationship” with Epstein and had “almost nothing to do with that person.”