Trump commerce secretary Howard Lutnick arranged to visit Epstein island, files show | Jeffrey Epstein
Howard Lutnick, who now serves as Trump’s U.S. commerce secretary, arranged to visit Jeffrey Epstein’s island in 2012, according to Epstein-related files released Friday by the Justice Department.
On Nov. 20, 2012, Epstein’s longtime assistant emailed Lutnick, according to newly released documents. saying “Jeffrey Epstein understands you will be in St Thomas for the holidays” and “Jeffrey asked me to please pass you on some phone numbers so the two of you can meet up”.
On December 19, 2012, Lutnick sent a message. email He told “Jeff” that he and several people, including his wife, his children, some friends, and their children, were visiting the Caribbean and were on Lutnick’s boat.
“We land in St Thomas early Saturday afternoon and plan to head to St Bart’s/Anguilla at some point on Monday” Lutnick wrote. “Where are you located (what is the exact location my captain)? Sound good for dinner on Sunday night?”
A person whose name has been redacted replied: “Down from Jeffrey: Come for lunch on Saturday or Sunday? Little St James on the map is behind Christians Cove.”
The documents appear to suggest that a meeting took place on December 24 when Epstein sent an email to his assistant with the subject line saying “please forward to Howard Lutnik.”
The body of the email reads: “nice to see you, point 2 read third.” Assistant responds “He will!” and later striker Message to Lutnick.
on friday, New York Times Reaching Lutnick by phone, Lutnick said that he could not comment on the island visit because he had not seen the last part of the Epstein documents.
“I didn’t spend any time with him,” Lutnick said before ending the call.
Newly disclosed files on Epstein include documents showing that Lutnick invited Epstein to a fundraiser for Hilary Clinton in 2015.
The document includes: email Dated November 3, 2015, Epstein’s longtime assistant forwarded him an email with a “very imminent” invitation from Lutnick, the former CEO of financial firm Cantor Fitzgerald. [sic] fundraiser” for Hillary Clinton on November 11.
According to the document, Epstein’s assistant forwarded the invitation email to Epstein the same day.
It is unclear whether Epstein attended the event.
At the time in the New York Post reported At a fundraiser held at Lutnick’s home that month, the newspaper described it as “next door to Jeffrey Epstein’s house.” It is unclear whether the same incident occurred.
These new documents come after Lutnick acknowledged this in a podcast interview with Miranda Devine of the New York Post reported that she was a neighbor of Epstein’s and that Epstein invited Lutnick and his wife to his home in 2005 and gave them a tour.
“The big living room and there’s double doors across from it, I think it’s the dining room and it opens the doors, there’s a massage table in the middle of the room, there’s candles and stuff all around,” Lutnick said. “I asked her, ‘Do you have a massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you get a massage?’ I say. And he says, ‘Every day.’ “Then he awkwardly approaches me and says, ‘And the right kind of massage.'”
“Now my wife is standing here, she’s looking at me, I’m looking at her and we’re like, ‘I’m sorry, we have to go,'” Lutnick continued. Lutnick continued. “And we left, and in the six or eight steps from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I would never be in the same room with that disgusting person again. So I was never in the same room with him, socially, for work, or even for charity. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going to go because he’s disgusting.”
The business department did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on the 2015 email.
Cantor declined to comment to the Guardian about the 2015 fundraiser.
