Trump would ‘fire’ Howard Lutnick if he saw video of testimony, say oversight Democrats
Following closed-door testimony from Howard Lutnick before the House oversight committee on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats called the commerce secretary’s performance “embarrassing”.
“If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” said congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California.
Lawmakers pointed to alleged inconsistencies between Lutnick’s previous comments on podcasts that he stopped associating with the late sex offender after 2005.
The justice department’s release of case files showed that Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years past that. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home. And Lutnick’s family had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Lutnick admitted to the 2012 lunch during his 10 February testimony before the Senate appropriations committee. “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said. In that testimony, Lutnick also insisted that he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein.
According to Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic representative of Virginia, the commerce secretary said “he could remember nothing about the visit to the island. Couldn’t remember why he was there. Couldn’t remember anything he saw.”
Oversight Democrats also said that Lutnick did not answer their questions about whether he spoke with Donald Trump ahead of giving testimony before the panel today.
“I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history,” congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters, while noting that the commerce secretary told lawmakers it was “inexplicable” that he visited Epstein’s private island. Lutnick described his encounters with Epstein as “meaningless and inconsequential,” Ansari added.
Key events
Closing summary
Here is a recap of today’s politics blog:
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Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged suicide note was released Wednesday. A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein, the first time the document has been made public.
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The Trump administration has claimed that migration has made Europe an “incubator” for terrorism, according to a recently published report on counter-terrorism strategies. The administration will focus counter-terrorism efforts on drug cartels.
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Republican politicians in Tennessee released a new congressional voting map that could go into effect before the midterm elections this November. The proposed map would eliminate the state’s only Democratic-controlled district by carving up a majority-Black voting bloc based in Memphis.
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More information was released on the suspect charged in connection to Monday’s shooting near JD Vance’s motorcade. The Texas man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
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The FBI’s director, Kash Patel, has allegedly given out customized bottles of bourbon at events, including ones where he is working in a official capacity, according to a report from the Atlantic.
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Donald Trump will be hosting the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for a visit, a White House source confirmed to the Guardian. Trump and Lula, who was elected in 2023, will discuss “economic and security matters of shared importance”, the source said. The meeting is expected to take place this Thursday.
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The Trump administration has claimed that migration has made Europe an “incubator” for terrorism, according to a recently published report on counter-terrorism strategies.
..The strategy [referring to the report] also focuses on rooting out “violent left-wing extremists” including “radically pro-transgender” groups, as Trump’s conservative administration steps up its political attacks on opponents.
It also further places drug cartels in the Americas at the centre of counter-terrorism efforts.
But some of its strongest language is reserved for Europe, home to numerous US allies who will be alarmed to see their continent in the Trump administration’s crosshairs once again.
“It is clear to all that well-organised hostile groups exploit open borders and related globalist ideals. The more these alien cultures grow, and the longer current European policies persist, the more terrorism is guaranteed,” the strategy said.
Read the full article below:
Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged suicide note matches previous writing from the disgraced financier, according to reporting from the Los Angeles Times.
…In the short handwritten note released Wednesday, Epstein allegedly wrote, “They investigated me for month — Found nuthing!!!”
The note concludes, “Whatcha want me to do — Burst out cryin!! No Fun – Not Worth It!!”
It was a phrase Epstein had used before.
In a September, 2016, email to his brother, Mark, he wrote, “whtchoo want me toodo — bust out crying” in response to news that their cousin had become a grandfather.
And in another message the following year to his childhood friend Terry Kafka, Epstein wrote, “Whatcha want me todo/bust out cryin,” in response to a message from Kafka about being nostalgic.
Epstein’s brother and Kafka did not immediately responded to requests for comment.
The line is an apparent reference to a 1931 Little Rascals short film Little Daddy, in which the character Stymie says, “Well, what do you want me to do, bust out crying?” when another character says that it will be their last breakfast together.
Read the full article here.
Rudy Giuliani, infamous Trump adviser and former New York mayor, is out of the intensive care unit after being hospitalized in Florida last Sunday for pneumonia.
Giuliani, 81, remains in the hospital while recovering from the respiratory illness.
Here is a statement from Ted Goodman, a Giuliani spokesperson:
Mayor Rudy Giuliani is out of the ICU and will spend some time recovering before leaving the hospital.
The mayor and his family appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers sent his way.
Mayor Giuliani – the man who took down the Mafia, saved New York City, and ran toward the towers on September 11 – is the same fighter he has always been, and he is winning this fight.
The power of prayer is working. The mayor feels it. We feel it. Please keep them coming for America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
Here is an article from Fabiola Cineas for the Guardian, profiling several survivors of Epstein:
Epstein survivors have held press conferences and met with congressional lawmakers; in November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, and the release of more than 3.5m pages of documents followed. However, in the more than two months since the justice department released its latest batch of files – more than 2m documents have yet to be released – prosecutors have not brought any new charges, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.
As for Ghislaine Maxwell – the only person convicted in connection with Epstein’s network – she was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 and has exhausted her appeals. Rather than facing harsher scrutiny, however, Maxwell was controversially transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security federal camp in Texas in August.
While the lack of action has left survivors with little faith that the full scope of Epstein’s network will ever face justice, they don’t intend to back down.
Liz Stein, Danielle Bensky, Lisa Phillips and Jess Michaels discuss, in their own words, what made them come forward, the power of survivors banding together and where they want the movement to go.
Read the full article here.
Here’s a copy of the alleged suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein, disclosed in court today:
The note does not include a signature. The Guardian has not verified whether the letter was written by Epstein, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
The note was unsealed after the New York Times published a story last week detailing the note’s existence and petitioned the court in White Plains, New York, to release it.
Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged suicide note released
A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein, the first time the document has been made public. The note, written in messy handwriting, appeared to say:
They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!! … It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!! NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!”
The Guardian has not verified if the letter was written by Epstein.
The document was unsealed this evening. Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, said he found the note after an earlier suicide attempt by Epstein in July 2019, weeks before he was eventually found dead in his cell.
Eighteen people have been arrested as part of a federal criminal complaint in connection to a drug-trafficking investigation in Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park, the justice department announced.
A statement released by the justice department gave additional insight on the bust.
The complaint charges 25 defendants with possession with the intent to distribute, and distribution of, a controlled substance.
At one defendant’s Calabasas residence, law enforcement seized approximately 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of fentanyl.
The defendants arrested today are expected to make their initial appearances tomorrow afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Seven defendants are considered fugitives.
‘Today, we begin reclaiming MacArthur Park from criminals and drug addicts to return this public space to the citizens of Los Angeles,’ said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli.
‘Together with our federal and local law enforcement partners, we are executing multiple arrest and search warrants targeting those who are distributing drugs in and around the park.’
Here’s more information on the shooting, AP reported:
Marx was walking along the path of Vance’s motorcade when officers spotted him near the intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue. The officers were responding to a Secret Service agent’s report that Marx was seen near the White House complex with a firearm concealed on the right side of his body, the affidavit says.
Marx pulled a firearm from his waistband as he ran away from Secret Service officers and fired at one of them, but a bystander behind the officer was shot in the leg, the affidavit says. Officers returned fire and struck Marx in his abdomen, a hand and his left arm, according to the filing. It says Marx spit at officers as they provided him with aid after the shooting.
The teenage bystander was not seriously injured and has been released from a hospital, ABC News reported. ABC was first to report what the suspect allegedly said after the shooting.
More information has emerged on the suspect charged in connection to Monday’s shooting near JD Vance’s motorcade.
Here’s reporting from the Associated Press:
A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said, “‘F—k the White House’ and “Kill me, kill me, kill me’”, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.
The sworn statement does not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target.
The US attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that her office “will pursue the most serious charges available against anyone who brings gun violence to our streets, particularly when that violence unfolds steps from the seat of our government and the path of the vice-president of the United States”.
Read the full reporting here.
Patel has allegedly become enraged if bottles of bourbon go missing. Here’s more from Fitzpatrick on Patel’s ire during a March incident:
In March, Patel and his team brought at least one case of bourbon to the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia, for a ‘training seminar,’ where Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes provided mixed-martial-arts instruction to aspiring FBI agents and senior staff. At one point at least one bottle went missing, which caused the director to “lose his mind,” according to clients of Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who has assisted FBI agents, including whistleblowers, with legal issues.
Siuzdak told me that multiple agents contacted him for legal guidance after Patel began threatening to polygraph and prosecute his staff over the missing bottle. “It turned into a shitshow,” Siuzdak said. Other attorneys told me they received similar calls from FBI employees regarding concerns about Patel’s bottles.
