Attorney General Pam Bondi gave no direct answer Wednesday when pressed by Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) on whether the Justice Department has made any effort to question Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein.
“Secretary Lutnick has addressed those ties himself,” Bondi replied.
Lutnick said on a podcast last year that he was disgusted by Epstein’s conduct and vowed in 2005 to never to be in the same room with him again. However, documents the Justice Department released last month show continued interactions between the two men in the ensuing years.
In addition, Lutnick acknowledged at a Senate hearing Tuesday that he and his family traveled in 2012 to the Caribbean island Epstein owned. Lutnick described a lunch with the financier, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida and who died by suicide in 2019 in a New York jail while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Lutnick, despite the latest revelations, has faced few recriminations from Trump world over his connections with the late financier.
As Balint demanded that Bondi explain whether prosecutors or the FBI have talked with Lutnick or other Trump administration officials who had “ties” with Epstein, the attorney general challenged the lawmaker’s terminology.
“What does ‘ties’ mean?” Bondi replied. “Can you define that? Can you define ‘ties’?”
“I think Americans would be shocked to learn that you are not interested in talking with these officials who have ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” Balint replied as the attorney general tried to change the subject to the shooting of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont last month. “We now know that Lutnick went to Epstein’s island in 2012. How was that not a dealbreaker for the president?” the Democratic lawmaker asked.
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