Trump brings Epstein island-tarred Cabinet member Lutnick with him on go to to troops | EUROtoday

President Donald Trump on Friday provided a powerful present of assist for embattled Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick by bringing him alongside on a go to to particular forces troops at Fort Bragg en path to his Palm Beach, Florida dwelling.

The whisk-away on Air Force One comes regardless of requires Lutnick to resign over his ties to and deceptive feedback about his relationship with useless intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump declined to reply a reporter’s query as he departed the White House on whether or not he would ask Lutnick to step down or outright hearth him after the Cabinet secretary confirmed having made a 2012 go to to Epstein’s notorious non-public island — seven years after he claimed to have reduce ties to the infamous underage intercourse trafficker.

But a listing of the individuals touring with Trump to North Carolina after which Florida this weekend reveals Lutnick as one of many president’s friends, together with North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, Reps. Richard Hudson, Brad Knott and David Rouzer, plus first girl Melania Trump and a variety of White House workers.

Lutnick has been below sustained hearth since Tuesday, when he admitted to the Senate Commerce Committee that he’d made the journey to Epstein’s dwelling on Little Saint James (a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands) for lunch along with his spouse and youngsters 14 years in the past.

Documents launched by the Department of Justice had revealed how Lutnick had been involved with Epstein, his onetime nextdoor neighbor in New York, by way of e mail to rearrange the go to.

The emails contradicted statements Lutnick had made to the New York Post throughout a podcast look in October when he stated he’d reduce off contact with Epstein — who died in a New York jail cell whereas awaiting intercourse trafficking costs in 2019 — after a 2005 encounter that he claimed had left him so unsettled that he’d vowed to “never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.”

The commerce secretary has lengthy been recognized to have had ties to Epstein, who was his next-door neighbor in New York at one level, years earlier than he pleaded responsible to prostitution costs in Florida as a part of a sweetheart take care of a George W Bush-era prosecutor who later turned Trump’s first Secretary of Labor throughout his first time period.

But the paperwork reviewed by The Independent present that Lutnick not solely deliberate to go to Epstein’s island in 2012 however maintained ties with Epstein as late as 2018 — the yr earlier than he was indicted on federal intercourse trafficking costs and lengthy after he’d hung out in jail for state-level offenses associated to his preying on younger ladies.

Trump’s resolution to host Lutnick on board the presidential plane — a extremely sought-after perk for cupboard members — comes a day after he claimed to not have recognized about Lutnick’s journey to the pedophile financier’s non-public getaway however moments later advised a reporter he had heard about particulars of the journey.

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room throughout an occasion to announce the repeal of a longstanding local weather rule reviled by the fossil gasoline business, Trump was requested if he’d been conscious of Lutnick’s journey to Little Saint James and whether or not he nonetheless has confidence within the former bond buying and selling government.

“No, I wasn’t aware of it … I actually haven’t spoken to him about it … but from what I hear, he was there with his wife and children,” Trump stated, simply days after Lutnick was compelled to confess he had traveled to the infamous locale.

He added: “I was never there — somebody will someday say that I was never there.”

Trump notably didn’t reply the second a part of the query as as to if he has confidence in Lutnick, a longtime buddy who had pushed to turn out to be Treasury Secretary after serving because the finance chief for the president’s 2024 marketing campaign.

But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt advised reporters on Tuesday that Trump “fully supports” Lutnick and described him as “a very important member of President Trump’s team.”