Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana on Tuesday reportedly pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an interview with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after Lutnick publicly claimed that Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier and convicted pedophile, was “the greatest blackmailer ever.”
The exchange took place during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Kennedy raised questions about whether the Department of Justice had adequately pursued new testimony contradicting its own findings. In July, the DOJ concluded that there was “no evidence” Epstein had blackmailed prominent individuals or maintained a so-called “client list.” Lutnick’s comments, made last week on the podcast “Pod Force One,” appeared to directly challenge that conclusion.
“It appears that Secretary Lutnick was Mr. Epstein’s next-door neighbor. In fact, their town homes shared a wall,” Kennedy said, citing the interview. “And the reporter that was talking to Mr. Lutnick, she asked how other prominent men could have been associated with Epstein when Mr. Lutnick could immediately sense that he was a ‘pervert.’ And then the reporter said, ‘Did they see it and ignore it?’ Do you remember that from the interview?”
Bondi confirmed she had seen the segment.
Kennedy then recited Lutnick’s remarks in full. “And Commerce Secretary Lutnick said, ‘No. They participated.’ And then Commerce Secretary Lutnick goes on to say, ‘That’s what his MO was. You know, get a massage, get a massage. And what happened in that massage room, I assume, was a video. This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.’ Is that true?” Kennedy asked.
Bondi responded by referring to the DOJ’s earlier findings. “Senator, our July memo said we did not uncover evidence,” she said, adding that the Epstein investigation “has gone through three administrations, as well as former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta.”
Kennedy pressed further, asking whether Bondi had interviewed Lutnick directly or planned to do so. Bondi acknowledged she had not and suggested there were no immediate plans to conduct such an interview.
“Don’t you think you ought to talk to him after this interview?” Kennedy asked.
“Senator, if Howard Lutnick wants to speak to the FBI and if Director Patel wants to speak to Howard Lutnick, absolutely,” Bondi replied.
The hearing also took a sharper partisan turn when Bondi and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee criticized Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois for refusing to release Epstein’s flight logs. The records, long sought by lawmakers and journalists, are believed to contain the names of high-profile individuals who traveled on Epstein’s private jets.
The renewed scrutiny of the Epstein case has drawn attention to the political and institutional handling of the scandal across multiple administrations.
President Donald Trump, who knew Epstein socially in the early 2000s, has insisted he severed ties with him after Epstein “stole” spa employees from Mar-a-Lago, including Virginia Giuffre, who later accused Epstein of sex trafficking.
Epstein’s former associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has also defended Trump’s conduct, telling Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that Trump “was a gentleman in all respects” and that she “never witnessed him in an inappropriate setting.”
Kennedy’s pointed questioning underscored lingering public distrust in the federal government’s handling of the Epstein affair — and the growing impatience among Republican lawmakers who say the Justice Department has shown little appetite for transparency.
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