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Follow-Up: DEA Drug Probe Into Epstein Surfaces as Howard Lutnick Island Photo Draws Scrutiny · The Epstein Chronicles

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we have two articles that
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  we're going to get to. Both are follow ups to
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  stories we've been talking about, and the first one has
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  to do with Howard Lutnick and how a picture of
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  him on Jeffrey Epstein's Island magically disappeared from the database
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  before being restored after being called out. And the second
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  article that we're going to dive into is a follow
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  up to the article about Jeffrey Epstein being under investigation
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  in a dea probe. So let's start out with the
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  article dealing with Howard Lutnick. This article was published by
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  CBS News and the headline photo of Lutnik on Epstein's
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  Island removed from Justice Department files, now restored. This article
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  was authored by Daniel Rutnik, Ferristanos, Elliott Ramos, Matt Clark,
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  Matty Cornfield, and Emma Lee. A photo released last month
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  by the Justice Department as part of the Epstein Files
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  that showed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with convicted sex offender
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  Jeffrey Epstein on Epstein's Island in the Caribbean was removed
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  from the Justice Department's website before being restored on Thursday night.
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  The photo, which has been authenticated by CBS News, shows Epstein, Lutnick,
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  and three other men standing over an oceanside cliff. One
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  of the men looks like Brett Ratner, you know, the
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  guy that just got done doing the Milania movie. I know,
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  I know, just another coincidence. The Internet archives Wayback Machine,
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  a nonprofit that preserves digital online content, downloaded the photo
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  from the DJ's website on January thirty first. It was
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  also archived by j mel, a web interface that was
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  created to archive Epstein's content. The photo was released under
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  file number EFTA zero one two three zero six thirty
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  nine on the DJ's website. At some point it was
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  removed and the link pointed to a page not found. However,
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  within hours of publishing the story, it was restored on
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  Thursday night. You know what else happened yesterday? The whole
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  entire search feature was down for the files. Now. I'm
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  sure they were doing maintenance or something like that, but
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  there was no explanation, no banner or anything like that.
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  You just couldn't search for anything. So was the search
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  feature down so they could go in there and correct
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  the situation and add the picture back. I don't know.
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  Maybe again, I don't put anything past this DOJ negligence
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  or otherwise. CBS News has reached out to the Commerce
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  Department and the DOJ for comment. Oh, I'm sure they're
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  going to be very revealing. I'm sure they want to
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  explain everything. Emails that were in the millions of newly
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  released Epstein files showed that in twelve, Lutnick, his wife,
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  and their four children planned to visit to Little Saint James,
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  a private island where Epstein had an estate. And look,
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  I'm not saying that Lutnik was hurting anybody there. I'm
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  not saying he was engaging in any kind of abuse.
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  What I am saying is he lied, and as a
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  member of the president's cabinet, that's unacceptable to me, and
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  there needs to be consequences. Why did he lie? Why
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  not just tell the truth? Yeah, I was on the island,
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  this is what I was doing, this is why I
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  was there. It was a big mistake. I should have
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  never done it. But instead they all double down, Right,
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  they just keep lying and lying and lying and making
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  things worse for themselves. And boy, Howard Lutnick has certainly
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  stepped in it. Lutnik, testifying before a congressional committee earlier
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  this month, acknowledged visiting there with his family. I mean
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  we had lunch on the island. That's true, for an hour,
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  Lutnik told lawmakers. It's always lunch for an hour. Who
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  goes to an island that lunch for an hour? Who
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  goes anywhere to eat lunch for an hour unless you're working.
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  But if you're going out to lunch with your buddies
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  on the weekend or your girl, whatever, you're going for
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  an hour, where are you going? Because I'd love to know, Well,
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  my chick makes me go out to eat. Forget it.
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  We're on an adventure. I'm talking two three hours that
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  ends up at VIORI. You know what I'm saying. It's
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  never an hour. So he's there with his wife and
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  his kids, and only an hour. Oh, let's get off
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  our great yacht hop on this island and spend one
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  hour here. I don't buy it. I'm sorry, I don't
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  buy it. In fact, I don't believe anything, Howard Lutnik says.
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  Then we left with all of my children, with my
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  nannies and my wife. Altogether, we were on family vacation.
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  We were not a part to suggest that there was
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  anything untoward about that twenty twelve. I don't recall why
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  we did it, but we did. Well, there's a problem
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  in the picture that we have here. No Nanni's no wives,
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  maybe his kids, maybe you know, his son or whatever.
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  But there's other dudes in the picture, no women whatsoever
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  as far as nannies or wives anybody he's talking about. Now,
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  could they have been there, of course, But the problem
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  is Lutnik's a liar and now nobody's gonna believe him
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  about anything he says. But for whatever reason, Donald Trump
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  refuses to get rid of Howard Lutnick. And isn't it
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  odd every time you turn around that Howard Lutnick is
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  hanging over Donald Trump's shoulder. What's up with that? Lutnick
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  has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein,
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  and in the hearing he said he had nothing to hide,
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  absolutely nothing. Well, then why did you lie? Why did
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  you lie about the relationship? And that's one of my
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  biggest problems with all these people. So when people say, oh,
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  their reputation is being ruined, they're being dragged through the mud. Well,
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  The problem is they've never come forward and explained their
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  relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, so now that they're being forced
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  to do so, they look even worse. And even when
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  he's being forced to do so, Lutnik is still trying
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  to play games. Well, the days of playing games are over, buddy,
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  you want to go play touch ass in the park
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  called Donald Trump. We're done. It's time for you to
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  answer some questions. Pal. In recent weeks, though, Lutnick has
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  faced criticism for his ties to Epstein, who was his
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  neighbor in New York City. Lutnick had previously claimed to
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  have cut off contact with Epstein in two thousand and five.
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  All just a big ass lie, and he thinks you're stupid.
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  By the way, I'll just say whatever, and nobody's gonna
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  question me, nobody's gonna ask any real questions. Is that
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  what he really thought, like he was just going to
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  be able to lie about all of this and never
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  get called out, especially something that's this easily verifiable, Right,
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  We're not talking about something that's hard to find. Howard
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  Lutnik was on the island. He was friends with Epstein,
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  a lot friendlier than he said. And now we have
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  the receipts that prove he's been lying. Pretty simple, cut
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  and drive for me. He has to go. Either he
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  resigns or he gets fired, one or the other. But
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  that would only happen if we had a competent government,
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  but unfortunately we're saddled with the Epstein administration. However, documents
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  in the Epstein files showed the two we're in business
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  together as recently as twenty fourteen, over their shared dealings
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  in a now shuttered advertising company called Adfin. The Epstein
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  files showed that the two communicated about Adfinn as late
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  as twenty eighteen, with Epstein writing to Lutnik on another note,
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  what do you think the prospects for adfin are? Also
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  in twenty eighteen, Lutnik emailed Epstein to apparently complain about
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  an expansion plan for the Frick Collection art museum near
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  their homes. Lutnik warned Epstein that the renovation might block
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  your sunlight and your views. While considering Epstein was a
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  fucking vampire, probably not the worst thing that ever happened
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  to him. The least amount of sunlight the better for
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  people like Howard Lutnik and Jeffrey Epstein. You should put
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  it in a letter I'm sending a lawyer. Don't ignore this,
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  Lutnick wrote. Epstein died in jail in twenty nineteen after
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  his arrest on federal charges of sex trafficking. His death
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  was ruled to suicide. All right, So Howard Lutnik not
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  exactly telling us the truth, and in my opinion, should
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  either be forced to resign or he should be fired.
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  The dude's in absolute embarrassment. All right. Moving on to
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  the second article, and this article is also from CBS
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  News headline Senator calls for DEA to provide info on
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  incredibly disturbing Epstein drug investigation. This article was authored by
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  Daniel Rutnik and Kara to Botchnik. A leading Senate Democrat
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  is calling on US Drug Enforcement Administration to provide information
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  on a long running and long secret investigation into possible
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  drug trafficking and suspicious financial transactions involving Jeffrey Epstein and
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  fourteen alleged co conspirators. Now this is a big one
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  because a lot of people don't even realize the kind
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  of money laundering Epstein was up to. And I've even
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  heard some rumors that he had money on the street,
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  you know, acting as a shylock loan shark. I've heard
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  those rumors. I don't know if they're true, but I've
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  heard them. And we know he had ties to organized crime, Italian, Jewish,
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  Russian and probably others. And we all know that Epstein
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  was not leaving anything on the table as far as money.
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  So if you don't think that he had money on
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  the street through you know, associates, I think you're crazy
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  because I think he did. And I think the more
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  we find out about this Dea investigation, the or we're
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  gonna find out about that other aspect of Epstein's life.
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  When you have his kind of money, his kind of contacts,
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  and you were involved in you know, arm smuggling and shit,
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  you're gonna meet people, bro, and then later on down
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  the road you might find out that those people are
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  just another way to make more money. And if he
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  had mafia associates, people in organized crime, he could easily
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  pony up some money and not have to do shit
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  but kick back and collect a big each week. He
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  gets a cut, they get a cut, everybody's happy. In
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  addition to sex trafficking, it appears that Epstein and his
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  associates were under investigation by the DEA for other major crimes,
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  including illicit drug trafficking and money laundering. Senator Ron Wyden
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  of Oregon, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee,
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  says in a letter to DEA Administrator Terence C. Cole,
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  the DEA memo more Sensitive but Unclassified, was among more
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  than three million pages of documents recently released by the
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  Justice Department. The memo, from twenty fifteen refers to a
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  DEA organized crime Drug Enforcement Task Force probe nicknamed Chain Reaction.
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  It noted that the case was opened in twenty ten
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  in New York and was judicial pending, indicating that the
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  investigation remained active at the time the memo was drafted
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  five years later. The co conspirators, it said, were being
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  investigated for illegitimate wire transfers, which are tied to illicit
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  drug and or prostitution activities occurring in the US Virgin
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  Islands and New York City. Well, hold on a minute here,
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  I thought that Jeffrey Epstein was just a loan predator
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  who was just preying on people and trafficking girls to himself.
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  Isn't that what we're being told? That's weird. Seems like
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  the government used to have a different opinion. I wonder
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  what's changed. The fact that Epstein was under investigation by
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  the dojs OCDETF Task Force suggests that there was ample
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  evidence indicating that Epstein was engaged in heavy drug trafficking
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  and prostitution as part of cross border criminal conspiracy. Widen writes,
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  this is incredibly disturbing and it raises questions as to
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  how this investigation by the DEA was handled. Did anyone
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  go to prison? Did Epstein ever get brought in and
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  talk to I wonder why not? Other than Epstein? The
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  names of those targeted in the investigation are blacked out
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  in the version released by the Justice Department. Many details
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  about the investigation are also redacted, and they shouldn't be.
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  But we don't have a right to know, I guess not.
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  Widen expresses concern that the excessive redactions go well beyond
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  the intent of the Epstein File Transparency Act, which allows
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  for redactions to protect the identity of victims, not members
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  of a criminal sex trafficking organization. Well that's pretty interesting too,
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  isn't it. Why would they be protecting these people? Why
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  not just doubt everybody? Why do you continue to cover
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  this up? He also questions why no charges were brought
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  against Epstein or the others for drug trafficking or financial crimes,
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  and whether DEA and DOJ during the first Trump administration
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  moved to terminate this investigation in order to protect pedophiles. Yikes,
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  And that's coming from a senator, and I think it's damning.
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  It's really telling that that's where we are as a society.
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  We have to ask if the administration was killing an
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  investigation to protect fucking pedophiles. It's unbelievable that we even
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  have to have the conversation. The DEA did not respond
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  to CBS News requests for comment. Wyden's letter asked the
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  DEA to turn over a full, unredacted copy of the
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  memo by March thirteenth for his committee's investigation. He also
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  ask the agency to provide more information about why Epstein
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  and the fourteen others that were under investigation when the
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  case concluded, and why no federal drug trafficking or money
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  laundering charges wherever filed against them. And that's just basic oversight, right,
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  But you know the dj is going to push back,
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  you know the DEA is going to push back, Oh,
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  this is classified information. You can't have that it'll be
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  the same old song and dance. Meanwhile, all of us
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  know that we're being lied to. We all know that
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  Epstein was a lot more than just some random pervert,
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  and we also know that what we're seeing here is
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  nothing more than a gigantic cover up. All the information
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  that goes with this episode can be found in the
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  description box.