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