The New York Post reports:

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a notable break with the Department of Justice, claimed late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever” — and may have traded the feds video of his rich and well-connected associates getting massages from young women in exchange for a controversial 2008 plea deal.

Lutnick made the shocking allegations to The Post’s Miranda Devine on the latest episode of “Pod Force One,” out now.

The 64-year-old cabinet secretary said that Epstein himself showed off his notorious “massage room” while giving Lutnick and his wife a tour of the infamous East 71st Street townhouse after the couple moved in next door to the since-disgraced financier in 2005.

“I say to him, ‘Massage table in the middle of your house? How often do you have a massage?’” Lutnick recalled. “And he says, ‘Every day.’ And then he gets, like weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”

Lutnick said he and his wife quickly excused themselves and left Epstein’s home, “and in the six to eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.”

When asked by Devine whether Epstein’s rich and powerful associates — including the likes of Prince Andrew and Microsoft founder Bill Gates — “could hang around him and not see what you saw, or did they see it and ignore it,” Lutnick responded, “they participated.”

“They get a massage, that’s what his MO was. ‘Get a massage, get a massage,’ and what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video,” the commerce secretary went on. “This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people. That’s how he had money.” [Continue reading…]

Last month, HuffPost reported:

FBI Director Kash Patel wants you to believe the “Epstein list” consists of only one name: Jeffrey Epstein.

In comments likely to anger the MAGA world, Patel told a Senate committee Tuesday there is “no credible information” that the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein trafficked young women to other people.

The FBI director was asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), “Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?”

Patel replied: “There is no credible information, none. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.”

The comments echo the Justice Department’s controversial July memo that stated there was no evidence of an Epstein “client list.” [Continue reading…]