President Donald Trump’s administration has demonstrated little ability to maintain a unified narrative on Jeffrey Epstein. For months, the White House has been dealing with the fallout from the Justice Department’s decision to not release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan federal jail in 2019. In July, following widespread outrage after a few of Trump’s top aides backed themselves in a corner, the administration settled on silence as a strategy. Now, as a new PBS/NPR/Marist poll shows 90% of Americans want all or some of the Epstein files released, one of Trump’s top Cabinet officials is suggesting that there is potentially scandalous information being hidden from the public.

On Wednesday’s episode of the New York Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast, ​​Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told host and columnist Miranda Devine that Epstein, his former Manhattan neighbor with whom he shared a townhouse wall, was the “greatest blackmailer ever.” Then the secretary grew even more blunt: “That’s how he had money.” 

Lutnick’s interview presents a significant narrative jolt because it comes from inside the Trump orbit and directly conflicts with the administration’s public claims about the Epstein files. Describing Epstein as “gross,” Lutnick told Divine about the first time he claims to have visited his neighbor’s home. “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.’” 

That’s when Epstein revealed his hand, Lutnick claimed. “‘They get a massage,’ that’s what his M.O. was,” the secretary said of Epstein’s approach to his associates. “‘Get a massage, get a massage,’ and what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video.”

“So what happened to those videos? Why is there now such a dearth of information when, you know, Donald Trump’s people are running the FBI and the DOJ?” Devine asked.

“I assume, way back when, they traded those videos in exchange for him getting that 18-month sentence, which allowed him to have visits and be out of jail. I mean, he’s a serial sex offender. How could he get 18 months and be able to go to his office during the day and have visitors and stuff? There must have been a trade,” Lutnick speculated, referencing Epstein’s sentence after his 2008 sweetheart plea deal in Florida. (The prosecutor who offered Epstein that secret plea deal, Alex Acosta, was eventually named as Trump’s first term labor secretary.) As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, the nation’s largest financial institutions kept ties with Epstein until the end. 

Since the most recent Epstein firestorm erupted in July, Trump appears to have tried all manner of distractions and diversions to keep the latest revelations off the front pages. The administration has militarized Washington, D.C., and launched operations in blue cities including Memphis, Portland and Chicago. Trump has attacked free speech in the wake of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination and pressured his Justice Department to go after his political enemies. Now, his own commerce secretary has upended the administration’s strategy of evasion, which has at times been quite effective, by naming the elephant in the room — or, in this case, on the National Mall. (His comments came the day before an art installation originally titled “Best Friends Forever” reappeared on the National Mall after it was removed last week. The statue, now renamed “Why Can’t We Be Friends?,” depicts Trump and Epstein clasping hands and skipping merrily.)

Lutnick’s remarks make it clear that the scandal, despite being overshadowed in recent weeks by Kirk’s murder and international events, is still on the minds of many on the right. Sixty-seven percent of Republicans support releasing all the Epstein files, according to the new PBS poll. Although Devine declared the Epstein furore to be “overblown” in July, she nonetheless felt the subject to be sufficiently worthy of coverage more than two months later as to warrant confronting the commerce secretary about it in an interview.

Lutnick made “a complete unforced error” with his revelation, Wired Magazine’s Jake LaHut told NBC News. As a sitting Cabinet official and former neighbor of Epstein, the secretary’s story places him at odds with the public posture of DOJ and FBI officials. It seemingly backs up Attorney General Pam Bondi’s initial claim of an “Epstein client list,” while simultaneously undermining FBI Director Kash Patel’s conflicting testimony that no credible evidence of blackmail or a client list exists. 

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During a tense Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 16, Patel testified that his agency had “no credible information” to suggest Epstein trafficked girls to friends or associates. But as Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., noted during that hearing, when U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed longtime Epstein collaborator Ghislaine Maxwell in July, a transcript shows she said some of the “cast of characters” who surrounded Epstein are now “in [Trump’s] Cabinet.” Blanche, who used to be President Trump’s personal attorney, failed to follow up. And the White House has walked back at least one earlier claim that Trump had nothing to do with Epstein files, with an administration official recently acknowledging that Trump’s name appears in the Epstein files, but admitting no wrongdoing. Trump himself said he had a falling out with Epstein because he “stole” Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago spa when she worked there as a teenager. It was Maxwell who offered Giuffre a job as Epstein’s masseuse, which led to years of sexual abuse.

Lutnick’s comments appear to be creating tension in the White House, Aswain Suebsaeng reported for Zeteo: 

“That f**king dumba*s,” one of the senior Trump administration officials told Zeteo on Wednesday, after seeing a clip of Lutnick riffing on Epstein. “I’ve worked with him and can tell you he doesn’t think he did anything negative…That’s not how he thinks. He just talks and talks, and doesn’t care what unhelpful bullshit comes out.”

But Lutnick was careful in one area. When asked by Devine what Trump himself made of his experience with Epstein, the secretary quickly changed the subject. Still, his podcast appearance was enough to pique the interest of congressional leaders. 

“We know there are a lot of people [who] have information within the administration that could be helpful to our investigation,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., a top member of the House Oversight Committee, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday. “We need to have Howard Lutnick in front of the committee,” Garcia said, adding that he would “100%” support a subpoena for Lutnick. The call to subpoena Lutnick was echoed on Thursday on MSNBC by Schiff. 

The secretary’s remarks come at a critical time for Trump. The House of Representatives is one vote away from the release of the Epstein files. House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, is receiving criticism for seemingly slowwalking the swearing-in of recently elected Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who has pledged to provide the decisive final vote. 

It’s unclear how long the government shutdown will last, and with the House in recess for another week, it will likely be awhile before any action will be taken. But Lutnick’s comments — and Devine’s interest — make it clear the scandal of Trump’s Epstein connections won’t be going away any time soon.

In a statement in the House of Commons on Thursday, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said the decision came in the wake of the publication this week of emails Mandelson sent to Epstein in the 2000s, in which he gave his support to the disgraced financier even when he was facing jail for sex offenses.

Doughty said the emails showed that the “depth and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” from what was known when he was appointed ambassador to Washington last year in the wake of the Labour Party’s election victory.

Mandelson, who took up his post in February this year after what the government described as an “extensive” vetting process, has voiced his deep regret over his previous links with Epstein and said he knew nothing about his criminal activities.

“In light of the additional information in the emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador to the United States,” Doughty said.

In particular, he pointed to Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction in 2008 was “wrongful and should be challenged.”

On Wednesday, The Sun newspaper published emails that it said showed Mandelson telling Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

“I think the world of you,” Mandelson told him before he began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The decision to fire Mandelson comes just a day after Starmer said he had “confidence” in him. It’s the latest blow to the prime minister ahead of a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the U.K. next week, which is likely to be met with protests and some controversy. Last week Starmer also saw his deputy, Angela Rayner, quit over a tax error on a home purchase.

The government said James Roscoe, the U.K. deputy head of mission in Washington, will serve as interim ambassador and oversee Trump’s state visit. Roscoe is a career diplomat and former communications chief to the late Queen Elizabeth II.

Starmer’s judgment is being increasingly questioned, particularly over his appointment of Mandelson, who is no stranger to controversy, having twice resigned from former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government in 1998 and 2001.

In the wake of his second resignation from Blair’s government, Mandelson became a European Commissioner when Britain was still in the European Union, before returning to front line British politics in 2008 to serve under Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown.

Mandelson’s trade expertise was considered a major asset in trying to persuade the Trump administration not to slap heavy tariffs on British goods, and seemed to pay off when the countries struck a trade deal in May, though some details of the agreement have yet to be finalized.

He is also a skilled – critics say ruthless – political operator whose mastery of political intrigue brought him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”

It’s rare for a politician, rather than a career civil servant, to be given a key U.K. ambassadorial post. The center-left former lawmaker was not an obvious emissary to the Trump administration. Mandelson once called Trump a “danger to the world” — words he later said were “ill-judged and wrong.”

The focus on Mandelson over his links to Epstein accentuated this week after the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, who at the time was a wealthy and well-connected financier. In that album, Mandelson called Epstein “my best pal” in a handwritten note.

Other alleged contributors to the album that was compiled by British convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell were Trump himself, former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz in a “friends” section, and included other letters with sexually provocative language.

Epstein took his own life in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, more than a decade after his conviction.

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Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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Essentials List: Must-Have Products for Diving into True-Crime Stories from Amazon

Stock up on these for your next binge session:

1. Filthy Rich: The Shocking True Story of Jeffrey Epstein – Uncover the details.
2. Noise-Cancelling Headphones – Block distractions during podcasts.
3. Kindle Paperwhite – Read exposés on the go.
4. Notebook for Journaling Thoughts – Jot down revelations.
5. Essential Oils Diffuser – Relax after heavy reads.
6. Vinyl Turntable – Pair with nostalgic tunes.
7. Portable Charger – Keep devices powered for research.
8. Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil – Self-care amid drama.

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Director Woody Allen said neighbor Jeffrey Epstein‘s New York City mansion reminded him of a vampire’s castle.

In a letter celebrating Epstein’s 63rd birthday, newly unearthed by the New York Times, Allen said the staff and young women the late sex offender kept around his seven-story townhouse put him in mind of Castle Dracula.

Allen was speaking about dinners that he attended at Epstein’s place, saying they were served “by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women, reminding one of Castle Dracula where [Bela] Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.”

“Add to this that Jeffrey lives in a vast house alone, one can picture him sleeping in damp earth,” Allen wrote.

The letter was part of a larger story from the Times on Epstein’s townhouse. The piece was filled with photos of the 21,000 square-foot home on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Formerly owned by retail billionaire Les Wexner, the massive home had been remodeled to suit Epstein’s taste. Notable decor included a statue of a bride hanging onto a rope that dangled in an atrium, a wall of framed prosthetic eyeballs and leopard-print seating.

Notably, one credenza in the home featured photos of Epstein with politicians, celebrities and businessmen. A framed photo of Epstein with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump sat in the first row of picture frames in the images shared by the Times. Nearby, there were photos of Epstein with Bill Clinton and a signed dollar from Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, is open to answering questions from Congress — but only if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony, her lawyers said Tuesday.

Al Sharpton On President Trump
He Wants You Focused on Obama, Beyoncé, Oprah …
So You Forget His Pal Jeffrey Epstein

Published July 28, 2025 1:03 PM PDT

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TMZ.com

Al Sharpton says President Trump is running from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and he’s hoping an old trick distracts the masses … attacks on big-name Black celebrities.

The Reverend joined us on “TMZ Live” Monday and we asked him about Trump alleging Sharpton was paid $600,000 to endorse Kamala Harris.

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TMZ.com

Al says the claim is absurd and it’s a desperate move by Trump to shift the news cycle away from the Epstein Files. He says Trump’s throwing crap on the wall and nothing’s sticking — so now he’s leaning on an old crutch, going after former prez Barack Obama and other Black celebs.

Sharpton says when Trump whiffed on his claim that Obama committed treason, Trump changed his tune and started alleging he, Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé were paid to endorse Harris.

Al reminds folks Trump really got started in politics with the Obama birtherism conspiracy and says he’s going back to the well and “going after all the Blacks now.”

Trump’s getting an earful from Al here, and Sharpton says a defamation lawsuit may be incoming too.

Catch the full interview on “TMZ Live.”