Massie doubles down on calls for Lutnick to resign

By Morgan Sweeney
The Center Square

Longtime Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., continued pushing Monday for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s resignation over his relationship with deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Massie claimed during an appearance on CNN Sunday that Lutnick visited Epstein’s Little James Island, where Epstein is known to have sexually abused minors. In a social media post on Monday, Massie repeated his claim and also referenced business dealings the two had in the early 2010s, years after Lutnick said he had distanced himself from the disgraced financier.

“Lutnick went to the island and was in business deals with Epstein, long after Lutnick says he parted ways and even after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes. What else is Lutnick covering up with respect to his association with Epstein?” Massie wrote.

He also shared a post of an Epstein email from political content creator and University of Virginia law student Micah Erfan, where Erfan also called for Lutnick’s resignation or impeachment.

In 2013, a business associate had emailed Epstein the resume of Lutnick’s nanny and said he was trying to arrange a time for Epstein to meet her. There have been some rumors that Epstein had a child, but his brother has said he didn’t, according to Business Insider.

“And there it is,” Erfan wrote of the email. “Direct evidence that Lutnick was not only hanging with Epstein 8 years after he swore he cut ties, but also sourcing a ‘nanny’ from him.”

“He must resign or be impeached. There are no other options,” Erfan added.

Lutnick said in October during a podcast interview with New York Post Editor Miranda Devine that he and his wife had moved next door and met Epstein in 2005 – and that they had avoided him ever since. Epstein had come over to introduce himself and gave them a tour of his home, but after he made some suggestive comments about his massage table, the Lutnicks left.

“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again. So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross,” Lutnick said. “So yeah, that’s my story, a one and absolutely done.”

However, recently released files have revealed that Lutnick wasn’t completely done with Epstein at that point. Besides the email referencing Lutnick’s nanny, Lutnick himself wrote an email trying to coordinate plans for a visit to Epstein’s island in Dec. 2012.

“We are landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St. Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point. Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?” Lutnick wrote.

He noted that they were traveling with another couple and all of their children.

Days later, Lutnick and Epstein signed paperwork – along with just a handful of other investors – to acquire a company called Adfin.

The two had other correspondence regarding their business, meeting for drinks, neighboring property development and dinners and galas, as multiple outlets have reported, until 2018.

When The Center Square reached out to Lutnick’s office regarding the files, a spokesperson for the Department of Commerce said, “This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments including securing Trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker.”

The spokesperson said the Lutnicks had “very limited interactions” with Epstein from 2005 until his death.

The Center Square also asked Massies’s office whether he was aware of other files indicating other dealings between the men but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

The Department of Justice allowed members of Congress access to the “mostly unredacted,” according to Massie, Epstein files that were released Monday.

A number of Democrats have joined Massie in calls for Lutnick’s resignation.