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Trump would 'fire' Howard Lutnick if he saw video of testimony, say oversight Democrats
Following closed-door testimony from Howard Lutnick before the House oversight committee on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats called the commerce secretary’s performance “embarrassing”.
“If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” said congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California.
Lawmakers pointed to alleged inconsistencies between Lutnick’s previous comments on podcasts that he stopped associating with the late sex offender after 2005.
The justice department’s release of case files showed that Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years past that. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home. And Lutnick’s family had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Lutnick admitted to the 2012 lunch during his 10 February testimony before the Senate appropriations committee. “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said. In that testimony, Lutnick also insisted that he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein.
According to Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic representative of Virginia, the commerce secretary said “he could remember nothing about the visit to the island. Couldn’t remember why he was there. Couldn’t remember anything he saw.”
Oversight Democrats also said that Lutnick did not answer their questions about whether he spoke with Donald Trump ahead of giving testimony before the panel today.
“I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history,” congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters, while noting that the commerce secretary told lawmakers it was “inexplicable” that he visited Epstein’s private island. Lutnick described his encounters with Epstein as “meaningless and inconsequential,” Ansari added.
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Infamous Trump advisor and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is out of the intensive care unit after being hospitalized in Florida last Sunday for pneumonia.
Giuliani, 81, remains in the hospital while recovering from the respiratory illness.
Here is a statement from Ted Goodman, a Giuliani spokesperson:
Mayor Rudy Giuliani is out of the ICU and will spend some time recovering before leaving the hospital.
The mayor and his family appreciate the outpouring of love and prayers sent his way.
Mayor Giuliani—the man who took down the Mafia, saved New York City, and ran toward the towers on September 11—is the same fighter he has always been, and he is winning this fight.
The power of prayer is working. The mayor feels it. We feel it. Please keep them coming for America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani.
Here is an article from Fabiola Cineas for the Guardian, profiling several survivors of Epstein:
Epstein survivors have held press conferences and met with congressional lawmakers; in November, the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed, and the release of more than 3.5m pages of documents followed. However, in the more than two months since the justice department released its latest batch of files – more than 2m documents have yet to be released – prosecutors have not brought any new charges, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.
As for Ghislaine Maxwell – the only person convicted in connection with Epstein’s network – she was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 and has exhausted her appeals. Rather than facing harsher scrutiny, however, Maxwell was controversially transferred from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security federal camp in Texas in August.
While the lack of action has left survivors with little faith that the full scope of Epstein’s network will ever face justice, they don’t intend to back down.
Stein, Bensky, Lisa Phillips and Michaels discuss, in their own words, what made them come forward, the power of survivors banding together and where they want the movement to go.
Read the full article here.
Here’s a copy of the alleged suicide note from Jeffrey Epstein, disclosed in court today:
The note does not include a signature. The Guardian has not verified whether the letter was written by Epstein, and the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
The note was unsealed after the New York Times published a story last week detailing the note’s existence and petitioned the court in White Plains, New York, to release it.
Jeffrey Epstein's alleged suicide note released
A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein, the first time the document has been made public. The note, written in messy handwriting, appeared to say:
They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!! … It is a treat to be able to choose one’s time to say goodbye. Watcha want me to do — Bust out cryin!! NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!”
The Guardian has not verified if the letter was written by Epstein.
The document was unsealed this evening. Nicholas Tartaglione, Epstein’s cellmate at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, said he found the note after an earlier suicide attempt by Epstein in July 2019, weeks before he was eventually found dead in his cell.
18 people have been arrested as apart of a federal criminal complaint in connection to a drug-trafficking investigation in Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park, the justice department announced.
A statement released by the justice department gave additional insight on the bust.
The complaint charges 25 defendants with possession with the intent to distribute, and distribution of, a controlled substance.
At one defendant’s Calabasas residence, law enforcement seized approximately 18 kilograms (40 pounds) of fentanyl.
The defendants arrested today are expected to make their initial appearances tomorrow afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Seven defendants are considered fugitives.
‘Today, we begin reclaiming MacArthur Park from criminals and drug addicts to return this public space to the citizens of Los Angeles,’ said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli.
‘Together with our federal and local law enforcement partners, we are executing multiple arrest and search warrants targeting those who are distributing drugs in and around the park.’
Here’s more information on the shooting incident itself, AP reported:
Marx was walking along the path of Vance’s motorcade when officers spotted him near the intersection of 15th Street and Independence Avenue. The officers were responding to a Secret Service agent’s report that Marx was seen near the White House complex with a firearm concealed on the right side of his body, the affidavit says.
Marx pulled a firearm from his waistband as he ran away from Secret Service officers and fired at one of them, but a bystander behind the officer was shot in the leg, the affidavit says. Officers returned fire and struck Marx in his abdomen, a hand and his left arm, according to the filing. It says Marx spit at officers as they provided him with aid after the shooting.
The teenage bystander was not seriously injured and has been released from a hospital, ABC News reported. ABC was first to report what the suspect allegedly said after the shooting.
More information has emerged on the suspect charged in connection to Monday’s shooting near JD Vance’s motorcade.
Here’s reporting from the Associated Press:
A man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
Michael Marx, 45, of Midland, Texas, was shot multiple times during Monday’s confrontation and was in the back of an ambulance on his way to a hospital when he said, “‘F—k the White House’ and “Kill me, kill me, kill me’”, a Secret Service agent said in an affidavit.
The sworn statement does not specify whether investigators believe Marx had a particular target.
The US attorney Jeanine Pirro said in a statement that her office “will pursue the most serious charges available against anyone who brings gun violence to our streets, particularly when that violence unfolds steps from the seat of our government and the path of the vice-president of the United States”.
Read the full reporting here.
Patel has allegedly become enraged if bottles of bourbon go missing. Here’s more from Fitzpatrick on Patel’s ire during a March incident:
In March, Patel and his team brought at least one case of bourbon to the FBI’s training facility in Quantico, Virginia, for a ‘training seminar,’ where Ultimate Fighting Championship athletes provided mixed-martial-arts instruction to aspiring FBI agents and senior staff. At one point at least one bottle went missing, which caused the director to “lose his mind,” according to clients of Kurt Siuzdak, a retired agent who has assisted FBI agents, including whistleblowers, with legal issues.
Siuzdak told me that multiple agents contacted him for legal guidance after Patel began threatening to polygraph and prosecute his staff over the missing bottle. “It turned into a shitshow,” Siuzdak said. Other attorneys told me they received similar calls from FBI employees regarding concerns about Patel’s bottles.
Here’s more from the Atlantic’s Sarah Fitzpatrick on several reactions to Patel’s personalized bourbon among FBI personnel:
The FBI has traditionally had a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorized use of alcohol on the job and for its misuse while off duty. But that standard is bending under Patel’s leadership, one former agent told me. ‘It is so weird and uncomfortable,’ this person said.
Another former agent described the bottles as ‘demoralizing,’ because they suggest one set of standards for the director and another for the rest of the bureau. This person said he believes that many agents would worry that if the director offers you a bottle, and “you aren’t on board on receiving it enthusiastically, you are getting polygraphed for loyalty.” The fear of retribution has deterred some staff from reporting their concerns to supervisors or through channels reserved for whistleblowers.
The FBI’s director, Kash Patel, has allegedly given out customized bottles of bourbon at events, including ones where he is working in a official capacity, according to a report from the Atlantic.
The latest merch from Patel is “engraved with the words ‘Kash Patel FBI Director’ along with a makeup of the FBI shield. Patel’s name is reportedly also spelled featuring a dollar sign: Ka$h. Some pints also include Patel’s signature along with the “#9,” a nod to Patel being the ninth confirmed FBI director.
The discovery into Patel’s distillery gifts comes after a previous exposé from the Atlantic, alleging the FBI director drinks excessively and that several colleagues are concerned with his apparent erratic behavior.
Patel is currently suing the Atlantic and journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote both pieces on Patel, for defamation.
Read the article on Patel’s party favors here (paywall).
Donald Trump will be hosting the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for a visit, a White House source confirmed to the Guardian.
Trump and Lula, who was elected in 2023, will discuss “economic and security matters of shared importance”, the source said. The meeting is expected to take place this Thursday.
Thursday’s talks will provide further insight into the current status of US-Brazil relations, which have been contentious given tariffs imposed by Trump and the two world leaders being ideologically opposed.
In August, Trump placed a 40% tariff on Brazilian goods, a sharp increase from the previous 10% tariff. In September, Lula told the BBC that he and Trump had “no relationship” and that the tariffs were not “[communicated] in a civilised manner”.
“He just published [the tariffs] on his portal, on social media,” said Lula to the BBC.
Democratic congressman Steve Cohen, whose district would be affected by redrawing efforts, commented on the redistricting attempt earlier today, in a post on X.
This is insane. The GOP’s newly proposed TN Congressional maps would have people in Shelby County all the way to Williamson County – 200+ miles apart – being “represented” by the same Congressman. It’s a blatant, corrupt power grab that would destroy the Black community’s and our entire city’s voice.
Cohen has represented the ninth district since 2007.
Republican politicians in Tennessee have released a new congressional voting map that could go into effect before the midterm elections this November.
The proposed map would eliminate the state’s only Democratic-controlled district by carving up a majority-Black voting bloc based in Memphis that is currently represented by Democrat Steve Cohen.
The latest map comes only a week after the Supreme Court’s ruling on the use of race in congressional maps, a decision that civil rights leaders have said squashes a major component of the Voting Rights Act.
In a statement on the move, State House Speaker Cameron Sexton said:
The Supreme Court has opined that redistricting, like the judicial system, should be color-blind. The decision indicated states like Tennessee can redistrict based on partisan politics…Tennessee’s redistricting will reduce the risk of future legal challenges while promoting sound and strategic conservatism.
Read more on the ruling here.
Here's a recap of the day so far
Following closed-door testimony from Howard Lutnick before the House oversight committee on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats called the commerce secretary’s performance “embarrassing”. “If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” said congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California. Lawmakers also pointed to alleged inconsistencies between Lutnick’s previous comments on podcasts that he stopped associating with the late sex offender after 2005, despite justice department files that show Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years past that.
Earlier, James Comer, the Republican chair of oversight committee, told reporters that Lutnick had, in the past, not been “100% truthful” about whether he had ever visited Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous private island. After the closed-door testimony Comer said that commerce secretary has been “very forthcoming” with his “three” interactions with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.
Ted Turner, the founder of television news network CNN, has died at the age of 87. The cause of death was not immediately released, but Turner had revealed that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder, in 2018. Turner became one of the most powerful figures in US media and entertainment, after he launched CNN as the first 24-hour news channel in 1980.
The FBI has launched a “criminal leak investigation” focused on Atlantic journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who wrote a detailed story last month about government officials’ alarm over the bureau’s director Kash Patel’s alleged “bouts of excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences”, two people familiar have told MS NOW. The move is highly unusual, given that leak investigations are usually focused on government officials – not journalists – who may have disclosed state secrets or classified information.
In the Oval Office, Donald Trump said that Iran now wants to make a deal “very badly”. He added that the situation had changed quickly. “A few days ago. It’s a long time ago in the world of war,” Trump said. He also repeated his claims that the regime’s military capabilities have been decimated, but also added that Iran has agreed to not have a nuclear weapon moving forward.
The FBI raided the office of Louise Lucas, a Virginia state senator who played a key role in the recent fight to redraw the state’s congressional maps, according to several reports. In a statement to the Guardian, the FBI only said that it was executing a “court-authorized federal search warrant” in the city which sits next to Norfolk. They added that this is an ongoing investigation with no further information publicly available at this time.
Trump says Iran wants to make a deal 'very badly' and has agreed to not have a nuclear weapon
In the Oval Office, Donald Trump – flanked by Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighters ahead of a 14 June fight at the White House – said that Iran now wants to make a deal “very badly”.
“A few days ago. It’s a long time ago in the world of war,” Trump said when asked about why this moment is different. He repeated his claims that the regime’s military capabilities have been decimated, but also added that Iran has agreed to not have a nuclear weapon moving forward.
The president also claimed, falsely, that Pope Leo XIV suggested that Iran should be able to create a nuclear weapon. “If that happened, the entire world would be hostage,” Trump said, repeating baseless claims that informed his admonitions of the pontiff. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is set to meet the pope on Thursday in Rome – hoping to remedy a strained relationship between Washington and the Vatican.
Speaking to reporters after Howard Lutnick’s closed-door testimony, James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee, said that the commerce secretary has been “very forthcoming” with his “three” interactions with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.
Comer also insisted that there is no “cover-up”, as suggested by Democratic members of the panel.
“We asked very substantive questions the first hour,” Comer added. “The Democrats, during their hour, repeated the exact same question.”
FBI searches office of Virginia state senator who played key role in redistricting fight – reports
The FBI raided the office of Louise Lucas, a Virginia state senator who played a key role in the recent fight to redraw the state’s congressional maps, according to several reports.
Citing people familiar with the matter, the Associated Press and the New York Times both report that Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth, Virginia, was searched. The AP adds that the search was part of a corruption investigation.
In a statement to the Guardian, the FBI only said that it was executing a “court-authorized federal search warrant” in the city which sits next to Norfolk. They added that this is an ongoing investigation with no further information publicly available at this time.
Lucas, 82, has been a state senator for 34 years, and is also the first woman and first African American to serve as the Virginia senate’s president pro tempore.
Trump would 'fire' Howard Lutnick if he saw video of testimony, say oversight Democrats
Following closed-door testimony from Howard Lutnick before the House oversight committee on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Democrats called the commerce secretary’s performance “embarrassing”.
“If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” said congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California.
Lawmakers pointed to alleged inconsistencies between Lutnick’s previous comments on podcasts that he stopped associating with the late sex offender after 2005.
The justice department’s release of case files showed that Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years past that. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home. And Lutnick’s family had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Lutnick admitted to the 2012 lunch during his 10 February testimony before the Senate appropriations committee. “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said. In that testimony, Lutnick also insisted that he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein.
According to Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic representative of Virginia, the commerce secretary said “he could remember nothing about the visit to the island. Couldn’t remember why he was there. Couldn’t remember anything he saw.”
Oversight Democrats also said that Lutnick did not answer their questions about whether he spoke with Donald Trump ahead of giving testimony before the panel today.
“I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history,” congresswoman Yassamin Ansari told reporters, while noting that the commerce secretary told lawmakers it was “inexplicable” that he visited Epstein’s private island. Lutnick described his encounters with Epstein as “meaningless and inconsequential,” Ansari added.
