{"id":18875,"date":"2026-02-11T20:16:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:16:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bondi-dodges-questions-about-lutnicks-connections-with-epstein\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T20:16:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T20:16:41","slug":"bondi-dodges-questions-about-lutnicks-connections-with-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/bondi-dodges-questions-about-lutnicks-connections-with-epstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Bondi dodges questions about Lutnick\u2019s connections with Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Attorney General Pam Bondi gave no direct answer Wednesday when pressed by Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) on whether the Justice Department has made any effort to question Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecretary Lutnick has addressed those ties himself,\u201d Bondi replied.<\/p>\n

Lutnick said on a podcast last year that he was disgusted by Epstein\u2019s conduct and vowed in 2005 to never to be in the same room with him again. However, documents the Justice Department released last month show continued interactions between the two men in the ensuing years.<\/p>\n

In addition, Lutnick acknowledged at a Senate hearing Tuesday that he and his family traveled in 2012 to the Caribbean island Epstein owned. Lutnick described a lunch with the financier<\/a>, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida and who died by suicide in 2019 in a New York jail while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

Lutnick, despite the latest revelations, has faced few recriminations from Trump world<\/a> over his connections with the late financier.<\/p>\n

As Balint demanded that Bondi explain whether prosecutors or the FBI have talked with Lutnick or other Trump administration officials who had \u201cties\u201d with Epstein, the attorney general challenged the lawmaker\u2019s terminology.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat does \u2018ties\u2019 mean?\u201d Bondi replied. \u201cCan you define that? Can you define \u2018ties\u2019?”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Americans would be shocked to learn that you are not interested in talking with these officials who have ties to Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d Balint replied as the attorney general tried to change the subject to the shooting of a Border Patrol agent in Vermont last month. \u201cWe now know that Lutnick went to Epstein’s island in 2012. How was that not a dealbreaker for the president?\u201d the Democratic lawmaker asked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attorney General Pam Bondi gave no direct answer Wednesday when pressed by Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) on whether the Justice Department has made any effort to question Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his interactions with Jeffrey Epstein. \u201cSecretary Lutnick has addressed those ties himself,\u201d Bondi replied. Lutnick said on a podcast last year that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}