Kaitlan Collins Torpedoes Trump Spox Bitterly Complaining About Coverage of Lutnick’s Epstein Island Visit

CNN anchor and senior White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins torpedoed Trump White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for complaining about coverage of Trump Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

The newest batch of Epstein documents appear to contradict Lutnick’s previous statements that he shunned Epstein after a creepy 2005 encounter when they were neighbors.

Secretary Lutnick was grilled at a hearing Tuesday over the discrepancy and his visit to the private island with his wife and children in 2012 — years after Epstein’s conviction on sex crimes.

On Tuesday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, Collins called Leavitt out for trying to dismiss the Lutnick news at a White House briefing, noting that new developments and pressure from Epstein survivors have driven public interest in the story:

COLLINS: We’re monitoring new fallout tonight from the release of the latest batch of the Epstein files.

The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, was appearing before Congress today. And as he was testifying, he attempted to explain the gap between these two statements you’re about to hear, from Lutnick himself, regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUTNICK: My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.

I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat, going across, on a family vacation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Newly-released emails from the Justice Department show that Secretary Lutnick actually stayed in contact with Jeffrey Epstein, even after Epstein had pled guilty to soliciting sex from an underage girl, and had to register as a sex offender. And that contact continued, including in business ties with Jeffrey Epstein well after, we heard from Lutnick in that interview just a few months ago where, he said that he and his wife distanced themselves from their neighbor in New York, in 2005, after just being inside of his Manhattan townhome.

Appearing before senators today, the Secretary tried, repeatedly, to clean up the record that includes the details of a family visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUTNICK: I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person.

I literally met him three times over 14 years with widespread in between. That’s all I can remember. That’s all there is in the documents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And amid calls from Democrats, for Howard Lutnick to resign over the inconsistencies in those statements, this is what we heard in the White House press briefing today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Secretary Lutnick remains a very important member of President Trump’s team, and the President fully supports the Secretary. I will just point out that there are a lot of wins in the news this week that people in this room have not asked about, because you continue to ask questions about the same subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Of course, this story has stayed in the headlines, because there’s new information, and survivors have been saying that they still want accountability here for what has happened.

The Justice Department, in just the last 24 hours or so, has unredacted more names in the Epstein documents.

You watched right here, on THE SOURCE, last night, as the Deputy Attorney General had said that he made public the name of the former Victoria’s Secret CEO, that’s Les Wexner, after Congressman Thomas Massie had gone to the Justice Department, been able to look at the unredacted files, and said that at least in one place, Les Wexner’s name was baselessly redacted.

The Justice Department has also since unredacted the names of other people, including Epstein’s longtime assistant, a former French modeling agent. They, along with Les Wexner, are listed in that 2019 FBI document as co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein’s. Now, being listed as a co-conspirator doesn’t mean they’re guilty of any crimes. They were never charged with anything. But what investigators uncovered about people in Epstein’s orbit is what a lot of people, including the survivors, want to know.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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