White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt abruptly cut short a briefing with reporters on Tuesday after a reporter asked Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Hours earlier, Lutnick revealed in response to questions from members of Congress about documents released by the Justice Department that he misled the public about his relationship with a convicted pedophile sex trafficker who committed suicide in prison while awaiting trial.
About 20 minutes into Levitt’s regular briefing with the White House press corps, a reporter asked President Donald Trump if he would support Lutnick, who earlier in the day admitted to members of the Senate Commerce Committee that he visited Epstein’s infamous private island in Little St. James.
She responded that Trump “fully supports” Lutnick and called him a “very important member of President Trump’s team.”
But instead of letting reporters probe Trump’s thoughts on Lutnick or asking any other further questions, Levitt launched into a monologue in which he accused reporters of not asking about the various positive statistics the administration touts on issues important to the president.
White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt resigned on Tuesday after reporters asked probing questions about members of the administration’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein (Getty Images)
“I just want to point out that there are a lot of victories in the news this week that people here are not asking about — and you continue to ask questions about the same topics — so let me point them out for you again,” she said.
Levitt then began listing off a series of topics from the past few days, including last Friday’s stock market results, a medical group’s announcement against gender reassignment surgery for minors, or a recent drop in crime rates nationwide.
“So we’re going to get back to business. The president is very busy tonight, and you’ll see him tomorrow at an event in the East Room to promote his administration’s energy policies,” she said.
Then, she turned around and walked out of the room with a group of assistants.
Levitt also responded to questions about another document released by the government that forwarded a secondary report that Trump had spoken about Epstein with the police chief of Palm Beach, Florida, and claimed that “everyone” knew about the pedophile’s illegal activities with minors.
Commerce secretary admits to visiting Epstein’s island in 2012, nearly a decade after he claimed to have cut ties with Epstein (Getty)
Although she would not confirm whether the alleged 2006 phone call actually took place, she claimed that Trump had been “honest and transparent” about his relationship with Epstein, who was one of his closest friends before the two fell out in the early 2000s.
Lutnick, a longtime friend of the president who is seeking to become Treasury secretary after serving as treasurer of Trump’s 2024 campaign, has not been similarly “honest and transparent” about his relationship with the dead rapist.
Although he told new york post Documents released by the Justice Department show that Lutnick not only maintained contact with Epstein in 2018, just a year before he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges and long after he served time in state prison for crimes related to his preying on young girls – but even arranged a visit to Epstein’s so-called “rape island” in 2012.
Under questioning from Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday, the commerce secretary admitted to visiting the notorious landmass, which is part of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“I did have lunch with him while I was on the boat on a family vacation. My wife was with me, my four kids and the nanny were with me,” he said.
“We did have lunch on the island for an hour, literally, and then we left with all my kids, my nanny and my wife… I don’t remember why we did it.”
Lutnick also claimed in his testimony that he had “no relationship whatsoever” with Epstein and “almost no relationship with that man.”
