DOJ Gives Pathetic Excuse for Removing Lutnick and Epstein Photo
The Justice Department says it removed a photo of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein from its released Epstein Files because it was flagged for nudity.
The photo was initially posted online but was later deleted. It shows Lutnick and Epstein walking on Little St. James, Epstein’s private island. There is no visible nudity in the photo, which includes three other men alongside Lutnick and Epstein. In a statement to the Daily Beast, the DOJ said the photo was “part of a batch of files that had been flagged for nudity.”
“The batch of thousands of images has been extracted for review and is being uploaded with necessary deletions on an ongoing basis,” a department official said. “No files are deleted.”
This is not a good excuse, especially since the DOJ recklessly released nude photos to the public of Epstein’s victims. Lutnick used to claim to have severed ties with Epstein in 2005, but numerous recently released files blatantly prove this. contradict his assertionsshowing a personal and professional relationship that continued for years.
Did the DOJ belatedly try to protect embattled Lutnick? If so, it has failed, because every file in its Epstein archives is scrutinized, making it easy to detect any attempt to delete or remove a file after the fact. In this case, the photo had already been saved by jmaila website run by two techies who created a searchable database of Epstein’s email account. The DOJ then re-uploaded the photo into its public database.
Various prominent figures across the world were confronted consequences after released files revealed Epstein’s dealings, including resignations and lawsuits, but not so much in the United States. That’s because the DOJ is trying to protect people in the Trump administration and neglecting to open investigations into other powerful Americans to appease the president, who wants this all to go away.
