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A photo released last month by the Justice Department as part of the Epstein files that showed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean was removed from the Justice Department’s website before being restored Thursday night.
The photo, which has been authenticated by CBS News, shows Epstein, Lutnick, and three other men standing over an oceanside cliff.
The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, a nonprofit that preserves digital online content, downloaded the photo from the DOJ’s website on Jan. 31. It was also archived by Jmail, a web interface that was created to archive Epstein content.
The photo was released under file No. EFTA01230639 on the DOJ’s website. At some point it was removed and the link pointed to a “Page not found.” However, within hours of publishing the story, it was restored Thursday night.
In a statement provided to CBS News on Friday, Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said the “image was live online.” Baldassarre added that the “image was part of a batch of files that were flagged for nudity. The batch of thousands of images was pulled for review and is being uploaded with necessary redactions on a rolling basis. No files are being deleted.”
CBS News has also reached out to the Commerce Department for comment.
U.S. Department of Justice / Internet Archive
Emails that were in the millions of newly released Epstein files showed that in 2012, Lutnick, his wife and their four children planned a visit to Little St. James, a private island where Epstein had an estate.
The Free Press: WATCH: The Epstein Tapes, Part II: The Eye of the Law
Lutnick was invited for lunch on Dec. 24, 2012, and later, Epstein’s assistant wrote on behalf of Epstein, “it was nice seeing you.”
Lutnick, testifying before a congressional committee earlier this month, acknowledged visiting there with his family.
“We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,” Lutnick told lawmakers. “Then we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife all together. We were on family vacation. We were not apart. To suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012, I don’t recall why we did it. But we did.”
Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and in the hearing said he had “nothing to hide — absolutely nothing.”
In recent weeks, though, Lutnick has faced criticism for his ties to Epstein, who was his neighbor in New York City. Lutnick had previously claimed to have cut off contact with Epstein in 2005.
However, documents in the Epstein files showed the two were in business together as recently as 2014 over their shared dealings in a now-shuttered advertising company called Adfin.
The Epstein files showed that the two communicated about Adfin as late as 2018, with Epstein writing to Lutnick, “on another note what do you think the prospects for adfin are??”
Also in 2018, Lutnick emailed Epstein to apparently complain about an expansion plan for the Frick Collection art museum near their homes.
Lutnick warned Epstein that the renovation might “block your sunlight and views.”
“You should put in a letter. I’m sending a lawyer. Don’t ignore this,” Lutnick wrote.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his arrest on federal charges of sex trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide.
