Trump Cover-Up UNRAVELS as TOP Official EXPOSED IN THE FILES

What this episode is about

The main topic revolves around a significant controversy involving powerful figures' connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, specifically highlighting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's misleading statements about his relationships with Epstein. As new documents emerge from Lutnick's own administration, they reveal contradictions to his previous claims, including his continued presence in close proximity to Epstein and his activities on Epstein's private island, raising questions about accountability and transparency among those in power.

Key takeaways

• Lying about Epstein links? It's like trying to hide a giraffe in a phone booth.
• Docs reveal powerful men frequented Epstein's circle but claim ignorance; is selective amnesia the new norm?
• Howard Lutnik's 'no contact' claim crumbles—who's writing these scripts, and should we trust their plot twists?
• Public figures scrambling from Epstein files is like a kid covering their eyes; the truth doesn’t disappear.
• If this scandal were a sitcom, its title would be 'Friends in High Places: The Awkward Reunion.'

Who speaks in this episode?

• Michael Popock (Host) · 16 min speaking
• Howard Lutnik

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Howard Lutnick, Galane Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch, Allison Lutnik
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Michael Popock, Howard Lutnick, Trump administration, Midas Touch Network
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Caner Fitzgerald
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Trump administration, Lisa Phillips, Michael Popock, Frick Collection
5. 12:00 – 15:00: Caner Fitzgerald, Trump administration
6. 15:00 – 17:45: Midas Touch Network, Frick Collection

Notable quotes from "Trump Cover-Up UNRAVELS as TOP Official EXPOSED IN THE FILES"

• American people by your own administration. I don't understand these powerful men who have relationships with Galain Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein who know even if we didn't…

  about Galane Maxwell · at 0:19

• American people believe that once he bought his townhouse from Jeffrey Epstein and he and his wife Allison went next door to that townhouse on the Upper East Side and saw the…

  about Allison Lutnik · at 1:30

• I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Touch Network in Legal AF. Let's get to the story. You understand the premise of my hottake. You know you're in the files. We may not have known it, but you.

  about Michael Popock · at 3:02

• Lutnik knows he's in there when he forgot the island adventure at little j little St. James Island.

  about Howard Lutnick · at 4:03

• Email exchanges about something. who knows what. And about them joining together to oppose a museum. One of my favorites, by the way, the Frick Collection, which is in an old…

  about Frick Collection · at 8:55

• Of Jeffrey Epstein and not getting out ahead of the story. I just don't understand it. And the Trump administration, of which Howard Lutnik is a major part, he's the tariff…

  about Trump administration · at 9:43

• Lutnik and Donald Trump used our taxpayer dollars to go make that investment. But then Caner Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnik's family office, family business is going to profit and…

  about Caner Fitzgerald · at 14:48

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Howard Lutnick — Person · Primary criticized public official · 3 mentions · first at 1:04
  Popock alleges Lutnik misled the public about the extent/timing of his contacts with Epstein, citing newly produced documents and specific events (townhouse, island visit, donations, emails).
• Michael Popock — Person · Host / main speaker · 3 mentions · first at 3:02
  He narrates the segment, frames the critique, discloses prior employment connected to Lutnik, and references his interview with an Epstein survivor.
• Galane Maxwell — Person · Referenced associate of Epstein · 2 mentions · first at 0:23
  Mentioned as part of the alleged trafficking/abuse network and as a connector between powerful men and Epstein in the speaker's framing.
• Lisa Phillips — Person · Referenced interviewee / survivor voice · 2 mentions · first at 10:27
  Identified as an Epstein survivor whose reaction is used to rebut DOJ messaging and emphasize harm and accountability concerns.
  Men in there who abused women that were ignoring. I reject the premise of your question. I put that to Lisa Phillips, one of the Epstein survivors in the last 24 hours for her…
• Rupert Murdoch — Person · Referenced media owner · 2 mentions · first at 1:18
  Cited to characterize the podcast environment as friendly/softball because it is 'Rupert Murdoch owned,' implying favorable media treatment.
  We need to talk about these things out loud. Now, let me show you the clip from now this is a Rupert Murdoch own New York Post podcast produced by Miranda Divine who's a…
• Allison Lutnik — Person · Referenced family member · 2 mentions · first at 1:34
  Mentioned as Howard Lutnik's wife and as present during the townhouse visit used to support Lutnik's public narrative about being 'grossed out' by Epstein.

Companies & orgs

• Midas Touch Network — Company · Broadcast platform · 2 mentions · first at 3:02
  The platform hosting the podcast 'Legal AF' where the discussion takes place.
  Island. He made arrangements to go there on a 180 foot yacht. Now, let me do full disclosure because, we're upfront with our audience here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. I used…
• Caner Fitzgerald — Company · Business focus · 4 mentions · first at 4:27
  A company associated with Howard Lutnik, mentioned in the context of Epstein files and business dealings.
• New York Giants — Company · Referenced entity · 1 mention · first at 3:33
  Mentioned as a team owned by the Tish family, who are connected to the Epstein files.
  Prince Andrew, whether you're other rich and famous like the Tish family who owns Lowe's and who has a major stake in the New York Giants, you're in there. Why don't you get…

Concepts & topics

• Trump administration — Concept · Key argument · 4 mentions · first at 4:55
  Discussed in relation to the handling of Epstein files and connections to Howard Lutnik.
• Frick Collection — Concept · Referenced entity · 2 mentions · first at 9:05
  Mentioned as a museum that Howard Lutnik and Jeffrey Epstein opposed expanding.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 I don't know what's dumber, lying about and being deceitful about your obvious connections to Jeffrey Epstein or not trying to get out in front of the story before you know that millions and millions and millions of pages are about to be produced and dumped on the American people by your own administration. I don't understand these powerful men who have relationships with Galain Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein who know even if we didn't about the relationship the connections the meetings the island visits the planes usage the girls and young women that were being pedled like they were like they were property or commodities by Galain Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein you know that you're in the files why wouldn't you get out in front of the story and try at least to do a spin like I didn't know he was a pedophile. I didn't know he was a predator. I didn't know he was engaging in an international child sex trafficking ring. And now

1:04 we've got Howard Lutnik, commerce secretary. His own administration is the one that's producing the documents. And he is now in there in a way that puts a lie to the comments that he made to the American people in the last 6 months on a Rupert Murdoch owned podcast, the friendliest of friendly environments, where he said and let and let the American people believe that once he bought his townhouse from Jeffrey Epstein and he and his wife Allison went next door to that townhouse on the Upper East Side and saw the massage table and creepy comments by Jeffrey Epstein that that put an end to the relationship that he was gross and he never wanted to be in the same room with Jeffrey Epstein again except seven years later based on the new documents. Not only was he in the same room as Jeffrey Epstein, he was on the same island with Jeffrey Epstein, having purposefully taken a chartered yacht Christmas Eve Eve with his family,

2:09 another couple, and a whole pack of young children that he listed the ages of in an email exchange with the island manager for Jeffrey Epstein and then went to the island for uh lunch uh before piloting away. That was 7 years after he told the American pe people he had no contact with him. That's not the only contact that's in the Epstein files between Howard Lutnik and Jeffrey Epstein, including money being donated, including construction projects being opposed together. just come clean with the American people and him hanging and and the report that the New York Times or another reporter called Lutnik in the last 24 hours to respond and him hanging up the phone. That's magical thinking if you think the story is going to go away.

3:02 I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Touch Network in Legal AF. Let's get to the story. You understand the premise of my hottake. You know you're in the files. We may not have known it, but you do. Whether you're a rich and powerful uh movie mogul or talent agent in California, you know, who's running our Olympics apparently, whether you're a former Prince Andrew, whether you're other rich and famous like the Tish family who owns Lowe's and who has a major stake in the New York Giants, you know, you're in there. Why don't you get out in front of it? You know, just level hold a press conference. I'm going to be in the Epstein Files. However, uh I I didn't know. I I couldn't have known. I didn't participate. Uh it looks like I'm trying to go after young girls 40 years by my junior arranged by Epstein or Galain Maxwell, but it's not what you think. Say something.

4:03 Lutnik knows he's in there when he forgot the island adventure at little little j little little St. James Island. He, you know, it's not like he accidentally just bumped into the island. He made arrangements to go there on a 180 foot yacht. Now, let me do full disclosure because, you know, we're upfront with our audience here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. I used to work for Howard Letic. I used to work at Caner Fitzgerald. I didn't know about the relationship and these dates that we're talking about except for one uh were well before I was there. However, we need to talk about these things out loud. Now, let me show you the clip from now this is a Rupert Murdoch own New York Post podcast produced by Miranda Divine who's a propagandist for the Trump administration. And whenever he wants to go on or anybody in his administration for a friendly softball set of questions that are going to be,

5:02 you know, favorable to them, they go on with the New York Post and Miranda Divine. And there was a lot of this time, let me put, let me set the stage. At this time there was a lot of uh a lot of uh tongues wagging about the revelation that Howard Lutnik's townhouse was purchased from Epstein and uh a guy named Wexner that used to own Victoria Secrets and the Limited. They own that townhouse. It's directly next to with an adjoining wall to Epstein's infamous townhouse in Manhattan on the Upper East Side. So he tried to get out in front of the story about the speculation like, "Yeah, I saw him. I bought the house from him. But soon as I went in there in 2005, hold that date in your mind." I was grossed out. Kept talking about massages and weird ways. And my wife was there, Allison, and got the heeie-jeebies, but I never saw the guy again. Run the clip.

6:00 The guy's gross. This was not, oh, the deep nuance of Howard Lut. This guy's gross.

6:06 Right. So, how come Bill Gates and all these other people could hang around him and not see what you saw? Or did they see it and ignore it or

6:15 No, they participated, right? That's what his MMO was. You know, get a massage. Get a massage. And what happened in that massage room, I assume, was on video. This guy was the greatest black mailer ever. Blackma people, that's how he had money.

6:30 He's talking about 2005. He left He leaves the impression on purpose. was the last time he had any contact with Epstein. Oh, if only that were true. Because in the Epstein files on December 23rd of 2012, he and another couple, and I happen to know the other couple, went to what we now refer to as Pedo Island, little little St. James Island in the Caribbean. And when he sent the email, this is all in the disclosures. He listed the the the he listed the ages of his children and those of the other couple's children. So like 12 year olds and 14 year olds and 11 year olds. I'm like I mean what we know now, I don't think it's a great idea to be waving those kind of ages and numbers in front of Jeffrey Epstein, but that's what happened. I don't know what was going through his mind. I mean normally you just say we're bringing six kids with us under the age of 14. I don't know why he listed all of the ages on weird, but he

7:32 goes to the island for lunch. A lunch so pleasant that Jeffrey Epstein through his assistants say, "Jeffrey, enjoyed meeting you." Okay? You know, 180 foot yacht, go over to the island for lunch, you're in the neighborhood, you stop in, you make the plans, you have lunch, you leave. That puts a lie to the argument that you were so grossed out and thought he was some sort of sexual deviant that you didn't want to ever have any contact with him. Right? That's not the only one. in uh in uh 2017 at least Epstein donated money which means somebody from the uh either the Caner Fitzgerald/Lutnik side asked him to I would think donated money for a charity event when uh a Jewish charity ga fedded Howard Lutnik a bunch along with other people where they raised millions of dollars for charity.

8:29 I was at that event. There were 300 Caner people that were at that event. I was at that event at a table there. Didn't see Jeffrey Epstein and he don't Epstein donated on behalf of Howard Lutnik to the charity in 2018. Now we're moving closer in time, right? This is still a This is now 13 years after Howard Lutnik told everybody he didn't have any contact with any he didn't have any contact with Epstein. They're having email exchanges about something. who knows what. And about them joining together to oppose a a museum. One of my favorites, by the way, the Frick Collection, which is in an old mansion on Fifth Avenue. They wanted to expand and they have, but they live nearby and they wanted to oppose it. So, they were going to join forces to oppose it. So, business relationship, uh, personal, uh, lifestyle relationship in terms of opposing the Frick collection, bringing the children to the

9:27 island, you know, all that. Now, as I said at the top of this hot tick, I just don't understand the magical thinking, I guess, of men, powerful men, no women, who are who have been caught up and ens snared in the web of Jeffrey Epstein and not getting out ahead of the story. I just don't understand it. And the Trump administration, of which Howard Lutnik is a major part, he's the tariff architect for those that were wondering, along with lots of other things, uh, which I'll talk about in a moment. He um he uh we just had a press conference with Todd Blanch, the number two in the Department of Justice where he says, "I don't know.

10:13 There'll be names in there, but he in response to a reporter's question, uh yeah, but you know, you're the the the premise of your question is that there's men in there who abused women that were ignoring. I I reject the premise of your question. I put that to Lisa Phillips, one of the Epstein survivors in the last 24 hours for her reaction to the fact that they're just they the the ep the Department of Justice and Trump are acting like this is just a document production, just produce everything as opposed to we should go through and bring to justice the people that are listed there.

10:51 I mean, you've got the Trump administration saying, "Yeah, you're going to see Trump's name in there, but we've cleared him. How could you have possibly have cleared them? You just finished reviewing the files. How could you have cleared him in 24 hours? No FBI moves that fast. Oh, he's clear. It's all scandalous and uh and warrantless and baseless. Really? Really? Let me show you now the clip of my interview where I show the clip of Todd Blanch rejecting the premise that men did things wrong and sexually abused women to the survivor, Lisa Phillips. Play the clip. when one intrepid reporter asked Blanch the question which was on everybody's mind which is with what you've released which is not in its entirety we'll save that for the last part of this interview and how you feel about the fact that it's likely not in its entirety and yet they've said done uh the reporter asked well with what you

11:46 have released will we see finally the names of men who sexually abused these girls and women and he acts like this is a Martian who's who's speaking in some dialect he does not recognize. Play the clip.

12:01 Um, you said this is the end of the Epstein uh of your review of the Epstein files. So, just to clarify, are is the public going to learn the identities of the men who abused the girls with the information that you're releasing? And if not, why not? And then I have a quick followup.

12:19 I mean, you just baked in an assumption into your question that I have never said and I don't know to be true. Is the public going to learn about men that abuse these girls? Like, what does that mean? I mean, I don't understand what that means.

12:32 Well, I mean, there the men who abused the young women through Epstein's um we we said in July um and it remains as true today as it was in July. um if we had information, we meaning the Department of Justice about men who abused women, we would um we would we would prosecute them, right? We talked about the work that we're doing. That's why I said that there I said this earlier. There's this built-in assumption that somehow there's this hidden trunch of information of men that we know about that we're covering up or that we're not we're choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case. I don't know whether there are men out there that abuse these women. Um, if if we learn about information and evidence that that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will. But but I don't think that that that the public or you all are going to uncover um men within the Epstein files that abuse

13:30 women unfortunately. Are you okay with that that response? No, I'm sickened by I'm just sickened by it. I'm so sickened. I'm actually like shaking right now. I want to cry. Like it makes me so sick. and has a wedding ring on like really how does how does he go home to his wife and the wife can look at him in the face and and actually say something like that you know the wife knows you know it's like this is disgusting I'm looking at the files right now that says names names there so there's no evidence of it there's a girl who just in in in the '9s said that these men were there and there were sex parties so How is he saying the weren't evidence?

14:14 Now, there's a reason that the Trump administration and Howard Lutnik have pulled so close together because Howard Lutnik and his family and the familyowned business Caner Fitzgerald are making a mint while Trump is in office. There's new reporting that we just did in the last two days that there is a new rare earth company making magnets taking rare earth minerals and converting them into magnets which we need for AI and we need for electric cars and different and different things and technology that we of the American people now own a stake in because Howard Lutnik and and Donald Trump used our taxpayer dollars to go make that investment. But then Caner Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnik's family office, family business is going to profit and is profiting from the capital raise related to the company to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. It's not the only time that Caner Fitzgerald has

15:08 benefited by having daddy in in the commerce department. You know, the New York Times reported that for 2025 their profits were up 25% 30%. What company's profits are up 30% in a year? Daddy Lutnik's company, the one that he sold to his sons, uh, you know, with some transfer that we don't know anything about while he was in the White House for many, many months. So, you can see why they're going to rally around it. I haven't seen the clip yet cuz it and I haven't caught it yet of Carolyn Lev, but I can imagine it's going to be like, as Mr. Lutnik has said it's been very very honest and upfront to American people about the fact that he owns the house next to Epstein. He bought it from Epstein but had little or no relationship with him and the mainstream media and the left-wing press. I I could write her script.

15:59 I could write her script. In fact, back to magical thinking. When the New York Times or another reporter called Howard Lutnik for comment about this new trunch of documents, he said I had zero contact with him and hung up the phone. zero zero contact except for the 2005 visit to his house, the 2012 visit to his island with another couple and his children for lunch. 2017 communications and donations to a charity event that he was being fed in 2018 to come together to oppose the Frick Collection Museum and their expansion plans in your neighborhood. Should I go on? Are there other things? I mean, we're only partially through the 3 million document production. I'll continue to follow it all right here because we have to because it's important on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF now more than ever. We're under attack. Take a moment, hit the Midas Touch subscribe button, do the exact same thing at Legal AF, the

16:55 YouTube and the Substack. That's where independent commentary and journalism is living and you can help protect it and keep it growing by your support. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popac. Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hottake, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump Cover-Up UNRAVELS as TOP Official EXPOSED IN THE FILES"?

Michael Popock (Host), Howard Lutnik.

What is "Trump Cover-Up UNRAVELS as TOP Official EXPOSED IN THE FILES" about?

The main topic revolves around a significant controversy involving powerful figures' connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, specifically highlighting Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's misleading statements about his relationships with Epstein. As new documents emerge from Lutnick's own administration, they reveal contradictions to his previous claims, including his continued…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Howard Lutnick, Trump administration, Michael Popock, Midas Touch Network, Caner Fitzgerald, Galane Maxwell. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump Cover-Up UNRAVELS as TOP Official EXPOSED IN THE FILES"?

The episode runs 18 min; the transcript is about 3,017 words in 24 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

• All analyzed episodes
• Books mentioned on MeidasTouch
• People mentioned on MeidasTouch
• Sponsors mentioned on MeidasTouch
• Topics mentioned on MeidasTouch