Rep. Jamie Raskin Opens Investigation Into Howard Lutnick and His Former Firm's Tariff Dealings

[douglas9]

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has opened an investigation into potential conflicts of interest between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his former firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, following the Supreme Court’s decision on the legality of President Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs.

In a letter exclusively obtained by NOTUS and sent Friday to the commerce secretary and his son, Cantor Fitzgerald Chair Brandon Lutnick, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland pressed the Lutnicks on the firm’s alleged conflicts of interest.

“[W]hile you were championing these illegal tariffs and telling the American public to ‘rest assured, tariffs are not going away,’ your son Brandon Lutnick—as your immediate successor as chairman of your former firm Cantor Fitzgerald—was reportedly betting millions of dollars that they would be struck down by the courts,” Raskin wrote. “Now that the Supreme Court has finally rejected President Trump’s brazen and unlawful power grab, the firm reportedly stands to make extraordinary profits of millions of dollars at the expense of American taxpayers.”

“This arrangement raises significant ethical, legal, and policy questions that demand a full public accounting,” Raskin added.

https://www.notus.org/congress/jamie-raskin-howard-lutnick-congress-house-investigation-tariffs

[dalton99a]

1. Lutnick is a key principal in the Trump tariffs scam.

[Historic NY]

2. Maybe ask him about his screwing over all his dead 911 employees families

[AZJonnie]

3. Here's a both-sides view of that situation

What Cantor/Lutnick really did wrong (and it was bad)
Within days of 9/11, Lutnick cut off paychecks to the 658 employees who died, leaving their families without income almost immediately after losing their breadwinners.

He also stopped health insurance coverage for those families shortly after, which he claimed was necessary for the firm's survival.

The $135 million lawsuit
Cantor sued American Airlines (and its insurers) for business losses—destroyed offices, lost equipment, business interruption—not for wrongful death; that's a legally distinct category.

They settled in 2013/2015 for $135 million, and that money was distributed among Cantor's partners, not to the victims' families, because the lawsuit was structured as a business-loss claim.

Lutnick himself is believed to have personally received $15–25 million from that settlement, which even some of his own senior executives found deeply objectionable given the circumstances.

What Cantor did on the other side of the ledger
Lutnick pledged 25% of Cantor's profits for five years plus 10 years of health insurance to the victims' families, and by the five-year anniversary in 2006, Cantor had paid out $180 million directly to those families.

He also personally donated $1 million to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund early on.

​

[AZJonnie]

4. GO REP RASKIN!!!

I that man

This shit was SO freaking dirty it's ridiculous. This entire regime are FUCKING LYING CRIMINALS and GRIFTERS