Lutnick recently acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with his family while they were on vacation.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify for the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, after his name appeared repeatedly in the federal government’s tranche of files on the deceased sex offender.
The GOP-led panel is bringing in Lutnick to testify following bipartisan scrutiny of his ties to Epstein, an acquaintanceship Lutnick previously acknowledged but appears to have downplayed.
“Secretary Lutnick has proactively agreed to appear voluntarily before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee. I look forward to his testimony,” said Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.).
Lutnick recently acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with his family while they were on vacation. His comments occurred during an unrelated Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, which Democratic lawmakers took as an opportunity to ask about Epstein.
Lutnick’s admission contradicts his prior claim that he cut off ties with Epstein after visiting his Manhattan townhouse two decades ago and feeling a sense of disgust. Formerly the CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, Lutnick was a neighbor of Epstein’s, and they maintained ties for years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on state-level sex crimes in Florida. Lutnick only recalled meeting Epstein two other times besides the visit to Epstein’s Manhattan residence.
“I met him then,” Lutnick said. “Over the next 14 years, I met him two other times that I can recall — two times.”
Lutnick has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The Trump administration has defended him amid calls for him to resign from several Democratic lawmakers and GOP Representative Thomas Massie (Ky.). As a top Trump administration official, Lutnick is a key figure in implementing President Trump’s economic agenda.
Lutnick is the latest prominent figure to testify for the Oversight Committee’s expansive Epstein probe. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave closed-door testimony to the Oversight Committee last week for sessions that were months in the making.
Bill Clinton told lawmakers that he did nothing wrong during his friendship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a relationship Clinton said he severed before Epstein’s conviction. Hillary Clinton asserted that she never met Epstein and said she was sure her husband regretted flying on Epstein’s jet. Neither has been credibly accused of wrongdoing stemming from Bill Clinton’s friendship with Epstein.
In a tense exchange, Representative Nancy Mace (R., S.C.) pressed Hillary Clinton on her correspondence with Lutnick, whom she knew from her time as a senator from New York. Hillary Clinton defended her relationship with Lutnick, which came out of the September 11 terrorist attacks and Lutnick’s work supporting victims after many of his employees were killed on that day.
The Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein files earlier this year has reverberated across the Western world. Top officials in government, business, law, and entertainment have stepped down due to renewed scrutiny of their ties to Epstein. The Epstein files have been a thorn in the side of the Trump administration, in no small part because of the federal government’s refusal to release them until Congress passed bipartisan legislation requiring it to.
The House Oversight Committee is seeking to interview seven more individuals linked to Epstein, according to letters that Comer sent Tuesday. Those individuals include longtime Epstein aide Lesley Groff, billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, private equity billionaire Leon Black, and former Obama White House Counsel Kathy Ruemmler.
Black and Epstein were longtime business associates, with Black paying Epstein more than $150 million for tax and financial services over the course of their relationship. Likewise, Epstein and Gates were associates in the years following Epstein’s conviction, but Gates has denied any participation in Epstein’s sexual abuse. Last month, Ruemmler resigned from her position as Goldman Sachs’s top lawyer after the Epstein files showed her correspondence with the deceased pedophile was far greater than she previously let on.
The committee is asking the seven individuals to participate in closed-door interviews over the next few months. If they decline to voluntarily participate, the Oversight Committee could use subpoenas to compel their testimony.