Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defends visit to Epstein’s island with his family

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged Tuesday visiting Jeffrey Epstein on his private island in 2012, as Senate Democrats called into question his credibility on the issue. Justice Department files on Epstein released recently show Lutnick and Epstein had a closer relationship than Lutnick has previously stated.

Maryland’s Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen recalled that Lutnick had previously claimed to have cut off contact with Epstein, Lutnick’s neighbor in New York, in 2005, “but now it turns out not to be true.” Lutnick said last year he had “limited interactions” with Jeffrey Epstein, but documents show they were in business together as recently as 2014, and emailed as recently as 2018, the year before Epstein’s death.

“The information recently revealed from the Epstein files show that your statements were at best highly misleading,” Van Hollen said. He added later, “Mr. Lutnick that does call into question your fitness for the job you now hold and the question of your credibility.”

Lutnick continued to distance himself from Epstein while admitting to the interactions revealed in the Epstein files. Lutnick said he met with his next-door neighbor two times in 14 years, and “I did not have any relationship with him, I barely had anything to do with that person. Okay?”

But Lutnick admitted he, his wife and kids, and another family visited Epstein on his private Caribbean island. 

“We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour. 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 said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Lutnick still has President Trump’s support, calling him a “very important member of President Trump’s team.” 

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley also noted interactions between Lutnick and Epstein — ranging from a business deal to emailed gripes about an art museum’s expansion — that Merkley said “collectively, it suggests that when you said in 2005 you cut off all contact, that was not a full and complete accounting.”

Epstein and Lutnick’s signatures appear on neighboring pages in a 2012 contract, which was first reported by CBS News. The convicted sex offender and the former chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald each acquired stakes in a now-shuttered advertising technology company called Adfin. They signed the contract on Dec. 28, 2012, four days after Lutnick’s visit to Epstein’s island.

The deal was struck more than four years after Epstein agreed to enter a guilty plea to Florida state charges of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. The case raised allegations of a far broader sex trafficking scheme, and Epstein was charged with federal felonies including trafficking. 

Democrats on the Appropriations committee urged Lutnick to submit his own records proving his interactions with Epstein were limited to what’s already publicly known.

Lutnick indicated he would consider doing so, but stopped short of promising.

“I will surely talk about that. I hadn’t thought about that. I have nothing to hide, absolutely nothing,” Lutnick said.