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Howard Lutnick said he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s island with his family in late 2012, when the U.S. Commerce Secretary was questioned by lawmakers at a Senate hearing about his contacts with the late sex offender.
Lutnick is facing increasing scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein, after documents released by the Justice Department revealed he had more extensive contacts with the financier than previously acknowledged.
Lutnick last year described an encounter he had with Epstein in 2005, saying it left him disillusioned and determined to never step into the same room with him again.
But emails released in recent days by the DoJ revealed that the Commerce Secretary had arranged for a lunch on Epstein’s island several years later – which Lutnick was forced to acknowledge.
“I had lunch with him when I was going on a boat on a family vacation,” Lutnick told members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “My wife was with me, I had four kids and my grandmother. There was another couple with me and their kids too. And we had lunch on the island. That’s right. For an hour. And we left with all our kids.”
Epstein used the island as a base for his alleged trafficking of underage girls. He spent 13 months in a Florida prison in 2008 for having sex with a minor, and in July 2019, he was arrested again and charged with sex trafficking of minors.
Lutnick has granted immunity to visit the island amid widening scrutiny of Epstein’s ties to US Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, British Labor leader Peter Mandelson and former Barclays chief executive Jess Staley, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathy Rumler.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said Tuesday that Trump “fully supports” Lutnick and called him a “very important” member of the president’s team.
The White House had previously rejected calls for the Commerce Secretary to step down over her ties to Epstein. Trump has described the scandal as a “hoax”.
During Tuesday’s congressional hearing, Lutnick faced harsh criticism from some lawmakers, increasing pressure on the Commerce Secretary, who faces calls to step down from one Republican, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and several Democrats.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland said, “The issue is not that you engaged in any wrongdoing with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, but rather that you grossly misrepresented the extent of your relationship with him.” “Mr. Secretary, this calls into question your qualifications for that job and your credibility before this committee and Congress.”
Chris Coons, a Democratic senator from Delaware, said, “It disturbs me that you took your family to his island for lunch, that you had an appointment with him”, as he demanded Lutnick be more transparent about his relationship with Epstein.
“Please disclose everything. Keep it quiet, because this is an issue of grave concern to my constituents,” Coons said.
Lutnick responded that “to the best of my memory” he had met Epstein when he became his neighbor in New York City and “twice over the course of 14 years”.
Lutnick said, “I didn’t have anything you could call a relationship, anything you could call an acquaintance.” “I did not look at the documents out of any fear, because I know and my wife also knows that I have done nothing wrong in any possible relationship.”
However, released documents revealed additional business relationships between Lutnick and the late sex offender.
A stock purchase agreement in late 2012 revealed that two people signed a document for separate entities to acquire a stake in AdFin, a defunct advertising technology company. Lutnick also sent Epstein an email in May 2018 about a proposed building project in his neighborhood.
