US Politics
Trump’s commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to be grilled in Congress over connections to Epstein
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Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will testify before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday regarding his past interactions with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick, the ex-chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, who died in a New York City jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial, but has faced questions about his former ties to the disgraced financier.
The secretary told Pod Force One presenter Miranda Devine in October last year that he had been a neighbor of Epstein’s in New York and once visited his Upper East Side brownstone in 2005 but was appalled when his host made a creepy comment about receiving “the right kind of massages” during a tour of the property.
“In the six to eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick said.
However, the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice in late December and January revealed that the men had remained in contact and appeared to have been in communication until at least 2018. Inclusion in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing.
Lutnick subsequently told the Senate Appropriations Committee on February 10 that he and his family had had lunch with the billionaire on Little St James, his private Caribbean island, in December 2012.
“We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,” he said. “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.”
The occasion came more than four years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in Florida state court, an offense for which he served 13 months behind bars.
Lutnick’s admission caused GOP representatives Thomas Massie and Nancy Mace to criticize him, with the former urging him to resign and the latter commenting: “I wouldn’t sit and have lunch with a convicted pedophile.”
His name was also included in a spoof “Walk of Shame” installation in Washington, D.C., in March, which laid out pavement stars for famous people embarrassed over their past ties to Epstein.
The committee has already heard from Bill and Hillary Clinton as part of its investigation into Epstein and his ties to wealthy powerbrokers – both of whom said they had done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of his crimes – as well as two former Epstein employees.
Former attorney general Pam Bondi has agreed to testify before the panel later this month, her initial scheduled appearance on April 14 having been cancelled after she was ousted by President Donald Trump.
Tech billionaire Bill Gates is also slated to appear in June.
