Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told senators on Tuesday that he had lunch on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012. In October, Lutnick was quoted in the New York Post saying he’d decided to cut ties with Epstein in 2005.
Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that he had lunch with Epstein on Little Saint James, Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, during a boat trip with his family.
“My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” Lutnick said. “I had another couple with— they were there as well. with their children.”
Lutnick said the lunch only lasted “for an hour.”
“We were on family vacation,” Lutnick added. “To suggest there was anything untoward about that, in 2012, I don’t… I don’t recall why we did it.”
The comments came after Lutnick was asked about recent disclosures from the Department of Justice’s ongoing release of the Epstein files, which indicated that the commerce secretary had contact with Epstein after 2008, when the financier pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute.
The two had several calls and meetings over drinks scheduled in 2011, the emails show.
Email exchanges in the files show Lutnick planning to visit the island with his family and friends in December 2012.
“We are landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St. Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point,” Lutnick wrote to Epstein in an email. “Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?”
Both Epstein and Lutnick purchased shares of a now-closed advertising technology company later that month, according to records that were originally reported by CBS News.
In an interview with the New York Post published in October, Lutnick said that he decided to cut off ties with Epstein in 2005 after visiting his Manhattan home and being shown his massage table. The two men were neighbors at the time.
“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick told the Post. “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going, ’cause he’s gross.”
A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement that “Mr. and Mrs. Lutnick met Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years.”
“This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments including securing Trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Asked about the testimony later on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Lutnick “remains a very important member of President Trump’s team, and the president fully supports the secretary.”
Lutnick has faced calls to resign from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over the revelations of his association with Epstein.
While most of those calls have come from Democrats, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has also said Lutnick should go.
“He should just resign,” Massie said in a CNN interview.
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