Lutnick, the commerce secretary, appeared Wednesday before the House committee investigating Epstein, as lawmakers pressed him to explain what contacts he had with the financier after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The interview took place behind closed doors, and the committee later released a transcript of the session, according to the Associated Press.
Republicans and Democrats emerged from the private meeting with sharply different assessments of Lutnick’s answers. Comer, a Kentucky Republican who chairs the Oversight Committee, said Lutnick had been “forthcoming” about describing limited interactions with Epstein, while Democrats accused Lutnick of lying and evading questions.
Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, and the investigation has focused on what senior officials knew and when. The AP reported that Lutnick is among the highest-ranked administration officials, besides President Donald Trump, named in the case files in connection with Epstein.
In Lutnick’s earlier accounts, Democrats said he presented his relationship with Epstein in a way that did not match details that emerged later. Under questioning during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described contact with Epstein as a handful of emails and “a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012,” and the AP reported that those statements came after Lutnick had said on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home.
Committee Democrats focused on Epstein’s private island and on the discrepancy between Lutnick’s earlier descriptions and what they said he later acknowledged. They asked about a visit in 2012, the AP reported, saying Lutnick remembered little about the island trip and did not see anything that raised concern. During a break, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Lutnick’s account of vowing never to be in a room again with Epstein applied only to Lutnick and Epstein, not to others at the home, according to the AP report.
Lutnick told senators in February that he had “not have any relationship” with Epstein and “barely had anything to do with him,” the AP reported. In the House Oversight interview, Republicans including Comer said they saw limits in Lutnick’s conduct; Comer said he had not seen wrongdoing in email correspondence but said Lutnick was not “100% truthful” about whether he had been on the island.
The AP said the investigation also cited federal case files indicating email contact between Lutnick and Epstein, including an email in 2018 about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked views from their homes. The case files, the AP reported, also showed Epstein gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick and that Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. The AP also reported that in 2013, Lutnick and Epstein invested in the same business venture.
A separate dispute centered on the committee’s decision not to record the interview on video, the AP reported. The committee chair said the decision followed the committee’s practice and that if the subject consents to an interview, video is not required; Democrats criticized the lack of recording, saying it allowed Lutnick to avoid scrutiny comparable to other witnesses.
Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va., said Lutnick was “evasive, nervous” and “dishonest,” according to the AP report, and he said Lutnick would not admit to lying. Other Democrats echoed similar concerns, including Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., who said the level of lies inside the room without video was “unbelievable” and part of an “egregious cover-up,” while Comer said Democrats were trying to score political points and called the inquiry serious.
Beyond the immediate testimony, the AP reported that the White House continued to express support for Lutnick. Democrats have called for him to resign, while a few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, said he should at least testify before the committee; the committee is also scheduled to hear testimony May 29 from Pam Bondi, a former attorney general who was pushed out last month.
None of the members’ comments resolved the underlying question lawmakers are investigating—how much scrutiny officials face when they have had contact with Epstein after his 2008 conviction. With no video recording and with lawmakers disagreeing over whether Lutnick’s answers were credible, the transcript has become the focal point for the next stage of the committee’s inquiry, the AP reported.