Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes in a closed-door interview with House lawmakers, but Democrats argue the Cabinet secretary is “covering up” for the Trump administration.
Lutnick sat for a voluntary transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as part of the panel’s growing investigation into Epstein. Since it was voluntary, Lutnick was not under oath and would not face legal jeopardy for any false statements. Other witnesses, including former Attorney General Pam Bondi, are expected to speak with the committee in the coming months under the same stipulations.
He is the first sitting Trump administration official to speak with lawmakers for the probe.
Lutnick is facing bipartisan questions about his ties to the disgraced financier. It was revealed earlier this year that the 64-year-old New Yorker was in touch with Epstein as recently as 2018. He also told lawmakers in a Senate hearing in February that he briefly visited Epstein’s island in 2012, after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor and registered as a sex offender. .
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Democrats told reporters during a break in the questioning that Lutnick was “evasive” and “dishonest.” A Democratic source familiar with the interview told NOTUS that Lutnick denied any wrongdoing, and said he did not have an extended relationship with Epstein. According to the source, Lutnick described his visit to Epstein island as “inexplicable and unsettling,” but said he could not remember the details.
“He refused to say anything abnormal about Epstein’s island, so someone obviously got to him from the administration,” Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, told reporters on Wednesday.
Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, criticized Democrats for their characterization of the interview. Comer, who earlier Wednesday said Lutnick had not been “100% truthful” about his connections with Epstein, said during a break in the interview that Lutnick has “been very forthcoming with those interactions.”
“It’s always about Trump. It’s never about the victims. It’s never about justice for the survivors,” the Republican Comer said. “It’s always about Donald Trump. It’s always about the midterm elections.”
Lutnick said in a podcast interview last year that he cut ties with Epstein in 2005. Lawmakers from both parties have called on the Cabinet secretary to resign after he admitted a long connection Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking charges.
A lineup of high-profile Epstein associates, investigators and witnesses are scheduled to sit for transcribed interviews with the House Oversight Committee over the next two months, including Bondi, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and longtime Epstein executive assistant Lesley Groff.
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