Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, reportedly felt uneasy after visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s island, according to a source familiar with his congressional deposition held on Wednesday.
Concerns arose for Lutnick because he was puzzled by how Epstein’s assistant was aware of his presence in the US Virgin Islands, especially when he received an unexpected lunch invitation near Epstein’s notorious Little Saint James.
In December 2012, Lutnick, accompanied by his wife Allison and their children, had lunch on Epstein’s island. This visit came four years after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The brief lunch, which resulted in a photograph of Lutnick and Epstein together, was described as a ‘short’ encounter.
Lutnick, who lived next door to Epstein in Manhattan, was providing testimony in a private session before the House Oversight Committee. The session is part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into Epstein’s activities.
Upon arriving at Capitol Hill, Lutnick did not address questions from the press.
The photo of Lutnick’s visit to Epstein’s island generated controversy as it was removed from the Justice Department files after being released in February. It was later restored in the online tranche.
The release came after the Commerce Secretary claimed in a podcast in October that he cut Epstein off in 2005 and ‘was never in the room’ with him socially.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrives for an interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of the panel’s ongoing probe of late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, U.S., May 6, 2026
An image from the Epstein files shows Howard Lutnick (in blue) with along with Jeffrey Epstein
The House Oversight Committee’s Republican chair James Comer told reporters that Lutnick’s deposition marked a new level of transparency in the Epstein Investigation.
‘I’ve been on the Oversight Committee [for] 10 years and there’s never been a chairman bring in cabinet secretaries of their own party,’ Comer noted.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee did not hesitate to blast Lutnick during a gaggle outside of the meeting room, with Arizona Democrat Yassamin Ansari calling Lutnick a ‘pathological liar.’
Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw called the hearing ‘part of the ongoing cover-up.’
The congressional investigation into Epstein, the convicted pedophile financier who died in prison in 2019 after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges, has seen top political figures dragged to testify about their ties.
Lawmakers have tried to get Lutnick to talk about Epstein during two unrelated congressional hearings in recent months.
During a routine testimony about his department’s budget requests, Lutnick was forced into a spectacular showdown on Capitol Hill with Democrats probing his ties to Epstein last month.
Pam Bondi, Trump’s former Attorney General, was removed from her post in part due to her disastrous testimony in the Epstein case back in February.
Robert Garcia, Democrat ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, noted in a statement that Trump ‘fired Attorney General Pam Bondi following her botched handling of the Epstein files and failure to comply with the Oversight Committee’s subpoena and the Epstein Files Transparency Act.’
The secretary claimed in February that he had ‘nothing to hide’ about his connection to Epstein.
Donald and Melania Trump, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago in February, 2000
Singer Jimmy Buffet, and his wife, Jane Slagsvol, Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein in a photo released among the Epstein files
But he was put on the spot about it during the explosive hearing last month.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen demanded Lutnick provide more information about his ties to Epstein and accused him of withholding details.
Lutnick dodged the question, saying he was focused on testifying about Trump’s budget.
‘I am volunteering within two weeks to answer any and all questions on this topic,’ Lutnick stated last month.
In a separate clash with Lutnick back in February, Van Hollen claimed, ‘You misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements suggesting that you cut off all contact when in fact you had not,’ before asking him if he noticed anything inappropriate during the visit.
The secretary responded that he did not see anything other than staff working for Epstein on the island.
Van Hollen then doubled down on the timing of the trip, asking ‘You realize that this visit took place after he had been convicted, right?’
‘I mean, you made a very big point of saying that you sensed that this was a bad person in 2005 and then of course in 2008 he was convicted of soliciting prostitution of a minor and, and yet you went and had this trip and other interactions,’ Van Hollen said, highlighting the apparent hypocrisy.
President Donald Trump speaks as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, April 17, 2025, in Washington, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens
Earlier in the hearing, Lutnick detailed that he first interacted with Epstein after buying the house next door to his in New York City, but was so disgusted that he did not maintain a relationship.
He visited his new neighbor with his wife, an interaction during which he was so creeped out by a massage table he saw in Epstein’s house that he decided he wasn’t worth maintaining a relationship with and cut off contact ‘socially, for business or even philanthropy’ in 2005.
Speaking with host of the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast Miranda Devine last year, Lutnick stated that ‘if that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross.’
However, Lutnick described the meeting with Epstein in the following manner while testifying under oath before the committee in February.
‘I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,’ Lutnick said.
‘My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,’ he said. ‘I had another couple with – they were there as well, with their children.’
‘And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,’ he added.
‘And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together. We were on family vacation,’ he concluded.
Lutnick’s name also came up during the Epstein deposition of former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton, who exploded on Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace while explaining how she met Lutnick after the 9/11 attacks.
Mace grilled Clinton over her ties to Epstein and the current Trump official during a marathon congressional deposition that took place in Chappaqua, New York at the end of February.
Lutnick had attempted to recruit Epstein to attend an ‘intimate fundraiser’ for Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.
In a video of the deposition, the former first lady and secretary of state can be seen getting visibly angry after Mace interrupts her.
‘You asked the question, I’m going to answer your question. This was what I spent my time doing!’
Ahead of the sudden outburst, Clinton was detailing how she came to know Lutnick.
‘I know Howard Lutnick, because when I was Senator on 9/11, the firm he headed, Cantor Fitzgerald, suffered the greatest loss of life,’ she continued.
‘As I recall, something like 650 of his employees were murdered by terrorists that day. Howard Lutnick missed being a victim because he was delayed dropping his child off to kindergarten.’
The former Secretary of State was deposed at the end of February, as was her husband, former President Bill Clinton.
