WASHINGTON – During a recent interview with House lawmakers, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick retracted his previous assertion that Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender, had engaged in blackmail.
Lutnick participated in the interview with the House Oversight Committee following the public release of Epstein’s case files, which challenged his earlier statements made on a podcast. Last year, Lutnick recounted a troubling 2005 visit to Epstein’s home, after which he vowed never to be in Epstein’s presence again, a sentiment shared by his wife.
The House Oversight Committee made the interview transcript available on Wednesday, alongside another transcript featuring Tedd Waitt, a former partner of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s close associate.
Having been Epstein’s neighbor in New York City for several years, Lutnick had previously alleged that Epstein was involved in blackmail. However, under the committee’s questioning, Lutnick admitted his comments were merely speculative.
“I had no personal knowledge. My remarks were speculative and made in the context of a podcast,” Lutnick explained to the lawmakers. He also described his subsequent encounters with Epstein as “insignificant and unremarkable.”
As the highest-ranking current administration official, apart from President Donald Trump, mentioned in Epstein’s case files, Lutnick’s involvement has drawn attention. President Trump has repeatedly denied any awareness of Epstein’s criminal activities, asserting that their acquaintance ended many years ago.
How Lutnick described interactions with Epstein
Lutnick repeatedly downplayed his previous interactions with Epstein. He said that after Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, showed a massage table and made a sexual innuendo during a tour of his townhouse in 2005, Lutnick and his wife decided he would “just avoid him.”
Yet Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, had a pair of interactions and exchanged several emails with Epstein over the years.
They also both invested in the same business venture in 2013, according to the Epstein case files. Lutnick told lawmakers that he was unaware that Epstein was also an investor until the case files were released months ago.
The commerce secretary also described his two other meetings with Epstein. During a family vacation in the Caribbean, Epstein’s staff invited them to have lunch on his private island. Describing the 2012 visit, he told the committee: “We sat outside, had lunch. It was boring. We left.”
Lutnick also said he made a brief visit to Epstein’s home in 2011 to discuss scaffolding that would be installed at Epstein’s townhouse. Lutnick called that meeting “meaningless and inconsequential.”
Democrats pressed Lutnick to answer for his decision to meet up with Epstein after initially determining that he would avoid him. Lutnick responded that he couldn’t remember why his family made the visit to Epstein’s island.
As they emerged from the interview last week, Democrats criticized Lutnick as evasive and dishonest. Several called on him to resign.
“If a Cabinet Secretary lies to the American public, they should no longer serve in that position. Mr. Lutnick should resign or be fired,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said on social media shortly after Lutnick’s interview.
The White House has stood behind Lutnick, who for years has been a part of Trump’s circle.
Maxwell’s former boyfriend also interviewed
Lawmakers also last month interviewed Waitt, the cofounder of Gateway computers who dated Maxwell in the early 2000s. Maxwell, who is serving a lengthy prison sentence for helping Epstein traffic girls, had also dated Epstein and was his longtime confidant.
Waitt told lawmakers that he was unaware at the time that either Epstein or Maxwell was committing sexual abuse. He also described meeting Epstein only a handful of times.
“Each of those were very brief and unintentional,” he said, adding that he had never visited Epstein’s home, flown on his planes or visited his private island.
Waitt said he found Epstein “somewhat arrogant” and added that he was “off-putting.”
