Dueling descriptions from lawmakers on whether Lutnick was forthcoming or evasive about Epstein ties

WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared Wednesday before a House committee investigating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, trying to explain to lawmakers his contact with the financier after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The Cabinet member was the latest powerful political figure to appear before the House Oversight Committee. He has previously given contradictory statements about his relationship with Epstein, but he said he has done nothing wrong and welcomed the closed-door interview with lawmakers. The transcribed interview is a test of how much scrutiny lawmakers will apply to powerful men who kept company with Epstein even after his conviction. Trump's administration has tried unsuccessfully for more than a year to move past the issue. Lawmakers emerged from the private interview with vastly different assessments of Lutnick's answers. The committee chairman, GOP Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said Lutnick had been "forthcoming" in describing limited interactions with Epstein. Democrat accused Lutnick of lying and evading their questions. Lutnick is the highest-ranked administration official, besides President Donald Trump, to be named in the Epstein case files. The Republican president has consistently denied any knowledge of Epstein's crimes and has said he ended their relationship years ago. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Several Democrats have called for Lutnick to resign. A few Republicans, including Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, have said he should at least testify before the committee. "He was evasive, nervous. He was dishonest," said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. "He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did." Epstein's private island Lutnick has played down his ties to Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City. Under questioning from Democrats during an unrelated hearing earlier this year, Lutnick described their contact as a handful of emails and a pair of meetings in 2011 and 2012. But that admission came after Lutnick had previously claimed 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, which included a massage table, disturbed Lutnick and his wife. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state sex offense charges in Florida, including soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. "I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with him," Lutnick told senators in February when he was asked about Epstein during a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee. But Lutnick, who was previously the head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, actually had an hourlong engagement at Epstein's home in 2011. His family then visited Epstein's private island in 2012 for lunch. Committee Democrats asked Lutnick repeatedly about that visit, but came away from the interview frustrated with Lutnick and accused him of evading their questions. They said Lutnick said he remembered little about the island visit and did not see anything that raised concern. During a break in the interview, Rep. James Walkinshaw, D-Va., said Lutnick "claims that when he said, 'I would never be in a room again with Jeffrey Epstein,' he meant only him and Jeffrey Epstein." The federal release of case files on Epstein also showed that Epstein and Lutnick had kept in contact through email. Lutnick in 2018 emailed Epstein about a proposed expansion of a museum in their neighborhood that would have blocked the view from their homes. Epstein also gave $50,000 to a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, while Lutnick invited Epstein to a 2015 fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. In 2013, they both invested in the same business venture. "I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island," Comer said. He added that the committee planned to later release the transcript of the interview and "let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not." Democrats said Lutnick also backed away from his statement in an interview last year that Epstein was the "greatest blackmailer ever." Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said Lutnick told him that he was only "speculating" when Lutnick made the blackmail claim. No video recording of the interview The interview was not recorded on video, as the committee has done with depositions for others, including former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state. Comer said the decision not to video the interview, for which Lutnick volunteered, was keeping with the committee's practice. To Democrats, that decision allowed Lutnick to escape the same kind of scrutiny as others had. "The level of the lies that are taking place inside that room without video is unbelievable and part of this egregious cover-up," said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz. Comer said Democrats were only trying to score political points. "This is a serious investigation," he said. The chairman argued it made the committee's inquiry easier when subjects consented to an interview, rather than resist congressional demands. "Nobody wants to be videoed. If you come in, you work with us, then you know, you might not have to be videoed," he said. The White House has continued to express support for Lutnick, who is one of the biggest boosters of Trump's tariff strategy. He has been close to Trump for years and helped raise money for his 2020 and 2024 campaigns. The committee is also scheduled to hear testimony on May 29 from Pam Bondi, who was pushed out as attorney general last month.