US Commerce Secretary Lutnick downplays Epstein ties amid resignation calls

Lutnick, a prominent member of the Trump adminstration, has faced Senate questions over a 2012 meeting he had with Epstein.

United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has played down his connections to child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein after newly released emails shared details about their interactions.

Facing calls for his resignation, Lutnick told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he “barely knew” Epstein, although emails appear to contradict his earlier accounts of their relationship.

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“I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person,” Lutnick said.

The commerce secretary is the latest member of the political and financial elite to face pressure over relations with the disgraced financier.

The administration of President Donald Trump has come under particular scrutiny for its handling of government files related to Epstein and the president’s own years-long relationship with the convicted sex offender.

During Tuesday’s hearing, lawmakers pressed Lutnick about statements he made on a podcast last year, explaining that he had pledged to “never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again” after he and Epstein met in 2005.

Lutnick said he made the decision after Epstein showed him and his wife a massage table featured prominently in his residence and made sexually suggestive comments about it.

But recently released emails suggest that Lutnick may have visited Epstein’s private island for a lunch meeting in 2012 and may have met on other occasions as well.

“You led people to believe that you had cut off all contact with Jeffrey Epstein after the 2005 encounter you and your wife had in his apartment,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, told Lutnick at the committee hearing.

“But as I’m sure you know, the Epstein files show a very different record of interaction.”

Lutnick, however, downplayed his interactions with Epstein and emphasised that nothing “untoward” happened in the 2012 encounter.

“I know, and my wife knows, that I have done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard,” Lutnick said.

The apparent contradiction emerged after the Department of Justice released 3 million pages of Epstein-related records on January 30, in an attempt to satisfy the requirements of the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008, but he continued to enjoy close relationships with some of the most influential figures in politics, business, culture and science for years afterwards.

In 2019, Epstein was re-arrested and charged with federal sex-trafficking crimes. He was found dead that year in his jail cell, in what medical examiners ruled a suicide.

His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently serving a 20-year sentence for her participation in Epstein’s crimes, including child sex trafficking.

But critics have argued that few of those involved in Epstein’s crimes have faced any consequences.

The government in the United Kingdom is currently facing a political crisis over Epstein’s connections to the country’s former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson.

In October, King Charles III also stripped his brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, of his titles following mounting evidence of his relationship with Epstein.

But there are few signs that the US is on the verge of a similar reckoning. Trump has previously called the scrutiny of the Epstein files a “hoax” and a Democrat-led “scam”.

Representatives Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, two lawmakers who spearheaded the Epstein Files Transparency Act, have both called on Lutnick to resign.

“This is bringing down the British government. It may bring down the monarchy. It’s bringing down elites,” Khanna, a Democrat, said on Monday. “What are we doing here in the US to stand up to the Epstein class? We’ve got a commerce secretary who is all over the files.”

Massie, a Republican, wrote on social media that Lutnick’s contradictory statements raise questions that need to be resolved.

“Lutnick went to the island and was in business deals with Epstein, long after Lutnick says he parted ways and even after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes,” Massie said. “What else is Lutnick covering up with respect to his association with Epstein?”