Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted to House lawmakers Wednesday that he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island in 2012 with his wife and children despite finding the invitation from the convicted sex offender “unsettling.”
Cabinet Official Contradicts Earlier Claims
During a three-hour closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee, Lutnick acknowledged meeting with Epstein at least three times, including twice after the financier’s 2008 Florida plea deal that required him to register as a sex offender. The 64-year-old cabinet secretary told lawmakers he and five family members docked at the island for approximately two hours for lunch with Epstein. Lutnick lived next door to Epstein on Manhattan’s Upper East Side from 2005 to 2019.
The testimony directly contradicts statements Lutnick made on The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast in October, where he claimed he and his wife decided never to be in a room with Epstein again after a creepy encounter involving massage tables at Epstein’s Manhattan penthouse. “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy,” Lutnick stated on the podcast. Department of Justice emails show coordination between Lutnick and Epstein for in-person meetings after that supposed decision.
Lawmakers Demand Answers On Blackmail Claims
Lutnick backtracked from his October podcast claims that Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever” who traded videos of prominent individuals to federal authorities in exchange for his plea deal. Democrats on the panel accused him of providing “mind-boggling” explanations and called for his resignation. House Oversight Chairman James Comer told reporters Lutnick “wasn’t 100% truthful” about the island visit but noted he hadn’t seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence between the two men.
What This Means
The revelations raise serious questions about Cabinet-level vetting and transparency. Lutnick told lawmakers he didn’t know how an Epstein assistant learned about his Virgin Islands travel plans, finding that fact particularly unsettling. He insisted he had no personal or professional relationship with his neighbor and never witnessed inappropriate conduct with young women. The Commerce Secretary expressed regret about his podcast comments to Post columnist Miranda Devine, suggesting he was merely speculating and calling his continued meetings with Epstein after 2011 “inexplicable” even to himself. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.