“Well, now we know why that interview was not video-taped," said House Oversight Committee member Ro Khanna while speaking with reporters about the commerce secretary's private testimony
Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick testified behind closed doors on Wednesday, May 6, about his ties to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
- Lutnick previously admitted to having lunch with his family on Epstein’s “infamous” island years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution
- Democrats on the House Oversight Committee were angered that Lutnick’s latest testimony happened out of public view, with one congresswoman reacting to his private interview on Wednesday by calling him a “pathological liar”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is answering more questions about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, only this time he's doing it behind closed doors.
The senior Trump official sat down before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, May 6, to testify further about his history with Epstein. However, the secretive nature of his testimony provoked ire among some Democrats.
According to Politico, Democrats on the committee spoke to reporters about their sitdown with Lutnick on Wednesday to share reactions to his testimony. Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari called Lutnick a “pathological liar,” while Virginia Rep. James Walkinshaw alleged Lutnick's private interview was “part of the ongoing cover-up.”
“Well, now we know why that interview was not video-taped… That was really embarrassing,” said California Rep. Ro Khanna — who has been leading House Democrats' push for Epstein transparency — adding that Lutnick offered "no acknowledgement" of any inconsistencies about his relationship with Epstein.
Virginia Rep. Suhas Subramanyam claimed that Lutnick told the committee he could not remember why he paid a visit to Epstein’s island.
PEOPLE reached out to Lutnick's office for comment on the Democrats' characterization of his interview performance.
The infamous island visit was a point of contention during Lutnick's February testimony before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee. At the time, the commerce secretary, whose name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, said he had only met the billionaire and convicted sex offender when they became neighbors in New York in the 2000s, and that they only had a handful of encounters.
"Probably the total, and you've seen all of these documents of these millions and millions of documents, there may be 10 emails connecting me with him, probably about 10 emails connecting me with him over a 14-year period," he continued. "I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person, okay?"
In October 2025, Lutnick gave an interview on Pod Force One in which he claimed that he and his wife vowed in 2005 to not to have any more contact with Epstein. According to the secretary, Epstein gave them a tour of his home shortly after they became neighbors, and the Lutnicks were uncomfortable to find a massage table in the middle of one of the rooms.
“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” he claimed in the October interview. “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going, because he’s gross.”
Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty; Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty
However, multiple emails from the Epstein files indicate that Lutnick did have contact with the late businessman after that time, even as recently as 2018. Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He died in prison in 2019 while facing separate federal sex trafficking charges.
An email that appears to coordinate Lutnick's visit to the island was included in the Epstein files, dated November 2012. The following year, another email, this one from Epstein's lawyer, Richard Khan, reads, "Attached is resume of Lutnick nanny. I am trying to arrange a time via Peter for you to meet her." (Lutnick said he had "no idea" what the nanny email was about.)
During Lutnick's February testimony with the Senate Appropriations subcommittee, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen pressed Lutnick on one encounter in particular, leading the secretary to admit that he had in fact visited the now-infamous "Epstein Island" long after 2005. Lutnick said he brought his family to the island, including his wife, their four children and nannies.
"I did have lunch with [Epstein] as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation," Lutnick said of the visit. "I had another couple, they were there as well with their children, and we had lunch on the island. That is true, for an hour, and we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife all together."
"We were on a family vacation," he continued. "We were not apart. To suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012…I don't recall why we did it, but we did it."
Epstein's island, officially called Little Saint James, has been named by many as Epstein's base of operations for his overseas financial dealings, as well as his alleged sex trafficking operation. However, Lutnick testified that, "The only thing I saw with my wife and my children and the other couple and their children were staff who worked for Mr. Epstein on that island."
Lutnick's conflicting statements on his Epstein ties led to calls for him to resign, starting just under a year after Trump appointed him to the Cabinet. Some of those calls have even come from within his own party.
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"Look, Howard Lutnick clearly went to the island if we believe what's in these files. He was in business with Jeffrey Epstein. And this was many years after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted. You know, lightly sentenced, but was convicted for sexual crimes," Republican Rep. Thomas Massie said on CNN's Inside Politics.
"So, he's got a lot to answer for," Massie continued. "But really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign."
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