Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick admitted on Tuesday that he had lunch with Jeffrey Epstein years after he had said he had cut off contact with the disgraced financier.
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Lutnick said he had lunch with Epstein in 2012 on Epstein’s island. Lutnick previously had said that he had cutoff all contact with Epstein in 2005, three years before Epstein’s conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said according to CNBC. “My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” he said. “I had another couple with — they were there as well, with their children. And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour.”
Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Epstein’s primary accomplice and former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving a 20-year-sentence.
The 2019 indictment alleged that Epstein sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money. The government alleged at the time that Epstein worked with others to ensure that he had a steady supply of minor victims. Maxwell was considered to be his primary accomplice.
Lutnick has faced scrutiny since the release of 3.5 million documents related to the Epstein case were made public last week. The documents appeared to reveal a more extensive relationship between Lutnick and Epstein than had previously been disclosed, leading to calls for his resignation by Republicans and Democrats.
CBS News reported that documents released by the Justice Department show Lutnick and Epstein were both signatories, through limited liability companies, on a December 2012 agreement to acquire stakes in Adfin, an advertising-technology company that later shuttered.
