Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was pressed for answers regarding his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as revealed in the latest batch of documents to drop from the Department of Justice.
Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Chris Coons (D-DE) questioned Lutnick on the matter, with Van Hollen asking, “Why did the Epstein files show you coordinating a meeting and planning a visit with Jeffrey Epstein on his private island in December 2012?”
“Thank you for the question. I’m glad to be here to make it clear that I met Jeffrey Epstein when he moved, when I moved to a house next door to him in New York,” Lutnick said. “And I met him then. Over the next 14 years, I met him two other times that I can recall. Two times, and that is none for six years. So six years later, I met him. And then a year and a half after that, I met him and never again. Probably the total, and you’ve seen all of these documents, of these millions and millions of documents, there may be ten emails connecting me with him, probably about ten emails connecting me with him over a 14-year period. I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person.”
Lutnick further explained that he had lunch with Epstein “as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation.”
“My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple — they were there, as well with their children,” he stated. “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 all together.”
Lutnick admitted that he also visited Epstein’s island but did not see suspicious activity. “The only thing I saw with my wife and my children and the other couple and their children were staff who worked with Mr. Epstein on that island,” he claimed.
