WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told a congressional committee Wednesday that a lunch invitation from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on his private Caribbean island was “unsettling” — but that didn’t stop Lutnick from traveling there with his wife and kids in 2012.
One source familiar with Lutnick’s remarks told The Post that the cabinet official “did not know” how an Epstein assistant knew he was traveling through the US Virgin Islands before the invitation was extended — and found that fact “unsettling.”
Yet he, his wife Allison Lutnick and four other family members docked there for a lunch with Epstein for around two hours, according to sources and lawmakers who interviewed him.
Lutnick, 64, told members of the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door, transcribed interview that he only met three times with Epstein — once years before he committed suicide while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019, and at least twice after the financier’s Florida plea deal that forced him to register as a sex offender in 2008.
The commerce secretary, who lived next to Epstein on the Upper East Side from 2005 to 2019, said over the course of his three-hour interview that he didn’t have any “personal” or “professional” relationship with his neighbor and stressed that he never witnessed any inappropriate conduct with young women, according to lawmakers and sources.
But Lutnick backtracked again from his sweeping claims, first made on The Post’s “Pod Force One” podcast in October, that Epstein was “the greatest blackmailer ever” who traded the feds videos of prominent individuals implicated in crimes in exchange for his plea deal a decade before.
“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Mr. Lutnick said on the podcast, “Pod Force One.” “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy.”
He expressed regrets about his comments to Post columnist Miranda Devine, suggested he was merely speculating and claimed it was “inexplicable” even to him why he still met with Epstein in 2011 and 2012 — after he and his wife had a creepy encounter with the pedophile in which Epstein showed them massage tables at his Manhattan penthouse, Democrats on the panel told reporters.
“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick had said on “Pod Force One.”
“So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy.”
The Department of Justice has also released emails between Lutnick and Epstein that show them coordinating for those in-person meetings. The pair also briefly discussed investments made separately into a subsidiary of Cantor Fitzgerald.
“I haven’t seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn’t 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island,” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters Wednesday.
“Hopefully we’ll have some more answers,” Comer added. “We haven’t talked to too many people that have admitted they’ve been on the island. It’s my understanding he wasn’t on the island very long. He was there with his wife and kids.”
Oversight Democrats called on Lutnick to resign, accusing the Cabinet official of evading their questions and providing “mind-boggling” explanations for his about-face on Epstein’s alleged blackmailing of powerful business leaders or politicians.
Asked about the reversal, Lutnick suggested that Trump administration officials had pointed out he was wrong, Republican and Democratic lawmakers said.
“It was just contortion, lies and no acknowledgment that he misled the American public,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who co-authored the law compelling the DOJ disclosures on Epstein.
“He said he never met with Jeffrey Epstein again socially, yet he admits that that was a social visit to his island, and so he was clearly being dishonest. He was clearly being evasive. And finally he doesn’t remember why he went to Jeffrey Epstein’s island, which is also mind boggling,” added Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.).
Asked about the reversal, Lutnick suggested that Trump administration officials had pointed out he was wrong, Comer and Democratic lawmakers said.
Khanna noted that the commerce secretary made no mention of the July 6, 2025, memo — nearly three months before his interview — that stated there was “no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions” and no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Lutnick also told Democrats on the panel that he was unaware of the 2008 plea agreement that let Epstein serve just 13 months in jail for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Most of that time was spent on work release.
“We’ll continue our investigation, and if we find that there were any misstatements by Lutnick: It’s a felony to lie to Congress, and he’ll be held accountable,” Comer said.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wasn’t present for the interview — despite having demanded Lutnick’s appearance before Congress.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will appear for her transcribed interview before Oversight lawmakers on May 29.
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