The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the transcript of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s closed-door interview earlier this month related to the investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the interview, Lutnick mentioned meeting Epstein three times, including once while in the U.S. Virgin Islands with Lutnick’s family.
In the transcript, Lutnick was asked about going to Epstein’s island, Little Saint James, and said, “In 20- — around just before Christmas 2012, I visited the island for lunch with my wife, my children, my friends — my friend, his wife, their children, and my staff for an hour, I did. I’m not sure I knew the name of it either.”
Lutnick said he found it “unsettling and inexplicable” that Epstein’s staff knew he was in the Virgin Islands at the time, the transcript shows.
Read the transcript in full below:
Lutnick has denied wrongdoing and has not been accused of criminal conduct related to Epstein, the disgraced financier who in 2019 was found dead in a New York City jail cell while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial.
The Trump administration secretary, a next-door neighbor of Epstein’s for 14 years on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, told the House panel that they did not have a relationship, personal or in business. “I had no personal or professional relationship with this individual, despite the proximity of our addresses,” the transcript reads.
This is a developing story that will be updated with additional information.
