A shocking admission from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has rocked Capitol Hill. During Tuesday’s Senate Appropriations Subcommittee proceedings, he revealed lunching on Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in 2012 during a family trip from St. Barts.
The visit lasted roughly an hour, Lutnick confirmed: ‘We stopped for lunch. That’s accurate.’ He vehemently denied closeness: ‘Absolutely no relationship. Contact was negligible.’
This jars with his 2005 ‘clean break’ narrative from Epstein. But January’s explosive DOJ files expose later communications and 2014 business deals, fueling media scrutiny.
Resignation calls are surging. Democrats lead the charge, joined by select Republicans, arguing Lutnick’s Epstein proximity disqualifies him from office.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state sex crimes involving a minor, faced federal trafficking charges in 2019, and died in custody on August 10 amid controversy.
President Trump’s 2025 Epstein Files Transparency Act prompted the archive’s unveiling: 3 million+ pages, 2,000+ videos, 180,000 photos—totaling 3.5 million pages. Over 500 experts across agencies toiled for 75 days in rigorous reviews.
Lutnick’s candor may not suffice to quell the uproar, as the Epstein taint threatens his tenure and invites broader probes into influential figures’ pasts.