Lutnick Acknowledges Traveling to Epstein’s Island

Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee sharply questioned Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday about his ties to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The questioning prompted the secretary to acknowledge that he had traveled to the convicted sex offender’s private island years after he had previously claimed to have cut ties.

Senator Christopher Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, opened a hearing on broadband policy by raising questions about Mr. Lutnick’s connection to Mr. Epstein.

He accused the secretary of misrepresenting the extent of his contact with the convicted sex offender, saying his prior claims were “at best highly misleading.”

Mr. Van Hollen added that the inconsistencies in Mr. Lutnick’s accounts called into question his fitness for office and the accuracy of his statements to Congress.

Mr. Lutnick defended himself, stating that he had “nothing to hide” and insisting that his interactions with Mr. Epstein had been limited.

At the center of the issue was an October podcast interview in which Mr. Lutnick said he decided in 2005 not to associate with Mr. Epstein.

He explained that the decision came after Mr. Epstein alluded to sexual encounters with women while giving Mr. Lutnick and his wife a tour of his house.

“My wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Mr. Lutnick said.

“So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy.”

However, on Tuesday, Mr. Lutnick admitted to senators that he had met with Mr. Epstein after that encounter.

He also acknowledged that he and his family visited Mr. Epstein on his private Caribbean island, Little St. James.

Mr. Lutnick confirmed that he traveled to the island in 2012 with his wife, children, and nannies for a lunch with Mr. Epstein.

The visit occurred four years after Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution from a minor as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.

The correspondence between the two men and the island visit were revealed in recently released Justice Department files related to the investigation of Mr. Epstein.

The files also showed that Mr. Epstein had expressed interest in meeting Mr. Lutnick’s nanny.

Mr. Lutnick stated that he did not know whether the nanny had met Mr. Epstein and added that he “had no idea what that was about.”

During the hearing, Mr. Lutnick said he first got to know Mr. Epstein when they became neighbors in Manhattan in 2005.

He claimed they met only twice over the next 14 years, as far as he could recall.

“I did not have anything you could call a relationship, anything you could call an acquaintance,” Mr. Lutnick said.

“I literally met him three times over 14 years. I know and my wife knows that I have done absolutely nothing wrong in any possible regard.”

He concluded by saying, “I have nothing to hide, absolutely nothing.”