US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick planned trip to Epstein’s island
The visit, planned in 2012, came years after Lutnick said he was cutting ties with Epstein.
Records show that in December 2012, Lutnick sent an email to Epstein saying he had a group of people (including his wife, children and another family) visiting the Caribbean. He asked where Epstein was and if they could visit for dinner.
Epstein responded through an assistant to St. Louis in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Little St. Thomas’s private island off the coast of St. Thomas. He gave more information about James’ location. They finally decided on plans for a lunch meeting.
In recent years, public figures close to Epstein have visited Little St. Their visits to James were under scrutiny, but Lutnick’s planned visit was not previously disclosed. Reached by phone on Friday, Lutnick said he could not comment on the island visit because he had not seen the latest Epstein documents.
“I spent zero time with him,” Lutnick said. He then hung up the phone.
Documents show that the visit took place. The date of the meeting was determined as 23 December 2012. A day later, Epstein’s assistant delivered Lutnick a message from Epstein: “Nice to see you,” it said. In a podcast interview last year, Lutnick claimed that around 2005, he and his wife were so rebellious against Epstein that they decided not to engage with him again.
Lutnick said in the interview that Epstein invited them to tour his New York mansion next to Lutnick’s own home. Lutnick recalled that when they saw a massage table in the middle of the room, Epstein explained that he was getting “the right kind of massage” every day. Lutnick said he and his wife left immediately and decided to “never be in the same room with that disgusting person again.”
“So I was never in the same room with him socially, for work, or even for philanthropic purposes,” Lutnick said in an interview on “Pod Force One.” “If that guy was there, I wouldn’t go because he’s disgusting.”
Lutnick had been approached by an assistant to Epstein before they connected in December 2012. “Jeffrey asked me to pass along some phone numbers so you two could get together,” the assistant wrote a month ago.
Lutnick planned the Caribbean trip with his wife, Allison. They would arrive on a 188-foot yacht named “Perfection,” he explained in an email.
The documents show that the lives of Howard Lutnick and Epstein continued to overlap in recent years. In 2017, Epstein contributed to a charity dinner honoring Lutnick. In 2018, they exchanged emails discussing joining forces to oppose construction plans for The Frick Collection, the museum opposite both of their homes.
This article was first published in The New York Times.
