Dems demand Lutnick resign over Jeffrey Epstein interview

House Democrats on Thursday demanded the resignation of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, claiming he publicly lied about his relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and “clearly refused to show up” at a later meeting. closed interview.

“The facts are clear: You lied to the American people and attempted to conceal your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in your public statements,” said the Democratic minority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In a letter to Lutnick he said:.

“Your lack of candor demonstrates that you are unfit to fulfill the duties expected of you as Secretary of Commerce, and you should resign immediately,” said the letter, signed by all 21 of the panel’s Democratic members.

Lutnick requested She said in an interview last year that after visiting Epstein’s Manhattan mansion shortly after moving in next door to him in 2005, she “decided I would never be in the same room with that disgusting person again.”

“So I’ve never been in the same room with him socially, for work, or even for philanthropy,” Lutnick said in that interview. “If that guy was there, I wouldn’t go because he’s disgusting.”

However, Lutnick, who showed that the ties between the two men continued years after the Justice Department published files on Epstein, admitted at the Senate hearing that he and his family had lunch on the disgraced financier’s private island in 2012.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution, which required him to register as a sex offender. He died in a New York City jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

Lutnick’s claim in the 2025 interview is “patently false,” Democrats wrote in Thursday’s letter.

“During your transcribed conversation, you were presented with clear evidence that you corresponded with and physically met with Epstein on multiple occasions prior to his arrest in 2019,” they wrote, including a private island lunch.

“Given the opportunity to confess during the interview, you instead offered illogical distinctions and semantic games,” the lawmakers wrote.

In a statement to CNBC, a Commerce Department spokesperson called the letter “yet another failed attempt by Congressional Democrats to distract from Secretary Lutnick’s historic work at the Commerce Department.”

“Secretary Lutnick, who appeared before the Oversight Committee voluntarily, answered approximately 400 questions from members and staff, and that meeting ended only when members said they had nothing more to ask,” the spokesperson said.

“He repeatedly stated that the three encounters did not constitute a relationship, and the committee adjourned the meeting without identifying any evidence to the contrary. Calls for his resignation are unfounded and politically motivated.”

The White House said in February that President Donald Trump, who also faced scrutiny for his past friendship with Epstein, continued to stand behind Lutnick.

Lutnick testified behind closed doors before the House Oversight Committee on May 6. He said he joined the committee voluntarily, but only agreed to join after Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she would release a report. bipartisan subpoena to force his testimony.

A transcript of the interview shows Lutnick saying he remembers meeting with Epstein three times, including interactions in 2005 and 2012.

Lutnick said that in 2011, Epstein’s staff contacted me “suggesting that he had a reason to contact me.” The secretary said it was arranged for Lutnick to knock on Epstein’s door one Sunday afternoon while walking with his wife and dogs “to hear what he had to say.”

“My best memory is this: I rang the bell, sat at the entrance with my dog, waited for him to come down, listened to what he had to say, and left. As far as I remember, it was about the pier. It was pointless and unimportant,” he told the committee.

During questioning, Lutnick denied being misleading about his relationship with Epstein and insisted that his use of “I” and “we” was a crucial distinction.

“I said it right. I think I told it right. I don’t want it to be changed in any way. I wasn’t going to be in the same room with him socially, which I wasn’t, I wasn’t for business, I wasn’t for charity. So I believe what I said was right. I believe what I said was right, and I believe it now. That’s why I never said ‘we’. I never said ‘never’. I said ‘never,'” he said.

One of the questioners replied: “We all know that you were in a social setting with him, but you insisted that this sentence was true. So, at first glance, this does not make much sense.”

Lutnick later said: “I was never with her, I mean, I was never in a situation with her. I was with my wife. And those were meaningless and unimportant. But contextually, so people will understand, I was never with her in any other way. I, Howard Lutnick, was never in a situation. So you can’t take that out of context. I was never with her.”

“No reasonable person would accept this account,” Democrats wrote Thursday.

“A cabinet secretary’s most basic obligation to Congress is integrity; your statements have an impact on the lives of all Americans. You used the congressional interview not to set the record straight, but to perpetuate a false public narrative,” they wrote.

“You contradicted previous statements and stonewalled basic questions. A secretary who parses the meaning of plain English to avoid acknowledging her own words, claims not to remember a documented visit to the private island of a convicted sex offender, and refuses to answer basic questions about her conversations with the President cannot be trusted to serve as a leader in the federal government.”

“We therefore call on you to resign immediately as Minister of Commerce,” they wrote.