Trump Commerce Secretary Reveals Details of His Trip to Epstein Island
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick arrived on Capitol Hill Tuesday to speak with a Senate subcommittee about U.S. broadcast funding, but ended up defending himself again and again about his various interactions with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Recently released documents from the Epstein files revealed that Lutnick’s connection to Epstein was deeper than he had previously disclosed. Last year, in an interview with the New York Post podcast, Lutnick claimed he cut off all contact with “that disgusting person” after he and his wife were invited to tour Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse in 2005. Epstein was, at the time, the Lutnicks’ Manhattan neighbor.
But emails made public in the recent Epstein documents dump indicated that wasn’t true. Instead, Lutnick continued to reach out to the controversial financier, even after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
One such instance included an attempt by Lutnick to coordinate a family trip in 2012 to the financier’s “pedophile island”—a detail that he confirmed during the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing Tuesday.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen pressed Lutnick on his ties to Epstein twice, excoriating him for lying to the American public.
“You totally misrepresented the extent of your relationship with him to the Congress, to the American people, and to the survivors of his despicable criminal and predatory acts,” Van Hollen said.
“When you visited the private island, did you see anything inappropriate?” he pressed.
“The only thing I saw with my wife and my children and the other couple and their children was staff who worked for Mr. Epstein on that island,” Lutnick said.
“And you realize this visit took place after he had been convicted, right? I mean you made a very big point of saying that you sensed this was a bad person in 2005. And then of course, in 2008 he was convicted of soliciting prostitution of a minor, and yet you went and had this trip and other interactions,” Van Hollen said.
The commerce secretary then denied that he had dinner with Epstein at the disgraced financier’s New York home in 2011, as detailed in the files. The dinner reportedly included other high-profile New York socialites, such as alleged child molester (and famed Hollywood filmmaker) Woody Allen.
“I actually don’t know what you’re referring to,” Lutnick said. “Look, I looked through the millions of documents for my name–just like everybody else—and found that there was a document that said I had a meeting with him in May, I think, for an hour at 5 o’clock. Not for a dinner or otherwise, for an hour, at 5 o’clock.”
“There’s also a reference to the fact that Epstein had expressed an interest in meeting with your nanny. Do you know whether Jeffrey Epstein ever met with your nanny?” asked Van Hollen.
But Lutnick was not aware of such an interaction. Ultimately, he could only toss back his meager defense.
“To the best of my memory, I met him when he was next door to me,” Lutnick told the senators. “Under no circumstances is there a single word that I’ve done anything even remotely wrong in any regard. I did not have anything that you could call a relationship, anything you could call an acquaintance. I literally met him three times over 14 years. That’s all I remember, that’s all that’s in the documents.”
????HOLY SHIT: Vanhollen just confronted Lutnick over his Epstein lies and proved he LIED when he said he cut off all contact. Lutnick ADMITS: “I did have lunch with him… on the island.”
— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) February 10, 2026
That was AFTER Epstein’s conviction. Lutnick is disgusting and needs to go. pic.twitter.com/DFMupkukMB