Howard Lutnick

Lutnick told the House Oversight Committee he met Epstein in person three times: a 10- to 15-minute coffee in 2005 that ended when Epstein made a “crude” remark about massages; a hallway talk about scaffolding in 2011; and the 2012 island lunch. He said Epstein’s staff “inexplicably” learned of his family’s Caribbean holiday and arranged it. He testified that he never went inside a building there and saw no young women. [1][2]

The files also show phone-call calendar entries, a 2018 email exchange in which Lutnick discussed the prospects of a company both men had invested in, and a photograph of him with Epstein on a cliff on the island. Lutnick says he did not know they were co-investors. [1][3][4]

In October 2025 Lutnick said he had cut Epstein off after 2005 and speculated that Epstein filmed his massage room and was the “greatest blackmailer ever.” Before Congress he called that “speculating for a podcast,” saying he now credited administration officials’ public statements that no blackmail evidence exists. He argued his earlier statement still held because he never formed a relationship. [1][2]

Critics on the left see a cabinet member caught minimising; some on the right ask why the administration’s own man once believed in the blackmail tapes. What the record supports is plain: his first public account was inaccurate, and his second account is consistent with the documents released so far. [1][3]