House Oversight Chair Says Lutnick ‘Wasn’t 100% Truthful’ About Epstein Ahead Of Hearing

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told reporters on Wednesday that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was not “100% truthful” about his past relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Lutnick arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning for a closed-door deposition before the Oversight Committee to answer questions on his relationship with Epstein. Before the deposition began, Comer took questions from reporters and said the Commerce secretary has not been fully honest in some of his past statements on Epstein.

Lutnick claimed last year that he vowed never to go near Epstein after a strange encounter with the financier in 2005. Photos released by the Justice Department in its trove of Epstein documents, however, show Lutnick with the disgraced financier on his infamous private island in 2012 — four years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution.

“We’ll let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged,” Comer said before the Oversight Committee hearing began. “But at the end of the day, I haven’t seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence. But he wasn’t 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island.”

Credit: Justice Department

Comer added that the Oversight Committee would ask Lutnick more questions about his visit to Little Saint James.

“We haven’t talked to too many people that have admitted they’ve been on the island,” he said. “It’s my understanding he wasn’t on the island very long. He was there with his wife and kids, but we’ll see what he says.”

The Oversight Committee chairman promised to release the full transcript of Lutnick’s deposition in the coming days.

During a Senate hearing in February, Lutnick confirmed he visited Epstein’s Little Saint James Island and said he was accompanied by his wife and four children, as well as another couple and their children. Lutnick told senators that he had lunch with Epstein on his island for around an hour while he was on vacation with his family. He has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s sex crimes.

The Commerce secretary has been ripped by Democrats and some Republicans who expressed concern about his previous storyline.

“It’s now clear that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been lying about his relationship with Epstein. He said he had no interactions with Epstein after 2005, yet we now know they were in business together. Lutnick must resign or be fired. And he must answer our questions,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking Democratic member on the House Oversight Committee, said in February.

Lutnick is the first Trump administration official to be questioned under oath before the Oversight Committee on the Epstein investigation. The Commerce secretary went in for a closed-door deposition voluntarily.

“I’ve been on the Oversight Committee 10 years, and there’s never been a chairman [who has brought] in Cabinet secretaries of their own party,” Comer added.

Former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is also slated to appear before the committee for questioning on the Epstein case in the coming weeks. Bondi was fired as attorney general in early April as President Donald Trump was frustrated with the lack of criminal prosecutions of Democrats who committed lawfare against him. Bondi also faced scrutiny over how she handled the Epstein investigation.