Commerce secretary admitted to lying about Epstein island visit

In October, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recounted visiting his neighbor Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse around 2005. Behind double doors: a massage table, candles. Lutnick told the host of the Podforce One Podcast that he asked Epstein if he frequently received massages. Epstein leaned in and said, "every day — and the right kind of massage." Lutnick told the host that in "the six or eight steps" back to his own front door, he and his wife decided he would "never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again." Not socially, not for business, not for philanthropy.

Lutnick lied. Recently released Epstein files show that he had an ongoing relationship with the "disgusting" Epstein for many years after the massage table incident. Emails place Lutnick at drinks in Epstein's home in 2011 — a staffer later wrote about recovering a phone Lutnick left behind. In December 2012, four years after Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution of a minor, Lutnick brought his wife, four children, and nannies to Epstein's private island for lunch. Contract documents show they co-invested in an ad-tech company called Adfin from 2012 to 2014. In 2017, Epstein pledged a donation at a charity event honoring Lutnick, CBS News reports.

Under questioning from Sen. Chris Van Hollen today, a righteously indignant Lutnick acknowledged the island visit but tried to downplay it as "lunch for an hour for lunch" during a family vacation. "I did not have any relationship with him," he told the committee. "I barely had anything to do with that person." Van Hollen told Lutnick he had "misled the country and the Congress" by claiming he'd cut off all contact, according to NBC News.

Asked about a reported 2011 dinner at Epstein's home with Woody Allen, Lutnick said: "I actually don't know what you're referring to."