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Democrats on the House oversight committee called on Howard Lutnick to resign, following the commerce secretary’s 6 May testimony to the panel about his ties to the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Secretary Lutnick spent his interview trying to cover up his lie and hide from the truth. He couldn’t explain bringing his family to Epstein’s island years after he claimed to have cut ties, even after he found Epstein to be deeply unsettling,” said Robert Garcia, the committee’s ranking member.
Democratic lawmakers on the panel signed a letter calling on the commerce secretary to step down.
A reminder that Lutnick – the highest-ranking Trump administration official prominently named in the Epstein files, aside from Donald Trump himself – said on a podcast last year that he had decided to “never be in the room” with Epstein following a 2005 tour of the financier’s home in Manhattan that disturbed him and his wife.
But the release of justice department files on Epstein earlier this year showed that Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years past that. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home. And Lutnick’s family had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Lutnick admitted to the 2012 lunch during his 10 February testimony before the Senate appropriations committee. “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” Lutnick said. In that testimony, Lutnick also insisted that he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein.
The commerce secretary only agreed to the closed-door interview in May, after Democrats on the committee publicly threatened to subpoena Lutnick if he refused to cooperate. Representative Ro Khanna of California told reporters that the votes were there to compel his testimony.
In their letter on Thursday, oversight Democrats were resolute about Lutnick’s need to resign. “The facts are clear: you lied to the American people and attempted to conceal your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in your public statements,” they wrote. “Your lack of candor demonstrates that you are unfit to perform the duties required of you as secretary of Commerce, and you must step down immediately.”
Key events
44m ago
Here's a recap of the day so far
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Oversight Democrats demand Lutnick resign after testimony over Epstein ties
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Senate votes to withhold their pay during future government shutdowns
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Johnson and Jeffries tap representatives to lead bipartisan taskforce to combat sexual misconduct in Congress
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White House statement on Trump-Xi talks
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What Xi and Trump discussed, according to Chinese statement
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Interim summary
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