Senator Grills Lutnick on Extent of Ties to Jeffrey Epstein: Many ‘Believe You Misled the Country’

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) grilled Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick during a hearing on Tuesday over new revelations regarding the extent of his ties to convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, which appear to contradict Lutnick’s previous denials of a long-term relationship.

Lutnick appeared before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, where Van Hollen went after him from the jump, beginning his remarks by saying, “You totally misrepresented the extent of your relationship with Epstein.”

Van Hollen added: “The information recently revealed shows that you had interactions with Epstein over 13 years, including long after he was convicted of soliciting the prostitution of a minor. That does call into question your credibility and fitness for the job.”

He went on to cite past comments made by Lutnick about his relationship with Epstein, claiming he and his wife found Epstein to be creepy and, despite living next door, vowed to never return to his home after only one meeting.

“But since this hearing was scheduled, another matter has arisen from the Epstein files that goes to the heart of the credibility and honesty of our witness, Secretary Lutnick. Mr. Secretary, I hope during the course of your testimony we can get answers to some of those questions,” Van Hollen continued, adding:

As you know, Mr. Secretary, the issue is not that you engaged in any wrongdoing with Jeffrey Epstein, but that 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.

You told us that when you and your wife first encountered Jeffrey Epstein in his apartment in 2005, he used sexual innuendo to explain why he had a massage table in the middle of the room. You said it disgusted you and that you hurried out and vowed never to set foot in the same room with him again, and you suggested that you never had anything more to do with him. I remember thinking that, for all our disagreements, you had good instincts.

But now that turns out not to be true. The information recently revealed from the Epstein files shows that your statements were, at best, highly misleading. The files show you had interactions with Epstein over the next 13 years, including long after he was convicted in 2008 of soliciting the prostitution of a minor. And Mr. Secretary, that does call into question your fitness for the job you now hold and the question of your credibility before this committee and the Congress.

The latest Epstein files release also showed that Lutnick visited Epstein’s infamous private Island and that he maintained both a business and personal relationship with the convicted sex trafficker up until at least 2018.

Van Hollen later told Lutnick that many Americans now “believe that you misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements, suggesting that you’d cut off all contact when, in fact, you had not. When you visited the private island, did you see anything inappropriate during that visit?”

Lutnick replied, “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.”

Van Hollen added, “And you realize that this visit took place after he’d been convicted, right? I mean, you made a very big point of saying that you sensed that 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. Did you have a dinner in Epstein’s New York City home in 2011? So the information that suggests that there was a dinner with Woody Allen and Woody Allen’s spouse at the Epstein residence. There’s nothing to that, is that right?”

Lutnick replied, “I actually don’t know what you’re referring to. There was — look, I looked through the millions of documents for my name, just like everybody else, and what I found was there was a document that says that I had a meeting with him in May, I think, for an hour at five o’clock — not dinner or otherwise — for an hour at five o’clock.”

Lutnick is facing bipartisan calls to resign from Trump’s cabinet over his ties to Epstein.

Watch the clip above.

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