Trump administration Commerce SecretaryHoward Lutnickon Tuesday admitted he and his family had lunch on theprivate islandof notorious sex offenderJeffrey Epsteinyears earlier.
"I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation" in 2012, Lutnick said intestimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies," he said. "I had another couple with — they were there as well, with their children."
"And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour," he said.
"And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together. We were on family vacation," he said.
The secretary's admission came as he faces bipartisan calls to resign following the release of records showing that his business and personal relationship with Epstein was more extensive than previously known.
Lutnick previously said that he cut off contact with Epstein after 2005 — years before Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state-level charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution, which required him to register as a sex offender.
But analyses of the latest batch of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice show Lutnick and Epstein were in communication years later.
In December 2012,Epstein invited Lutnick to lunchon his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the documents showed. The two men also had business dealings as recently as 2014,CBS News reported.
Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 while facing federal sex trafficking charges.
Source: Drudge Report
