Democratic lawmakers have accused US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick of lying to Congress and helping cover up the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, demanding his resignation after a closed-door deposition in the investigation into the disgraced sex offender.
The extraordinary attacks came as Lutnick was answering questions on Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee about his ties to Epstein, the disgraced financier whose connections to powerful figures have fuelled years of political controversy and conspiracy theories.
Emerging from the interview, Democrats portrayed Lutnick — a billionaire former financial executive — as evasive and dishonest, accusing him of contradicting earlier public statements about when he severed ties with Epstein.
“After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview, I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history,” said Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari.
Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam called on Lutnick to quit, telling reporters: “That was absolutely mind-boggling, what we just heard in the room. He was evasive, nervous, and dishonest.”
“We asked him over and over again, ‘Why did you go to the island?'” said Subramanyam. “He says he doesn’t remember, that it’s inexplicable, and he simply didn’t know how to answer the question.”
The deposition centred heavily on Lutnick’s previously disclosed 2012 visit to Epstein’s private Caribbean island, which came years after Epstein’s abuse was already public knowledge.
In a podcast interview last year, Lutnick recounted visiting Epstein’s Manhattan home in 2005 and said he was so disturbed that he decided he would “never be in the room with that disgusting person, ever again.”
But records later emerged showing plans in 2012 for Lutnick to meet Epstein on Little Saint James, the island often referred to as “Epstein Island.”
Lutnick acknowledged during a Senate hearing earlier this year that he had visited the island with family members.
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