By Graham Kates
May 6, 2026 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS News
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is set to be questioned Wednesday in a closed-door deposition by the House Oversight Committee as part of its probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick’s voluntary appearance comes amid a months-long series of depositions of prominent figures, many prompted by disclosures from the more than 3 million pages of documents known as the Epstein files. Those records show Lutnick and Epstein were business partners as recently as 2014, each investing in Adfin, an advertising company that later folded. The files also revealed that in 2012 Lutnick, his wife Allison and their children visited Little St. James, the private Caribbean island owned by Epstein.
An undated photograph from the files appears to show Epstein and Lutnick among a group of men on the island. Prior to the documents’ release, Lutnick had said he ended contact with Epstein in 2005, three years before Epstein’s 2008 state prostitution plea in Florida. The two men lived next door to each other in New York and exchanged emails as late as 2018 about Adfin and a proposed museum expansion near their homes.
In February testimony before the Senate, Lutnick said he “barely had anything to do with that person,” while acknowledging the island visit. He said of the trip, “We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour. Then we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife all together. We were on family vacation. We were not apart. To suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012, I don’t recall why we did it. But we did.”
Lutnick’s deposition follows the committee’s announcement that former Attorney General Pam Bondi has agreed to testify later this month; her earlier April 14 appearance was canceled by the Justice Department after she left office. Others who have been questioned include Epstein estate executors and high-profile figures such as former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire Les Wexner.