Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is expected to appear for a closed-door deposition Wednesday before the House Oversight Committee as part of its ongoing probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick’s voluntary session comes amid months of depositions prompted by disclosures from more than 3 million pages of material known as the Epstein files. Those records indicate Lutnick and Epstein were business partners as recently as 2014, when both invested in Adfin, an advertising company that later folded. The files also show that in 2012 Lutnick, his wife Allison and their children visited Little St. James, the private Caribbean island owned by Epstein.
An undated photograph included in the documents appears to show Epstein and Lutnick among a group of men on the island. Before the files were made public, Lutnick had said he cut off contact with Epstein in 2005, three years before Epstein’s 2008 state prostitution plea in Florida. The records, however, include emails between the two as late as 2018 about Adfin and about a proposed museum expansion near their homes, and note the men once lived next door to each other in New York.
In February testimony to the Senate, Lutnick sought to downplay his ties, saying he “barely had anything to do with that person,” while acknowledging the 2012 island visit. He described the trip as a brief family lunch on the island that included his wife, children and nannies, and said the family was together and on vacation.
Lutnick’s deposition follows the committee’s announcement that former Attorney General Pam Bondi has agreed to testify later this month; her previously scheduled April 14 appearance was canceled by the Justice Department after she left office. The committee has also questioned Epstein estate executors and other high-profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire Les Wexner.