A photo released last month by the Justice Department as part of the Epstein files that showed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Epstein’s Caribbean island was removed from the Justice Department’s website before being restored Thursday night.
The image, authenticated by CBS News, shows Epstein, Lutnick and three other men standing near an oceanside cliff. The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine downloaded the photo from the DOJ site on Jan. 31, and it was also archived by Jmail, a web interface created to preserve Epstein content. The photo was published under file No. EFTA01230639; the link later returned a “Page not found” but was restored within hours of CBS News publishing its report. CBS News has reached out to the Commerce Department and the DOJ for comment.
Emails in the newly released Epstein files show that in 2012 Lutnick, his wife and their four children planned a visit to Little St. James, Epstein’s private island estate. Lutnick was invited for lunch on Dec. 24, 2012, and Epstein’s assistant later wrote on Epstein’s behalf that “it was nice seeing you.”
Testifying before a congressional committee earlier this month, Lutnick acknowledged the visit with his family. “We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,” he told lawmakers. “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 has not been accused of wrongdoing and said in the hearing he had “nothing to hide — absolutely nothing.”
Lutnick has faced recent criticism for ties to Epstein, who had been his neighbor in New York City. Lutnick previously said he cut off contact with Epstein in 2005, but documents in the Epstein files show the two were in business together as recently as 2014 in a now-shuttered advertising company called Adfin. The files also show communications about Adfin in 2018, with Epstein writing, “on another note what do you think the prospects for adfin are??”
Also in 2018, Lutnick emailed Epstein about an expansion plan for the Frick Collection art museum near their homes, warning the renovation might “block your sunlight and views.” “You should put in a letter. I’m sending a lawyer. Don’t ignore this,” Lutnick wrote.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his arrest on federal sex‑trafficking charges; his death was ruled a suicide.
