Commerce chief Howard Lutnick to face Epstein grilling in closed-door interview today Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick will become the latest of Donald Trump’s cabinet to be questioned over ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he sits for a closed-door transcribed interview with the Oversight Committee later today.
Lutnick has acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with family members – a trip that contradicted his earlier claim that he had severed ties with Epstein in 2005. In March, the Department of Justice briefly deleted and then restored an undated photo of Lutnick and Epstein in an island setting.
CBS News reported that Lutnick and Epstein were in business together as recently as 2014. Lutnick only agreed to the closed-door Capitol Hill testimony after Democrats on the committee publicly threatened to subpoena Lutnick if he refused to cooperate.
Representative Ro Khanna of California told reporters that the votes were there to compel his testimony. But getting to this stage has only been possible due to the cooperation of Republicans on the committee.
Republican representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina called for Lutnick’s appearance, while James Comer, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the panel, said he had “proactively” agreed to the transcribed interview. “I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee,” Comer said in a statement at the time.