While testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Lutnick accepted that he had lunch with Epstein during the family vacation. (Photos: AP) US President Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday acknowledged that he and his family had lunch on the infamous private island of disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a family vacation.
While testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Lutnick accepted that he had lunch with Epstein during the family vacation. “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,” he said.
There have been calls in the corridors of Washington that Lutnick should step down as country’s commerce secretary over his ties with deceased paedophile and senators like Democrat Adam Schiff, and Representative Ro Khanna have said that Lutnick should be “out of” President Trump’s Cabinet.
Detailing the lunch he had with Epstein, Lutnick told the Senate Committee, “My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple with – they were there as well, with their children.”
Secretary Howard Lutnick lied to the country about his ties to Epstein.
Now we learned that they were in business together.
He has no business being our Commerce Secretary.
He should resign.
— Adam Schiff (@SenAdamSchiff) February 9, 2026
Trump’s commerce secretary added, “And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour. And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together. We were on a family vacation.”
The calls for Lutnick to step down are growing as the newly released documents by the US Justice Department reveal that the commerce secretary’s business and personal relationship with Epstein was more extensive than previously known.
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Earlier, Lutnick had said that he had cut off his contact with Epstein after 2005, years before the disgraced financier was convicted of child sex trafficking charges. But the documents in the latest tranche of Epstein files reveal that Lutnick was still in communication with the paedophile years later.
The documents showed that in December 2012, Epstein invited Lutnick for lunch at his controversial private island in the Caribbean.
Lutnick, during his testimony, said that he “barely had anything to do with that person.”
