Bipartisan Lawmakers Call for Trump’s Commerce Secretary to Step Down—or Be Ousted—Over Epstein Ties

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to resign from his post after records in the Justice Department’s latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein revealed new details about the extent of Lutnick’s relationship with the late convicted sex offender.  Communications between Lutnick and Epstein, who were once neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, that were included in the released documents show that over the course of at least 13 years the men corresponded regularly and appear to have socialized together in New York and the Caribbean, contradicting Lutnick’s previous assertions that he cut ties with Epstein in 2005, a New York Times analysis found. Among the records are multiple exchanges between the two men or their assistants that occurred years after Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution involving a minor in 2008, including emails in which Lutnick appeared to plan a visit to Epstein’s private island in 2012. Other documents indicate they both signed on to invest in the now-defunct advertising technology company AdFin in late 2012. Following reports detailing the revelations about Lutnick’s ties to Epstein in the documents, which came as part of a larger trove of more than 3 million pages of files released late last month, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called for the Commerce Secretary’s resignation on Sunday.  “Really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign,” Massie, who co-authored the law that compelled the release of all the government’s files related to Epstein, told CNN’s Inside Politics. The Kentucky lawmaker added that “if this were Great Britain, he’d already be gone,” alluding to the fallout over the files in the United Kingdom, where Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, was stripped of his titles and Peter Mandelson was fired from his position as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. following disclosures about the men’s associations with Epstein. Read more: From Downing Street to the Royal Family, How the Epstein Files Broke Britain  “Secretary Howard Lutnick lied to the country about his ties to Epstein,” Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California wrote on X the following day. “Now we learned that they were in business together. He has no business being our Commerce Secretary. He should resign.” Another California Democrat, Rep. Robert Garcia, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, went a step further in a Sunday post, writing that “Lutnick must resign or be fired.” “And he must answer our questions,” Garcia added. A spokesperson for the Commerce Department told TIME in a statement that “Mr. and Mrs. Lutnick met Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years.” “This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments including securing trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker,” the department said. Lutnick previously said while being interviewed on the “Pod Force One” podcast last year that he “was never in the room” with Epstein “socially, for business or even philanthropy” after a visit to the financier’s townhouse in 2005 caused Lutnick to find him “disgusting.” Read more: Commerce Secretary Calls Jeffrey Epstein ‘The Greatest Blackmailer Ever’ However, correspondence included in the newest release of files indicates that Lutnick planned a visit to Epstein’s private island, Little St. James, off the coast of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands in December 2012––four years after Epstein’s conviction on prostitution charges.  On Nov. 20 that year, Epstein’s assistant wrote in an email to Lutnick, , “Jeffrey Epstein understands you will be down in St Thomas some over the holidays. Jeffrey requested I please pass along some phone numbers to you so the two of you can possibly get together.” The following month, Lutnick sent an email to a recipient whose name was redacted in the released document in which he appeared to try to make arrangements for a visit. “Hi Jeff,” the Dec. 20, 2012, message reads. “We are landing in St. Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St. Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point. Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?” A message from Epstein passed along to Lutnick by his assistant days later that reads, “Nice seeing you,” suggests that the trip occurred.  Other documents included in the released files show that Lutnick and Epstein planned to meet for drinks in May 2011 and that Lutnick invited Epstein to a “very =ntimate fundraising event with Hilary Clinton” in November 2015, among other dealings. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, did not rule out issuing a subpoena to Lutnick in the panel’s Epstein investigation while speaking to reporters on Monday. “We’re interested in talking to anyone that might have any information that would help us get justice for the survivorship,” Comer said.