US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told lawmakers in a closed-door interview earlier this month that he met Jeffrey Epstein only three times and had no “personal or professional relationship” with the disgraced financier, according to a newly released transcript of the meeting.
Lutnick said the first meeting occurred in 2005 when he and his wife were invited for coffee at Epstein’s home. The second was in 2011 when he briefly visited Epstein’s home to discuss scaffolding. The third was in 2012 when Epstein invited him, his family and friends to lunch on his private island. “To the best of my recollection, those were the only three occasions in which I interacted with Epstein in person,” Lutnick said. “Each and every one was meaningless and inconsequential.”
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. The release of millions of documents related to Epstein earlier this year prompted Lutnick’s appearance before the House oversight committee, after documents showed Lutnick continued correspondence with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
During the interview, Lutnick recounted the 2005 visit, saying Epstein showed him and his wife around his townhouse and at one point opened a door to reveal a massage table. When Lutnick asked why he had a massage table and how often he received massages, Epstein replied “every day and the right kind of massage”. Lutnick said he and his wife left immediately, interpreting the remark as “in some form sexual in nature”.
Democratic lawmakers challenged Lutnick’s statements, noting that he had said on a podcast in October 2025 that he was “never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy” after 2005. Lutnick defended himself, arguing that his statement was accurate in that he would not put himself in a room with Epstein socially, professionally or philanthropically.
He described the 2012 lunch on Epstein’s island as a “brief, meaningless, and inconsequential lunch” attended by 15 or 16 people including his wife, their four children and friends. Lutnick agreed to the transcribed interview after the Justice Department released Epstein-related documents, which contradicted his earlier podcast claim that he and his wife had severed ties with Epstein in 2005.
