US House member Thomas Massie has called for the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick – a fellow Republican – to resign over his ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Massie, who co-authored a law mandating the release of the so-called Epstein files, appeared Sunday on CNN’s Inside Politics and said Lutnick, a staunch Donald Trump ally, “has a lot to answer for”.
“Really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign,” Massie said. Alluding to how the Epstein scandal has roiled UK politics, including by costing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor his title as a prince and Peter Mandelson his US ambassadorship, Massie added of Lutnick: “If this were Great Britain, he’d already be gone.”
Asked for comment, a statement from Lutnick’s commerce department said in part: “This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments.”
Massie’s call for Lutnick’s resignation came a little more than a week after the US justice department released about 3m of its investigative files on Epstein in connection with the transparency law that the Kentucky congressman helped pass.
The disclosure revealed that the commerce secretary discussed visiting Epstein’s island in 2012 – four years after the disgraced financier was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
The Epstein and Lutnick-related emails show correspondence about travel arrangements and political fundraising, among other things. Lutnick and Epstein were neighbors on a particularly tony stretch of Manhattan’s Upper East Side neighborhood.
Epstein’s longtime assistant messaged Lutnick on 20 November 2012 that “Jeffrey Epstein understands you will be down in St Thomas some over the holidays,” referring to a Caribbean island. The assistant continued: “Jeffrey requested I please pass along some phone numbers to you so the two of you can possibly get together.”
Lutnick on 19 December 2012 emailed “Jeff” saying he and several others, including his wife and children, as well as several friends and their kids, were traveling to the Caribbean and on Lutnick’s boat.
“We are landing in St Thomas early Saturday afternoon and planning to head over to St Bart’s/Anguilla on Monday at some point,” Lutnick said. “Where are you located (what is exact location for my captain)?? Does Sunday evening for dinner sound good?”
An individual whose name is redacted responded, “Below from Jeffrey: come sat or sunday lunch? little st james on the map, behind christmans cove.” The files do not indicate that Lutnick ever visited Little St James, Epstein’s private island where it is known children were sexually abused.
Nonetheless, Massie on Sunday said: “Look, Howard Lutnick clearly went to the island if we believe what’s in these files …
“And this was many years after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted. You know, lightly sentenced – but was convicted for sexual crimes.”
Lutnick also appears to have invited Epstein to a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential run, which ended in defeat to Trump. “I would like to invite you to attend a very intimate fundraising event with Hillary Clinton,” Lutnick wrote on 3 November 2015 in an email to one of Epstein’s employees.
Lutnick, who supported Trump in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, also sought Epstein’s counsel when a nearby museum, The Frick Collection, planned a renovation. “Are you aware as to them building to block our park views. What should we do about it? Time is of the essence,” Lutnick wrote to Epstein, a former friend of Trump and the Clintons, on 21 May 2018.
In its statement, the commerce department said: “Mr and Mrs Lutnick met Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years.”
Lutnick’s downplaying of their correspondence, which the New York Times notes did not indicate a close friendship and was often carried out through intermediaries, has not quelled lawmakers’ bipartisan calls that he faces consequences.
“Lutnick must resign or be fired,” the US House member Robert Garcia, a California Democrat, said in an X post on Sunday. “And he must answer our questions.”
