Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will testify before the House Oversight Committee on May 6 regarding his past association with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports.
Kentucky Republican Rep. James Comer, the panel’s chairman, announced on March 3 that Lutnick had “proactively agreed to appear voluntarily” and applauded his “demonstrated commitment to transparency” but did not at that stage offer a schedule.
Sources close to the committee have now given the May date to CNN and a number of other media outlets.
“It’s a voluntary transcribed interview,” a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Lutnick has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, who died in a New York City jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial, but has faced questions about his past relations with the disgraced financier.
The secretary told Pod Force One presenter Miranda Devine in October that he had been a neighbor of Epstein’s in New York and once visited his brownstone in 2005 but was appalled when his host made a creepy comment about receiving “the right kind of massages” during a tour of the property.
“In the six to eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick told Devine.
However, the release of the Epstein files by the Department of Justice in late December and January revealed that the men had remained in contact after all. Inclusion in the files is not an indication of any wrongdoing.
Lutnick subsequently told the Senate Appropriations Committee on February 10 that he and his family had had lunch with the billionaire on Little St James, his private Caribbean island, in December 2012.
The occasion came more than four years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution in Florida state court, an offense for which he served 13 months behind bars.
Lutnick’s admission caused GOP representatives Thomas Massie and Nancy Mace to criticize him, with the former urging him to resign and the latter commenting: “I wouldn’t sit and have lunch with a convicted pedophile.”
Lutnick’s name was also included in a spoof “Walk of Shame” installation in Washington, D.C., last month, which laid out pavement stars for famous people embarrassed over their past ties to Epstein.
The committee has already heard from Bill and Hillary Clinton as part of its investigation into Epstein and his ties to wealthy powerbrokers, both of whom said they had done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of his crimes, as well as two former Epstein employees.
It also issued a subpoena on March 17 to outgoing attorney general Pam Bondi to sit for a deposition on April 14 to take questions on the DOJ’s handling of the files, a commitment she is still expected to honor despite being fired by President Donald Trump last Thursday.
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