When the Justice Department dropped more than three million pages of previously sealed files connected to Jeffrey Epstein, most expected another round of political blow-ups and name-dropping. What Washington didnβt expect was that the controversy would explode directly into the White Houseβs economic team, with President Trumpβs Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, squarely in the crosshairs.
Lutnick, a billionaire Wall Street veteran and longtime Trump ally, has spent years publicly insisting that he cut ties with Epstein after an unsettling encounter in 2005. He has repeatedly claimed he wanted nothing to do with the disgraced financier long before Epsteinβs first conviction. But newly released emails and records tell a more complicated, and politically damaging story.
Among the most troubling revelations are documents showing that Lutnick and his family planned a December 2012 visit to Epsteinβs private Virgin island, Little Saint James, several years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor.
Emails detail logistics about arrival, yacht anchoring, and lunch plans on the island, challenges that directly conflict with Lutnickβs long-maintained narrative that he severed all contact after a 2005 encounter.
The disclosures donβt stop at travel plans. The files also show continued business-related contact into the mid-2010s, including overlapping interests in an advertising technology venture β well beyond the cutoff Lutnick had previously described.
Emails from 2015 further complicate Lutnickβs narrative, revealing that he reached out to Epsteinβs circle with an invitation to a high-profile political fundraiser, despite his insistence that no meaningful interaction existed after 2005.
These contradictions immediately pulled bipartisan heat in Washington. Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, co-author of the bill that forced the release of the Epstein files, publicly called for Lutnick to step down as Commerce Secretary. βHe should just resign,β Massie told CNNβs Inside Politics, saying the secretaryβs denials donβt square with whatβs in the files and that the situation βmakes life easier on the presidentβ if he leaves.
Whatβs striking in this moment, even by todayβs polarized standards, is that a Republican lawmaker is applying pressure on a Cabinet member appointed by a Republican president.
Democrats piled on as well. Rep. Robert Garcia said the βclear contradictionsβ between Lutnickβs public narrative and the files mean he βmust resign or be fired and answer questionsβ about his ties.
Representative Ted Lieu went further, accusing Lutnick of lying to the American people on national television about his relationship with Epstein and emphasizing that planning a trip to the island while denying interactions is deeply problematic.
Even Senator Adam Schiff weighed in, writing that Lutnick βhas no business being our Commerce Secretaryβ after what appears in the released documents. These comments from top lawmakers signal that this issue isnβt going to fade quietly
For its part, Lutnickβs office has pushed back hard, calling the coverage a βmedia distractionβ from the administrationβs economic accomplishments and insisting any interactions with Epstein were limited and mostly in the presence of his wife. They also emphasize that Lutnick has never faced any allegations of criminal conduct in connection with Epstein.
Epstein files may already have claimed a political casualty. Whether Lutnick resigns, faces congressional testimony, or fights to hold his job, the fallout from these documents suggests we havenβt heard the last of who knew what, and when in the Trump administrationβs inner circles.
Featured image courtesy of Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker
