WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick exploded throughout an interview with congressional investigators when requested whether or not a masks in Jeffrey Epstein’s home was of his face.
He additionally repeatedly insisted he was merely “speculating” when he advised The Submit’s “Pod Power One” podcast that the now-deceased intercourse offender was “the best blackmailer ever,” in accordance with a newly launched transcript of his closed-door interview with Congress.
Lutnick appeared voluntarily earlier this month for the transcribed interview with the Home Oversight Committee to reply questions on his interactions with Epstein — who was his next-door neighbor in Manhattan for greater than a decade — after being threatened with a subpoena compelling his testimony.
The Cupboard official advised The Submit’s Miranda Devine in a podcast interview launched Oct. 1, 2025, that he advised his spouse after the financier invited them over for espresso 20 years earlier than — and gave them a tour of his Higher East Facet mansion — that he would “by no means be within the room with that disgusting individual ever once more.”
However Lutnick later testified to Congress that he met with Epstein two extra instances, one among which concerned a household go to to the cash supervisor’s non-public island within the Caribbean, Little St. James.
Pictures beforehand launched by the Justice Division present that Epstein saved masks of unidentified male people on the wall of a room that contained a dentist’s chair — one among which bears a resemblance to Lutnick at the moment.
“The rationale that we introduce that is many individuals on-line have speculated that one of many masks resembles you, particularly the one on the primary web page within the center,” Oversight Chief Counsel for Investigations Jack Emmer advised the commerce secretary, in accordance with a transcript launched Wednesday.
“What’s your response to those claims?” Emmer requested.
“You’ve obtained to be kidding me. That’s the most ridiculous and absurd factor I’ve ever heard. What, a bald man? I’ve hair,” erupted Lutnick, who has exhibited some male-pattern baldness for the reason that early 2000s.
“Look. I imply, I don’t have many, however not less than I’ve some. That isn’t remotely me. That’s nonsense,” he pushed again.
Simply earlier than the interview concluded, Lutnick was requested whether or not he wished to share the rest, to which he responded: “Only a small factor, which is that I didn’t develop a beard till after … this particular person Epstein was useless.”
“In order that masks that you simply confirmed me, I by no means had a beard earlier than that,” he famous. Contemporaneous pictures printed within the Wall Road Journal and Telegraph present Lutnick didn’t sport facial hair within the 2000s or 2010s.
“And I by no means had a goatee both. So I simply wished to only say that these items usually are not probably about me,” he added.
Elsewhere within the grilling, Lutnick stated not less than 10 instances that he was “speculating” about Epstein’s “unlawful actions” — together with doubtlessly blackmailing distinguished people by forcing them into massages at his residences with — when he spoke on “Pod Power One” in regards to the accused intercourse trafficker.
“He appeared to have some huge cash. That was why I used to be speculating,” he stated in a single alternate, whereas stressing at different factors that he witnessed no “unlawful conduct” and was not even conscious Epstein needed to register as a intercourse offender after pleading responsible to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008.
Lutnick additionally continued to disclaim that he was ever “within the room” with Epstein — regardless of testifying in a Senate listening to in February that he had two extra temporary interactions with the person within the 2010s.
“It’s correct as to what I meant, which is I, Howard Lutnick, as a person, wouldn’t be in a scenario with him as a result of I felt him gross and inappropriate and never having boundaries; that I might not put myself in a room with him socially, which I didn’t, professionally, in enterprise, which I didn’t, and philanthropically, which I didn’t,” he advised Home investigators.
Requested by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) why he reversed the blackmail claims, Lutnick additionally answered, “As a result of there have been folks from the administration who’ve the entire particulars who’ve stated so, and I credit score what they’ve stated.”
Khanna expressed alarm on the about-face and later advised reporters that he and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — who authored the regulation compelling DOJ disclosures on Epstein investigative supplies — stated he had “by no means seen a single public assertion that there was no blackmail.”
When a Submit reporter inquired whether or not the California Democrat learn the DOJ’s July 2025 memo, which said “[t]right here was additionally no credible proof discovered that Epstein blackmailed distinguished people as a part of his actions,” Khanna replied, “That isn’t what the survivors consider.”
The one odd remark Lutnick recalled he had already shared on the podcast, when Epstein confirmed off his therapeutic massage desk at his Manhattan penthouse and talked about how usually it was used.
“My greatest recollection is, he stated, ‘Each day and the proper of therapeutic massage.’ And he stated it to me, and my spouse is standing subsequent to me, and we checked out one another, and we left,” Lutnick recounted within the Home interview.
The commerce secretary additionally stated that he discovered it “unsettling and inexplicable” that Epstein’s aides have been capable of finding out his household was crusing within the US Virgin Islands in 2012 — and attain out to him and his spouse to arrange a lunch.
“We sat exterior, had lunch. It was boring. We left,” he added of the temporary cease on Little St. James, noting that they didn’t tour the island however did briefly get pleasure from a view of the ocean from a cliff.
In 2011, he stated he additionally briefly spoke with Epstein within the financier’s lobby about scaffolding renovations.
