Dems demand Lutnick resign over Epstein interview: 'You lied'

House Democrats on Thursday demanded Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's resignation, alleging he publicly lied about his relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and refused to "come clean" during a subsequent closed-door interview.

"The facts are clear: you lied to the American people and attempted to conceal your relationship with Jeffrey Epstein in your public statements," the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform's Democratic minority said in a letter to Lutnick.

"Your lack of candor demonstrates that you are unfit to perform the duties required of you as secretary of Commerce, and you must step down immediately," read the letter signed by all 21 of the panel's Democratic members.

Lutnick claimed in an interview last year that, following a visit to Epstein's Manhattan mansion shortly after he moved next door to him in 2005, he had "decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again."

"So I was never in the room with him, socially, for business or even philanthropy," Lutnick said in that interview. "If that guy was there, I wasn't going, because he's gross."

But after the Department of Justice's release of Epstein-related files showed continued ties between the two men years later, Lutnick admitted in a Senate hearing that he and his family had lunch on the disgraced financier's private island in 2012.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state-level charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution, which required him to register as a sex offender. He died in a New York City jail in 2019 while facing federal sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

Democrats wrote in Thursday's letter that Lutnick's claim in the 2025 interview was "demonstrably false."

"During your transcribed interview, you were presented with clear evidence that you corresponded and physically met with Epstein on multiple occasions prior to his arrest in 2019," including the private island lunch, they wrote.

"Given the opportunity to come clean" during the interview, "you instead offered implausible distinctions and semantic games," the lawmakers wrote.

A Commerce Department spokesperson, in a statement to CNBC, called the letter "another failing attempt by congressional Democrats to distract from Secretary Lutnick's historic work at the Commerce Department."

"In a voluntary appearance before the Oversight Committee, Secretary Lutnick answer nearly 400 questions from members and staff, ending only when members said they had nothing more to ask," the spokesperson said.

"He explained repeatedly that three encounters did not constitute a relationship, and the committee adjourned without identifying any evidence to the contrary. Calls for his resignation are baseless and politically motivated."

The White House said in February that President Donald Trump, who has also faced scrutiny over his past friendship with Epstein, continues to stand behind Lutnick.

Lutnick testified before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors on May 6. He told the committee that he was participating voluntarily, though he had agreed to appear after Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said she would issue a bipartisan subpoena to compel his testimony.

A transcription of the interview shows Lutnick saying he could recall meeting with Epstein three times, including the 2005 and 2012 interactions.

In 2011, Lutnick said, Epstein's staff reached out "suggesting he had a reason to get in touch with me." It was arranged that Lutnick, while walking with his wife and dogs on a Sunday afternoon, would ring Epstein's doorbell "to hear what he had to say," the secretary said.

"My best recollection is: I rang the bell, sat in his foyer with my dog, waited for him to come down, heard what he had to say, and left. As far as I recall, it was about scaffolding. It was meaningless and inconsequential," he told the committee.

Under questioning, Lutnick denied that he had been misleading about his relationship with Epstein, insisting that his use of the word "I" versus "we" was a crucial distinction.

"I was accurate. I think I described it accurately. I don't want it to be modified in any way. It was I would not be in the room with him socially, which I was not; for business, which I was not; or philanthropic, which I was not. So I believe that what I said was accurate. I believe what I said was accurate when I said it, and I believe it now. So I didn't say 'we' would never. I said 'I' would never," he said.

A questioner replied, "We all understand that you were in the room with him in a social setting, but you have insisted that this sentence is accurate. So I just — that does not make sense on its face."

Lutnick later said, "I was never with him, meaning, I was never in a situation with him. I was with my wife. And they were meaningless and inconsequential. But contextually, so people would understand, I was never with him in any other manner. I, Howard Lutnick, one person, was never in a situation. So you couldn't take it out of context. I was never with him."

The Democrats wrote Thursday, "No reasonable person would accept this account."

"A cabinet secretary's most basic obligation to Congress is candor; your statements have a bearing on the lives of all Americans. You used a congressional interview not to correct the record, but to perpetuate a false public narrative," they wrote.

"You contradicted prior statements and stonewalled on basic questions. A secretary who will parse the meaning of plain English to avoid acknowledging his own words, claim no recollection of a documented visit to a convicted sex offender's private island, and refuse to answer basic questions about his conversations with the President cannot be trusted to serve as a leader in the federal government."

"We therefore call on you to resign immediately as secretary of Commerce," they wrote.