A high-ranking Trump administration official confirmed he and his family visited Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous island during testimony Tuesday.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Committee that in 2012, “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation.”
“My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple with — they were there as well, with their children,” Lutnick said. “And we had lunch on the island — that is true — for an hour. And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together.”
Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein has become clearer in the aftermath of the Epstein files’ release — though it is suspected three million additional documents need to be published under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The 2012 lunch took place seven years after Lutnick claimed to have distanced himself from the sex offender.
According to CBS News, their relationship continued into 2014 through business ventures the pair worked on.
Nevertheless, Lutnick insisted in his testimony that he “did not have any relationship with him” and that he has “absolutely nothing” to hide.
“I’m glad to be here to make it clear that I met Jeffrey Epstein when he moved, when I moved to a house next door to him in New York,” Lutnick said. “Over the next 14 years, I met him two other times that I can recall, two times. So, six years later, I met him, and then a year and a half after that, I met him, and never again.”