President Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was grilled by a Democratic lawmaker on Capitol Hill Tuesday over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, pointed fingers at Lutnick during a hearing of the US Senate Commerce Committee for continuing to do business with the pedophile long after he had previously said he cut ties – and even after Epstein was found guilty of sex crimes.

A file in the trove of Department of Justice documents shows Lutnick arranging a lunch for his wife, four children and another couple and their children with Epstein on his island in December 2012. 

Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a prostitute and procuring a child for prostitution in 2008.

Lutnick said last year in an interview with the New York Post that he cut ties with the financier after they first met in 2005 because he was too creeped out by the initial interaction and decided that he ‘will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.’

‘You misled the country and the Congress based on your earlier statements suggesting that you cut off all contact when in fact you had not,’ Van Hollen said to Lutnick, before asking him if he noticed anything inappropriate during the visit.

The secretary responded that he did not see anything other than staff working for Epstein on the island.

Van Hollen then doubled down on the timing of the trip, asking ‘You realize that this visit took place after he had been convicted, right?’

Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick is grilled on Capitol Hill today. He faced questions over why he kept doing business with Jeffrey Epstein long after he had previously said he cut ties

Senator Chris Van Hollen pointed fingers at Lutnick during a commerce committee hearing

‘I mean, you made a very big point of saying that you sensed that this was a bad person in 2005 and then of course in 2008 he was convicted of soliciting prostitution of a minor and, and yet you went and had this trip and other interactions,’ Van Hollen said, highlighting the apparent hypocrisy.

Earlier in the hearing, Lutnick detailed that he first interacted with Epstein after buying the house next door to his in New York City, but was so grossed out that he didn’t maintain a relationship. 

He visited his new neighbor with his wife, an interaction during which he was so creeped out by a massage table he saw in Epstein’s house that he decided he wasn’t worth maintaining a relationship with and cut off contact ‘socially, for business or even philanthropy’ in 2005. 

Speaking with host of the New York Post’s Pod Force One podcast Miranda Divine last year,  Lutnick stated that ‘if that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross.’ 

However, Lutnick described the meeting with Epstein in the following manner while testifying under oath before the committee on Tuesday.

‘I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation,’ Lutnick said.

‘My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,’ he said. ‘I had another couple with — they were there as well, with their children.’

‘And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,’ he added.

‘And we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife, all together. We were on family vacation,’ he concluded.

This undated photo provided by the US Justice Department on December 19, 2025 shows Jeffrey Epstein and his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell in an unidentified location

Jeffrey Epstein is seen with two women in an image released by the US Department of Justice

Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie is one member of Congress who has called for Lutnick  to resign over his Epstein ties

A drone view shows Little St. James, a small private island formerly owned by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and later sold by his estate to settle lawsuits, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, November 29, 2025

Since the Department of Justice released over 3 million Epstein Files last month, Lutnick has faced calls to resign from at least a dozen members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

One of those members, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, who spearheaded the release of the Epstein Files last year, told CNN’s Manu Raju on Sunday that Lutnick should resign over his ties to Epstein.

‘Look, Howard Lutnick clearly went to the island if we believe what’s in these files. He was in business with Jeffrey Epstein. And this was many years after Jeffrey Epstein was convicted. You know, lightly sentenced, but was convicted for sexual crimes,’ Massie told Raju.

‘So, he’s got a lot to answer for. But really, he should make life easier on the president, frankly, and just resign,’ Massie added.