Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has tried distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein, but the latest release of documents by the Justice Department revealed the top Trump official once planned a trip to the convicted sex offender’s private island.
Lutnick was Epstein’s next-door neighbor when they both lived in townhouses on the swanky Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Amid the fallout over the slow release of Epstein files last October, Lutnick described the late disgraced financier as “gross” and a “blackmailer.”
But documents released on Friday, and first reported by The New York Times, showed the billionaire businessman also once planned a trip to Epstein’s private island in 2012.
The documents from that December showed that Lutnick sent Epstein an email letting him know that a group of people, including his wife, children, and another family, would be visiting the Caribbean. Lutnick asked where Epstein was located and if they could come over for dinner.
Lesley Groff, Epstein’s assistant, replied to Lutnick on her boss’s behalf and invited them over for lunch at his private island, Little St. James. They confirmed the lunch for Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012.
Another email suggested the gathering did take place. One day after the scheduled lunch, Epstein’s assistant forwarded Lutnick a message from her boss that read: “Nice seeing you.”
The Times reported that they reached Lutnick on Friday by phone to ask him about the island visit, but Lutnick said he could not comment because he hadn’t seen the latest batch of documents.
“I spent zero time with him,” Lutnick said before hanging up.
Meanwhile, a separate email released as part of Friday’s document dump showed that Lutnick also invited Epstein to a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in November 2015.
Lutnick sent the invitation to the event being hosted at the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, where he previously served as chairman and CEO, to Epstein’s assistant.
Groff then forwarded it on to Epstein. It’s not clear whether Epstein actually attended the event.
But both the island visit and fundraiser invite raise further questions about the commerce secretary’s interactions with Epstein after he insisted he had almost nothing to do with his one-time neighbor.
The Daily Beast reached out to the Commerce Department for comment.
In October, Lutnick shared in an interview with the Pod Force One podcast that Epstein showed him and his wife Allison the infamous “massage room” at his townhouse back in 2005. Lutnick recalled that they had just moved in next door when Epstein invited them over for coffee.
Lutnick recalled Epstein opening the doors to the room as he was showing them the mansion and that it had a massage table in the middle of it surrounded by candles. He said he asked Epstein how often he got massages.
“And then he says, ‘Every day,’” Lutnick said. “And then, he like gets, like, weirdly close to me, and he says, ‘And the right kind of massage.’”
After that, Lutnick said they quickly left, and in the quick journey it took them to get back to their own home, the couple agreed to “never be in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy.”
“If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross,” Lutnick said.
The commerce secretary said he assumed what happened in the massage room was on video and described Epstein as the “greatest blackmailer ever.”
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