Lutnick testified he knew little about Epstein, his next-door neighbor

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he was unaware for years that his next-door neighbor Jeffrey Epstein was a registered sex offender, according to a transcript of testimony released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.

Lutnick also described a "crude" remark Epstein once made about getting "the right kind of massage." 

"He said it to me, and my wife is standing next to me, and we looked at each other, and we left," Lutnick said.

Lutnick recounted that conversation as he voluntarily testified before the committee behind closed doors on May 6. He faced questions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his evolving statements about their history.

That day, Democrats on the committee accused Lutnick of being evasive, saying he "made a farce of the English language" in order to mislead the public, and calling on him to resign over his changing accounts of his interactions with the late sex offender.

But GOP Rep. James Comer, the Oversight Committee's chairman, said Democrats were twisting Lutnick's words and had come into the interview to push a "narrative" to damage President Trump.

"It's never about holding people accountable that should have prosecuted Epstein years ago. It's always about Donald Trump," Comer told reporters on May 6.

The files revealed that Epstein and Lutnick were in business together as recently as 2014, investing simultaneously in a now-shuttered advertising company called Adfin. 

Lutnick said during the deposition that he was unaware Epstein was also an early investor in the company.

Lutnick has for years insisted he had little relationship with Epstein, who was his neighbor in New York City, but has more recently acknowledged visiting Epstein's private island with his family in 2012 — after the files documenting the trip were made public.

Lutnick, his wife, Allison, and their children visited Little St. James, Epstein's Caribbean island, not long before Epstein and Lutnick invested in Adfin. An undated photo from the files shows Epstein and Lutnick among a group of men on the island.

Lutnick, the former chairman of the financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald, has previously said he cut ties with Epstein in 2005, three years before Epstein entered a guilty plea to state prostitution charges in Florida. 

Lutnick told the committee he purchased the property next to Epstein's home on New York's Upper East Side in 1997, but didn't move in until after renovations were complete in 2005. Lutnick said he met Epstein just three times, including his family's island visit.  

During the 2005 visit, a coffee and tour of Epstein's townhouse that Lutnick said his wife also joined, he said he was turned off by a crude comment related to a massage table in the home, and he concluded he didn't want a relationship with Epstein. He also described one other meeting, a discussion about Epstein's foyer.

Lutnick was the latest in a parade of powerful people to testify for the committee after their names or pictures appeared in the more than 3 million pages of records known as the Epstein files. Others who testified include the executors of Epstein's estate, as well as former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire businessman Les Wexner. They have not been accused of wrongdoing and denied any knowledge of Epstein's abuses.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi has agreed to testify before the panel later this month.