White House stands by Howard Lutnick as Epstein files fallout grows

Both men signed a document on behalf of limited liability companies to acquire stakes in the advertising technology company Adfin, which would later shutter, in December 2012.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked whether there has been any shift in how the White House is viewing the secretary, who testified on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

“No,” Leavitt said during Tuesday’s press briefing. “Secretary Lutnick remains a very important member of President Trump’s team, and the president fully supports the secretary.”

Lutnick defended himself during a Tuesday morning testimony to the Senate committee on appropriations.

“To the best of my memory, I met him when he moved next door to me, and I met him two other times in 14 years, none within six years of that first meeting,” Lutnick told Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE). “And then a year and a half later, and none thereafter, and in the presence of my wife. And as [Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)] said, under no circumstances is there a single word that I’ve done anything remotely wrong in any possible regard.”

“I did not have … anything you could call a relationship, anything you call an acquaintance,” he continued. “I literally met him three times over 14 years with wide spread in between. That’s all I can remember. That’s all there is in the documents.”

Lutnick also told Van Hollen that he and his family indeed had lunch on Epstein’s island in the U.S. Virgin Islands while on vacation. “My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple,” he said. “They were there as well with their children, and we had lunch on the island.”

Leavitt defended Trump’s insistence that he cut ties with Epstein after a 2019 FBI report revealed Trump allegedly called a Palm Beach, Florida, police chief in 2006 to express gratitude for “stopping” Epstein.

“What I will say is that the president has always remained consistent, and that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club at Mar-a-Lago. Because, frankly, Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” Leavitt said. “And unlike many other people who are named in these files, President Trump cut off his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and was honest and transparent about that for years and years.”

Leavitt did not explicitly confirm that the phone call between Trump and the police chief took place, but she did tout the administration’s transparency with the release of more than 3 million documents related to Epstein.

“Look, it was a phone call that may or may not have happened in 2006,” Leavitt said. “I don’t know the answer to that question.”

The press secretary also claimed that she had not had a discussion with the president about a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted associate of Epstein. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, claimed she would be interested in a clemency-for-cooperation deal that would clear both Trump and former President Bill Clinton of uncouth allegations during her deposition with lawmakers on Monday.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a frequent Trump foe, is among the growing number of lawmakers, mostly Democrats, who have called on Lutnick to resign despite the Commerce Department’s brushing off the ties with Epstein. Massie, along with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), led the bipartisan effort forcing the DOJ to release the Epstein files.

“I believe that Lutnick, at the very least, needs to be brought before Congress,” Khanna told reporters this week. “I think, based on the evidence, he should be out of the Cabinet.”

House Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman Ted Lieu (D-CA) strongly echoed the calls for Lutnick to resign at a press conference on Tuesday.

“He went into business with Jeffrey Epstein, he visited Epstein Island, and Howard Lutnick did this knowing how evil Epstein was,” Lieu said. “Lutnick also lied to the American people.”

However, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told reporters he did not think Lutnick should resign.

“Of course not. It’s absurd,” Johnson said. “Howard Lutnick is a great commerce secretary. He’s done an extraordinary job for the country, and Thomas Massie should stop playing political games.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) took a more measured response about the future of Lutnick’s career: “Transparency is something we all ought to aspire to here, and if there are folks who are named in there or discussed in there in some way, they’re going to have to answer for that.”

These calls from Congress come as a handful of members have ventured to the DOJ to review the unredacted Epstein files, made available to lawmakers in their entirety for the first time this week. Khanna and Massie were among the first to begin the long process of sorting through the millions of documents, as Lieu pledged to look through them as well.

HOWARD LUTNICK DOWNPLAYS EPSTEIN RELATIONS: ‘BARELY HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT PERSON’

Lutnick is the latest Cabinet secretary engulfed in scandal, joining Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, all of whom have been under scrutiny over the past two months.

Trump has stood by all his embattled secretaries, refusing to raise the possibility that he would dismiss them from their positions.

Rachel Schilke and David Sivak contributed to this report.