Over the years, the households of New York financier Jeffrey Epstein and billionaire businessman Howard Lutnick, now the U.S. commerce secretary, overlapped in seemingly conventional ways, like the need for a good painter. Another time, Epstein received the r\u00e9sum\u00e9 for Lutnick\u2019s nanny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were, after all, next-door neighbors for more than a decade in an elite Upper East Side enclave of Manhattan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But their lives also intersected in far more influential or personal ways, such as when, in 2012, Lutnick, his wife and their four young children sailed on a yacht to have lunch with Epstein on his private Caribbean island. Or seven months later, when an aide to then-Prince Andrew wanted Epstein\u2019s opinion about Lutnick, then the CEO of the Wall Street brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is your view on Howard Lutnick? Just met him with PA,\u201d wrote the aide, referring to Andrew, who was angling to do business with Cantor Fitzgerald.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy neighbor smart,\u201d Epstein replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The relationship between Lutnick and Epstein spans years both before and after Epstein was convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida. Their email communications, which were sporadic, are in the millions of pages of Epstein investigation documents the Justice Department released this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The files show Lutnick reaching out to Epstein as early as 2009 and contacting him as late as 2018. Their interactions weren\u2019t robust, but they remained in touch, including through phone calls and charity galas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick has denied any wrongdoing. He has not been accused of any impropriety tied to Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he has offered shifting accounts about their relationship, initially saying in recent years that he had no association with Epstein. Lutnick said he had cut ties with his neighbor in 2005 because he believed he was a \u201cdisgusting person.\u201d Then, after the Justice Department files were released, he acknowledged visiting Epstein\u2019s island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The extent of Lutnick\u2019s personal association with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting federal sex trafficking charges, will be the focus Wednesday of a Capitol Hill inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick voluntarily agreed to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee\u2019s chairman, making him the latest to testify before the bipartisan panel investigating the federal government\u2019s handling of the case against Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick, who left Cantor Fitzgerald last year after President Donald Trump named him commerce secretary, is among at least a half-dozen top officials in the Trump administration, including the president himself, whose names appear in the files. Trump, who has not been accused of any crime in connection with Epstein and denies any wrongdoing, has acknowledged being friendly with him before they had a falling-out about two decades ago, years before Epstein became a convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some congressional Democrats have accused Lutnick of lying and called on him to resign or be fired. His appearance in the files has also prompted students at Haverford College, Lutnick\u2019s alma mater in Pennsylvania, to demand his name be stripped from the private liberal art school\u2019s library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick told Axios in March: \u201cI have done nothing wrong and I want to set the record straight.\u201d A Commerce Department spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday that Lutnick \u201clooks forward to putting to rest the inaccurate and baseless claims in the media designed to distract from his historic work underway at the Commerce Department.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson defended Lutnick earlier this year, saying, \u201cPresident Trump has assembled the best and most transformative Cabinet in modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Comer\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An inconsistent timeline<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick will most certainly face questions over his credibility, said Matt Dallek, a historian and political management professor at George Washington University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s risky business for him to go before Congress and testify about Epstein,\u201d Dallek said. \u201cBecause lo and behold, he visited the island with his kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, he added, will want to know how Lutnick performs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf Lutnick comes off as wishy-washy or ineffective, Trump could sour on him,\u201d Dallek said. \u201cEspecially if he wants a fall guy for the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick has repeatedly denied mingling with Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a 2024 Forbes profile, Lutnick\u2019s spokesperson told the magazine he \u201cnever had any association with Mr. Epstein.\u201d And in a podcast interview in October, Lutnick described visiting Epstein\u2019s townhouse with his wife, Allison, in 2005 and seeing a massage table in the middle of a room filled with candles. Lutnick said Epstein told him he received massages \u201cevery day\u201d and got \u201cweirdly close\u201d to say \u201cthe right kind of massage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the six to eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house,\u201d Lutnick said, \u201cmy wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy,\u201d he added. \u201cIf that guy was there, I wasn\u2019t going, because he\u2019s gross.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also said in the podcast interview that Epstein was the \u201cgreatest blackmailer ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
House Democrats have said they want to know why Lutnick believed that, especially after the Justice Department wrote in a memo in July that there was \u201cno credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In letters and at a Senate budget hearing last month, Democrats have repeatedly asked Lutnick about his relationship with Epstein, including why, in 2013, Epstein\u2019s accountant emailed, \u201cAttached is resume of Lutnick nanny,\u201d and said arrangements were being made \u201cfor you to meet her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick dodged senators\u2019 questions at the hearing, saying he would \u201canswer them all\u201d when he appeared before the House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A decade of contact<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The files outline Lutnick\u2019s occasional email contact with Epstein over nearly a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emails appear in 2009, the year after Epstein\u2019s conviction. Epstein received a message saying, \u201cLutnick would like to speak to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two years later, they were arranging phone calls. One evening, Epstein scheduled Lutnick for \u201cdrinks\u201d before dinners with director Woody Allen and fashion designer Vera Wang, according to his emails. The next day, Epstein suggested in an email that Lutnick forgot his phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In December 2012, Epstein was scheduled to attend a breast cancer charity dinner at a large hotel ballroom for which the Lutnicks were among the event co-chairs. And two days before Christmas, the Lutnicks and their children, along with another family with young kids, planned to visit Epstein\u2019s home in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the emails show. The day after the visit, Epstein\u2019s assistant wrote to Lutnick, \u201cJeffrey wished me to pass along the below to you: Nice seeing you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When asked about the island visit during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing in February, Lutnick said there was nothing \u201cuntoward\u201d about the interaction but said he did not recall why his family agreed to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The files also show mutual financial interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few days after the visit, both men were among the signatories on a stock purchase agreement in AdFin, a digital advertising technology company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next year, the possible deal between then-Prince Andrew and Cantor Fitzgerald began brewing. Andrew\u2019s aide, David Stern, wanted Epstein\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Epstein called Lutnick \u201csmart,\u201d but he warned Stern that Andrew \u201cwill end up in the news\u201d because of his involvement with Lutnick, who at the time had a sportsbook and gambling technology company subject to audits and financial disclosures. \u201cDon\u2019t do it,\u201d Epstein wrote, warning in another email that Andrew \u201cwill have holy hell to pay\u201d because of Lutnick\u2019s gaming affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The following month, Epstein advised Stern on what the terms of an agreement between Andrew and Cantor Fitzgerald should look like, according to the emails. But when Stern asked Epstein two months later if he had seen the proposal, Epstein replied in one word: \u201cGoofy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s unclear what ultimately came of it, but a Cantor Fitzgerald spokesperson said in a statement that the firm \u201chas never had any business dealings with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.\u201d (Last year, King Charles removed Andrew\u2019s royal titles amid a growing scandal over the former prince\u2019s known ties to Epstein.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the following years, Epstein received three invitations to events involving Lutnick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In late 2017, Epstein donated $50,000 to a Jewish philanthropic organization that was hosting a Wall Street benefit dinner honoring Lutnick, the emails show. Epstein did not attend, but he wrote \u201ctell Lutnick he can fill\u201d the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their last email communication appears to be from the spring of 2018 \u2014 over what was a pressing issue in their neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAre you aware as to them building to block our park views. What should we do about it? Time is of the essence,\u201d Lutnick wrote in a message sent to Epstein\u2019s assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The nearby Frick Collection art museum was gearing up for an expansion, threatening their coveted views of Central Park. Lutnick urged Epstein to write a letter to the city. In a later email, Epstein changed the subject: \u201cOn another note what do you think the prospects for adfin are?\u201d He was referring to the tech company whose stock they purchased in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lutnick responded: \u201cProducing revenue finally. This is their year. Next 12 months they need to become economically self sufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AdFin would shutter in October 2019, three months after Epstein\u2019s second arrest and his death in jail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n