Trump’s Commerce Secretary Lutnick to testify in Epstein case after photo redaction claim: ‘Want to set record straight'

The Commerce Secretary in the Donald Trump administration, Howard Lutnick, is set to testify before the the House Oversight Committee over his ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, the panel’s chairman said. Howard Lutnick's decision to agree to testify in teh Epstein case has come days after multiple media reports shared an image of Epstein and Lutnick on Epstein's island, claiming that the Department of Justice had redacted the said image from the website, prompting calls for him to join the testimony.

In a statement, Howard Lutnick said, “I look forward to appearing before the committee. I have done nothing wrong and I want to set the record straight.”

Reacting to his upcoming testimony, Representative James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said, “I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee. I look forward to his testimony."

The documents also included a picture of Epstein, Lutnick and three men standing on the cliff of an ocean. Another email to Epstein contained a resume for Lutnick’s nanny, though the Commerce secretary has denied providing that document himself.

In a New York Post podcast interview last year, the Commerce secretary said he had severed ties with Epstein in 2005 after the financier made a comment about massages during a tour of his home. "So I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy," he said.

He had recently testified that his visit to Epstein's island did not include anything inappropriate.

“We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour, and we left with all of my children, with my nannies, and my wife, all together. We were on family vacation, we were not apart. To suggest there was anything untoward about that in 2012, I don’t recall why we did it, but we did," he said.

(With agency inputs)