US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday for a closed-door, transcribed interview. Lutnick becomes the first sitting cabinet member to testify as part of the committee's wide-ranging investigation into the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the pedophile financier who died in jail in 2019, and possible lapses in the law enforcement response.
The inquiry focuses on Lutnick's past ties to Epstein, including his time as a former neighbor and visits to Epstein's Caribbean island. While Lutnick has stated that he stopped talking to Epstein in 2005, the committee wants to determine why investigatory files indicate otherwise.
The session follows the Justice Department's release of millions of documents, which include evidence that Lutnick continued correspondence with Epstein after the financier had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Lutnick is the highest-ranked official in the Trump administration, besides Trump himself, to be named in the case files on Epstein.