US commerce secretary details 'off-putting' interaction with Epstein in testimony

A congressional panel investigating late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has released transcriptions of interviews with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ted Waitt, the billionaire co-founder of Gateway computers.

Lutnick discussed having three interactions with Epstein - a neighbour of his in New York - which included a visit to the financier's home next door and a trip to his island in the Caribbean after he was thought to have cut ties with Epstein.

Waitt testified about his years-long relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, and his concerns about her working for him.

Neither Lutnick nor Waitt have been accused of any wrongdoing by Epstein's victims.

Lutnick appeared voluntarily on 6 May as part of the House Oversight Committee probe.

He said he and wife were invited to Epstein's New York home in 2005. After having coffee, they were offered a tour, during which they were shown a room with a massage table and candles around it.

Upon asking Epstein how often he gets a massage, the late financier apparently said: "Every day and the right kind of massage."

Lutnick said he found the comment "off-putting", and so he and his wife excused themselves and left the home. Afterwards, he told his wife he did not want to interact with Epstein.

The commerce secretary, who is considered the architect of Trump's global tariffs policy, had previously told Congress he cut ties with Epstein in 2005 after the paedophile used sexual innuendo to explain why he owned the massage table in a room of his home.

But earlier this year, he confirmed visiting Epstein's island while on a family vacation in the Caribbean in 2012. Details about the visit were included in millions of documents released by the US justice department related to their investigations into Epstein.

The revelation that Lutnick visited Epstein's island long after he asserted that he had cut off contact led to bipartisan calls for the commerce secretary to resign from the Trump administration.

During the interview last week, Lutnick said he was contacted by Epstein's staff, who somehow knew he would be vacationing with his family in St Thomas, near the island Epstein owned.

"What I still cannot understand is this," Lutnick said. "Without any communication for years, [how] would he inexplicably know where I'm going? It's unsettling, actually."

Lutnick, his wife and children, another couple and their children, plus staff, took up the invitation for lunch. They dined outdoors on the island, the commerce secretary said, and never went inside.

"We sat outside, had lunch. It was boring. We left," Lutnick told the committee.

He also said he had a discussion in 2011 with Epstein about scaffolding, which he called "meaningless and inconsequential".

The committee also on Wednesday released the transcript from its 30 April interview with Waitt.