US Secretary of Commerce Lutnick is said to have met with sex offender Epstein several times – including on his private island. The Democrats are calling for his resignation. Now Lutnick wants to testify before the congressional committee.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick has agreed to testify before the Oversight Committee of the US House of Representatives on the scandal involving the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick “proactively” agreed to appear before the committee “voluntarily,” said the committee’s Republican chairman, James Comer, without announcing a time for his testimony.
At the beginning of February, the US Secretary of Commerce admitted a visit to Epstein’s private island, where numerous girls and young women are said to have been abused. At the same time, Lutnick denies having any close contacts with Epstein.
At a Senate committee hearing, the US Commerce Secretary said he had “no relationship whatsoever” with Epstein over a 14-year period after 2005.
Wer war Jeffrey Epstein?
Jeffrey Epstein was an American financial manager and multimillionaire who was best known for building a massive abuse network. He was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1953 and grew up in humble circumstances. Epstein’s parents were middle class. His father worked for the city of New York and his mother was a housewife.
After studying without a degree, Epstein worked as a teacher at an elite private school in Manhattan in the 1970s. Through contacts he later switched to the financial sector. He quickly made a career there, initially at an investment bank. How exactly he built up his fortune is still not fully understood. It is known that he worked as an asset manager for wealthy clients. He maintained influential networks with top politicians, entrepreneurs, scientists and celebrities.
His property included several luxury properties, including a private island in the Virgin Islands known as “Little Saint James”. According to victims’ statements, the island is said to have been a central location for the sexual assaults. Epstein’s confidante Ghislaine Maxwell played an important role in this, helping him to recruit, control and abuse young women and minors for him.
The first criminal complaints against Epstein for sexual assault were made as early as the 1990s. In 2008 he was convicted as a sex offender. He pleaded guilty in a US court to, among other things, inciting a minor to engage in prostitution. He received an 18-month prison sentence, of which he served about 13 months. A controversial deal allowed him to spend most of that time out of prison.
In 2019, Epstein was arrested again on serious charges. Shortly thereafter, he was found hanged in his prison cell in New York before a criminal trial could take place.
Calls for Lutnick’s resignation
That would include the time until the convicted sex offender’s death in 2019. However, Lutnick’s visit to Epstein’s private Caribbean island of Little St. James took place in 2012. At the end of January, the Justice Department in Washington published around three million new documents on the case. It mentioned Lutnick’s visit to Epstein Island and other contacts for the first time.
After the files were published, there were calls for Lutnick to resign. The main pressure is on members of Congress from the opposition Democrats. US President Donald Trump is still sticking with his trade minister.
What are the Epstein Files?
The so-called Epstein files refer to an extensive collection of documents, witness statements and court documents relating to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The US multimillionaire is said to have built up a network for the sexual abuse of young women and minors over the years. Epstein was found hanging in his New York prison cell in 2019 before a criminal trial could take place.
The focus of the Epstein files are court documents from civil cases, especially from a case involving Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of aiding and abetting sexual abuse. Many of these documents were kept secret for a long time. At the beginning of 2024, a US court ordered numerous documents to be made publicly available. Further publications followed.
The files contain, among other things, statements from victims and witnesses, emails, photos, videos and names of people who were in contact with Epstein. These include celebrities from politics, business and society. Simply mentioning a name does not imply guilt. Numerous people are merely mentioned without being accused of criminal behavior.
The files show how extensive Epstein’s contacts were and how he apparently used his wealth and influence to protect himself and others involved. At the same time, they show that judicial authorities had early indications of possible crimes committed by Epstein. As early as the early 2000s, several young women reported themselves to the police and public prosecutor’s office without any comprehensive criminal prosecution taking place. A complete reprocessing is still pending today.
