Democratic lawmakers accused US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday of lying to Congress and helping cover up the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, demanding his resignation after a closed-door deposition in the investigation into the notorious sex offender.
The extraordinary attacks came as Lutnick was answering questions before the House Oversight Committee about his ties to Epstein, the disgraced financier whose connections to powerful figures have fueled years of political controversy and conspiracy theories.
Emerging from the interview, Democrats portrayed Lutnick -- a billionaire former financial executive -- as evasive and dishonest, accusing him of contradicting earlier public statements about when he severed ties with Epstein.
"After what we have seen so far in this transcribed interview, I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history," said Arizona Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari.
Democratic Representative Suhas Subramanyam called on Lutnick to quit, telling reporters: "That was absolutely mind-boggling, what we just heard in the room. He was evasive, nervous, he was dishonest."
The deposition centered heavily on Lutnick's previously disclosed 2012 visit to Epstein's private Caribbean island, which came years after Epstein's abuse was already public knowledge.
In a podcast interview last year, Lutnick recounted visiting Epstein's Manhattan home in 2005 and said he was so disturbed that he decided he would "never be in the room with that disgusting person, ever again."
But records later emerged showing plans in 2012 for Lutnick to meet Epstein on Little Saint James, the island often referred to as "Epstein Island."
Lutnick acknowledged during a Senate hearing earlier this year that he had visited the island with family members.
Ansari said lawmakers had questioned Lutnick in "excruciating detail" about his relationship with Epstein and argued it was implausible that he had remained unaware of allegations surrounding the financier after Epstein's 2008 plea deal on sex crime charges.
California Democrat Ro Khanna also accused Lutnick of misleading the public and suggested his testimony raised fresh questions about whether details about Epstein's activities were being concealed.
"Now we know why that interview was not videotaped," Khanna said. "If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick."
Khanna said Lutnick had also appeared to retreat from previous suggestions that Epstein engaged in blackmail operations involving videotapes.
"This raises a question of what the cover-up is," Khanna said.
Lutnick has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing and Republicans on the committee have defended the broader investigation against accusations from Democrats that it has become politically selective.
The billionaire cabinet secretary agreed in March to testify voluntarily before the committee after facing mounting scrutiny over his ties to Epstein.
Epstein admitted sex crimes in 2008 under a controversial plea agreement and was later charged with trafficking underage girls before dying in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide.
Reporters shouted questions at Lutnick as he arrived for his testimony but he walked in to the deposition without commenting.
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