WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in an interview with House lawmakers, backed away from a previous claim that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had blackmailed people.
Lutnick agreed to sit for an interview with the House Oversight Committee last week after the release of case files on Epstein contradicted his claim on a podcast last year that he had been determined to “never be in a room again” with Epstein after a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
The House Oversight Committee released the transcript of the interview Wednesday, as well as a transcript of an interview with Tedd Waitt, a former boyfriend of Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.
Lutnick, who for years was neighbors with Epstein in New York City, had claimed in that podcast interview that Epstein engaged in blackmail. But under scrutiny from lawmakers, Lutnick said he was only “speculating.”
“I had no personal information. I was just speculating for a podcast,” Lutnick told lawmakers, adding that his two other personal interactions with Epstein years later were “meaningless and inconsequential.”