Epstein Investigations and Accountability

Rep. Nancy Mace, R‑S.C., said Friday she will press to subpoena Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to testify before the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, sharpening bipartisan pressure on a sitting Trump cabinet official. Mace made the commitment while standing beside Oversight Chair James Comer, R‑Ky., just before the panel’s closed‑door deposition of former President Bill Clinton, after Comer dodged a direct answer on Lutnick. Rep. Ro Khanna, D‑Calif., later told reporters he was encouraged by Mace’s comments and now believes there are enough votes on the committee to issue a subpoena. Lutnick has previously claimed he cut off contact with Epstein in 2005 after seeing massage tables in his Manhattan home, but Justice Department documents released only after Mace and two other GOP women broke with the administration show he later lunched with Epstein on his island in 2012 and exchanged emails with him. At a recent Hill hearing, Lutnick acknowledged those contacts, described the island trip as a family vacation and insisted there was "nothing untoward" while stopping short of a firm promise to release all of his Epstein records, saying only, "I have nothing to hide." The move to haul him before Oversight comes amid wider calls, including from Democrats, to question both Lutnick and President Trump about their roles and knowledge in the Epstein network, and it signals growing intra‑Republican willingness to put a Trump cabinet secretary under oath on the issue.