When Howard Lutnick had an issue in 2018, he turned to his next-door neighbor for assist: Jeffrey Epstein.
Lutnick emailed Epstein’s assistant in May 2018 a couple of proposed expansion to the Frick Collection, a museum one block south of Lutnick’s and Epstein’s adjoining townhouses on East 71st Street in Manhattan.
“Are you aware as to them building to block our park views. What should we do about it? Time is of the essence,” wrote Lutnick, who was then the CEO of Wall Street agency Cantor Fitzgerald.
“No i was not,” Epstein responded after his assistant forwarded Lutnick’s e mail.
The e mail alternate reveals that Lutnick, now President Donald Trump’s commerce secretary, communicated with Epstein greater than a decade after he claimed he lower off all contact with the convicted intercourse offender who died in 2019.
A NCS overview of the Epstein paperwork present quite a few interactions between the two males, together with an invitation from Lutnick to attend a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in 2015, a $50,000 donation from Epstein for a 2017 dinner honoring Lutnick, a 2013 enterprise enterprise both invested in, and multiple emails in which Lutnick arrange a 2012 go to to Epstein’s notorious Caribbean island along with his spouse, nannies and youngsters.
Lutnick, the highest-ranking Trump administration official prominently named in the Epstein information — outdoors of the president himself — has confronted requires his resignation on Capitol Hill, where he was grilled Tuesday throughout a Senate listening to over his ties to Epstein and confirmed he visited Epstein at his island along with his household for lunch. Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing associated to Epstein.
Interviews with executives and others on Wall Street, the place the former Cantor Fitzgerald CEO is seen skeptically in some corners, present that the Epstein disclosures have sparked a contemporary spherical of questions on Lutnick’s future and his role as cheerleader of Trump’s tariff-driven commerce agenda.
“Lutnick was grossly deceptive. And it’s not an ambiguous call,” Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, mentioned of Lutnick’s claims he ended all contact with Epstein in 2005. “Every CEO who shakes hands with Howard Lutnick will want to wash them afterwards.”
But inside the White House, there’s no indication that Lutnick — maybe considered one of the few Cabinet secretaries Trump considers a private buddy — will face any repercussions. Lutnick traveled with the president on Friday on Air Force One to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the place Trump gave his commerce secretary a shoutout throughout his speech.
If the president’s help for Lutnick ever wavers, it gained’t be over the Epstein information — a problem that Trump has sought unsuccessfully to bury for months, together with urging Americans earlier this month to “get onto something else,” individuals aware of inner White House discussions instructed NCS.
A Commerce Department spokesperson mentioned in an announcement: “This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments including securing trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Lutnick met Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years,” the spokesperson mentioned.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai mentioned: “President Trump maintains complete confidence in Secretary Lutnick because he has been the most transformative Commerce Secretary in modern history and is a champion of the President’s America First trade and tariffs policies.”
The Epstein episode represents simply the newest strike towards Lutnick for a lot of in Trump’s orbit, who’ve lengthy regarded the commerce secretary as an irritant at greatest — and at worst, a operating political legal responsibility, individuals aware of the inner discussions mentioned.
Within the White House, considered one of the individuals mentioned, Lutnick is more and more unpopular amongst aides who view him as an abrasive determine who incessantly followers Trump’s worst impulses on points like tariffs — and who has a knack for locating methods to be by the president’s facet.
Yet even amongst the sharpest Lutnick detractors in Trump’s orbit, there’s been little seen effort to leverage the Epstein controversy towards the commerce secretary largely as a result of few suppose it’ll make a distinction with the solely particular person whose opinion issues: The president himself.
Lutnick alienated a swath of Trump advisers and allies shortly after the 2024 election over his marketing campaign to grow to be Treasury secretary, which touched off a bruising behind-the-scenes battle towards Scott Bessent that delayed Trump’s choice on the essential Cabinet position for days.
Others nonetheless maintain Lutnick accountable for cheerleading the rollout of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs — a disastrous occasion that shook world markets and compelled the administration to rapidly stroll again a lot of its disruptive commerce technique. The Commerce secretary fumbled the administration’s messaging on a number of events throughout that interval, additional irritating officers who had been racing to comprise fallout from the blanket tariffs and to assuage overseas allies.
Trump has remained a powerful supporter of Lutnick. They are fellow New Yorkers who’ve identified one another for many years, and one particular person aware of the inner discussions mentioned Lutnick enjoys a protected standing as an “FOT” — or Friend of Trump.
Asked Thursday about Lutnick’s interactions with Epstein, Trump mentioned he wasn’t conscious whereas downplaying his personal previous relationship with Epstein.
“From what I hear, he was there with his wife and children, and I guess in some cases some people were,” Trump mentioned. “I wasn’t. I was never there.”
A gathering for drinks and buying and selling cellphone calls
In October 2025, Lutnick instructed the New York Post in a podcast interview that he and his spouse determined to chop off contact with Epstein in 2005 after the financier confirmed off a therapeutic massage desk and made suggestive feedback whereas giving the Lutnicks a tour not lengthy after they’d moved in subsequent door.
“In the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” Lutnick mentioned. “So I was never in the room with him, socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going, because he’s gross.”
But a NCS overview of emails in the Epstein information reveals that each Lutnick and his spouse in truth communicated with Epstein for a few years afterward, together with on social, enterprise and philanthropic issues.
In 2011, the Epstein emails present preparations being made to arrange a number of calls between Epstein and Lutnick.
“Howard Lutnick is on an airplane headed overseas. His office would like to know if you would like to set up a call while he is away or if you prefer to speak with him on Monday April 4th when he is back,” a redacted particular person emailed Epstein in March 2011.
The subsequent month, Epstein was instructed in an email from a redacted sender, “Howard Lutnick returned your call.”
In an October 2011 e mail, Epstein’s assistant wrote: “FYI-Howard Lutnik’s assistant called asking if you would be available =o speak with Howard today…”
A calendar with appointments reveals that Epstein had a 5 p.m. drinks assembly arrange with Lutnick on May 1, 2011, 90 minutes earlier than a scheduled dinner with Woody Allen and others. The subsequent day, someone emailed Epstein: “The phone was Howard Lutnicks, it has been collected.”
Lunch on Epstein’s island
In 2012, Lutnick and his spouse despatched a collection of emails coordinating a meal with Epstein. Lutnick asked for coordinates for his boat captain, proposing a dinner and noting he was accompanied by his spouse, one other couple and every household’s 4 kids.
“Below from Jeffrey: come sat or sunday lunch? little st jamcs on the map, behind christmans cove,” a redacted sender responded to Lutnick.
Lutnick’s spouse followed up with Epstein’s assistant asking the place to anchor, writing in a subsequent e mail that they had been arriving on a “188 foot yacht.”
At Tuesday’s Senate listening to, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland pressed Lutnick about the lunch and his prior claims of slicing off contact in 2005.
“The issue is not that you engaged in any wrongdoing in connection with Jeffrey Epstein, but that you totally misrepresented the extent of your relationship with him, to the Congress, to the American people and to the survivors of his despicable criminal and predatory acts,” Van Hollen instructed Lutnick.
Lutnick acknowledged visiting the island whereas on trip, but mentioned that he noticed nothing untoward and that he was there solely briefly along with his household.
“Probably the total, and you’ve seen all of these documents of these millions and millions of documents, there may be 10 emails connecting me with him, probably about 10 emails connecting me with him, over a 14-year period. I did not have any relationship with him,” Lutnick mentioned. “I barely had anything to do with that person, OK.”
Lutnick’s dealings with Epstein continued in the years that adopted.
In 2013, Lutnick and Epstein each seem to have invested collectively by way of their enterprise entities in an promoting analytics agency, according to a contract included in the Epstein information.
In 2015, Lutnick invited Epstein to the Hillary Clinton fundraiser. It’s unclear whether or not Epstein attended. And in 2017, Epstein donated $50,000 to a dinner honoring Lutnick hosted by the UJA-Federation of New York.
Billionaire investor John Paulson, who was UJA’s chairman of its Wall Street & Financial Services division, wrote in an e mail invitation to Epstein’s assistant: “As Chairman of the Wall Street Division, I want to make sure that as a close friend of the Lutnicks, you are aware of the event and have the opportunity to support them.”
Epstein responded, “50k from me, hope pr is ok”
Lutnick’s inclusion in the Epstein paperwork prompted requires his resignation final week on Capitol Hill, together with from Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who co-authored the laws mandating the launch of the information.
“[Lutnick] said he knew Jeffrey Epstein was a despicable, abhorrent human being and had nothing to do with him, and then he partied on his island with his kids, with this guy. How do you trust that guy?” Massie mentioned Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune instructed reporters that Lutnick must reply questions on his relationship with Epstein, but argued it’s “up to the American people” to say whether or not his solutions are “sufficient.”
Rep. Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican who additionally pressed for launch of the Epstein information, mentioned she was “concerned with anyone who would hang out with a convicted pedophile” when requested about Lutnick.
“Anyone who hangs out with a guy like that, I’m sorry but I’m not hanging out with you,” Mace mentioned.
On Wall Street, there was combined response over the Lutnick disclosures.
An economist near giant institutional traders mentioned that Lutnick has lengthy been seen negatively by a lot of Wall Street because of his push for Trump to embrace tariffs, and that the markets may even react positively if he left the administration.
“When a trade goes bad, you cut your losses and move on,” the economist mentioned.
But one Wall Street government instructed NCS that Lutnick has grow to be a key a part of the enterprise facet of the Trump administration, so traders may get involved if he had been pushed out.
“He’s grown on investors,” the government mentioned. “Lutnick being on the outs would cause nerves.”