(Alex Brandon\/AP photo)<\/p>\n
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick donated $5 million to a major House Republican super PAC weeks after arranging a closed-door testimony with congressional investigators examining his past ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, per a Friday report<\/a> from\u00a0The New York Times.<\/p>\n The Times reported that Lutnick contributed to the Congressional Leadership Fund \u2014 the primary super PAC supporting House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) \u2014 on April 1, less than a month after the House Oversight Committee announced he had agreed to testify<\/a> voluntarily about his relationship with Epstein. The interview<\/a> took place on May 6.<\/p>\n According to the report, lawmakers had weighed issuing a subpoena before Lutnick agreed to appear before the committee. Democrats had already questioned him publicly during a February congressional hearing<\/a> as scrutiny surrounding his past association with Epstein intensified.<\/p>\n The Times noted that previously released Epstein-related documents<\/a> placed Lutnick\u2019s name in more than 250 records connected to the late financier. The outlet also reported that while Lutnick had long claimed he had not shared a room with Epstein following a 2005 interaction, records showed he later traveled to Epstein\u2019s private island in 2012 and had additional contact with him.<\/p>\n During his testimony, according to a transcript cited by the Times, Lutnick acknowledged three encounters with Epstein \u2014 a coffee meeting at Epstein\u2019s Manhattan home, a discussion concerning construction work on Epstein\u2019s property, and the 2012 island visit with his family.<\/p>\n Per the transcript, Lutnick characterized the interactions as \u201cmeaningless and inconsequential\u201d while denouncing Epstein\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Commerce Department defended the donation in a statement to the outlet, saying, \u201cMr. Lutnick made a political donation in his personal capacity, just as many Cabinet Secretaries from both parties have done in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n The Times noted the contribution was unusually large for a sitting cabinet official and marked Lutnick\u2019s first major disclosed federal political donation since joining President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n The post Howard Lutnick Cut $5 Million Check to House Republicans After Scheduling His Epstein Testimony<\/a> first appeared on Mediaite<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Alex Brandon\/AP photo) Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick donated $5 million to a major House Republican super PAC weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85367,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[143],"tags":[25859,1152,3791,664,46926,478,5156],"class_list":["post-85366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mike-johnson","tag-congressional-leadership-fund","tag-house-oversight-committee","tag-howard-lutnick","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-major-house","tag-mike-johnson","tag-speaker-mike-johnson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116631176581464179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}