Howard Lutnick is facing a fresh Epstein files headache as two organizations have teamed up to call for his head, with a former White House ethics czar bashing his muddled excuses.
The watchdogs, Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) and Public Citizen (PC), have demanded the commerce secretary’s resignation in an open letter, seen first by the Daily Beast.
They cite his murky messaging over a relationship with fellow billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, which persisted for years after he was convicted of sex crimes. The saga has put Lutnick in the spotlight, risking Trump’s ire as he tries to distance himself from the ongoing Epstein saga.
Norm Eisen, former White House ethics czar and ambassador to the Czech Republic under President Barack Obama, told the Daily Beast that Lutnick’s alleged behavior is “a direct assault on every American who does everything right and still gets less.”
“Government corruption has a price—and the American people are the ones paying it, in the form of their hard-earned money and a destabilized economy," Eisen, who also co-founded DDF, said.
“We have now learned that a top economic official concealed his financial and personal ties to Jeffrey Epstein while testifying under oath, and buried evidence of his own fraud.”
Eisen, a prominent lawyer and former CNN legal analyst, added: “That is a profound betrayal of the public trust. When the well-connected get to play by a different set of rules, it is not only unfair, but is a direct assault on every American who does everything right and still gets less.”
Eisen is one of Trump’s most persistent legal foes, and he made repeated manoeuvres to force the DOJ and FBI to cooperate and release files relating to Trump’s own relationship with Epstein.
Noting that Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein “did not end until at least 2018,” 10 years after he was convicted in Florida of soliciting a minor for prostitution, another DDF director said he “can’t be trusted.”
“He appears to have lied about his relationship with a child predator and faces serious allegations both from his time in the private sector and as Commerce Secretary,” said Virginia Canter, chief counsel and director of ethics and anti-corruption at Democracy Defenders Fund.
The “lies” Canter references relate to the hard-to-decipher story Lutnick has tried to use to explain away his Epstein links.
The 64-year-old, who has been photographed hanging out on Epstein’s island, claimed he was so creeped out by the disgraced financier’s massage room that he cut ties.
He told a New York Post podcast last year that he met Epstein in 2005 when he and his wife moved next door to him, before embarking on a tour of his Manhattan townhouse—where he made the apparently alarming discovery.
“I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” he declared.
However, files released by the Justice Department in late January revealed that Lutnick and Epstein traded emails well beyond 2005. His most recent emails to Epstein were in 2018, a year before officials say he died via suicide in prison.
“Every day he continues to serve as a Cabinet member, the public’s trust in our government is further eroded. He must resign immediately,” Canter remarked.
Her comments about “serious allegations both from his time in the private sector and as Commerce Secretary” relate to alleged misgivings not connected to Epstein.
These include allegations that Lutnick engaged in a Ponzi scheme and a money-laundering operation through Cantor Fitzgerald, the law firm he used to head.
The open letter also noted that his stint in public office “has been marked by several alleged violations of the ethical standards intended to safeguard the impartial and competent administration of the Commerce Department.”
Namely, Lutnick has faced allegations that he has promoted Tesla stock contrary to rules that indicate that he should not promote any outside enterprise while serving as the commerce secretary.
Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO, was briefly a part of the Trump administration as part of his work in the Department of Government Efficiency.
The duo of watchdogs also called out Lutnick for an apparent attempt to affect the New York City mayoral race, mainly by trying to panic detractors into voting against the eventual winner, Zohran Mamdani.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, raising serious concerns about this, citing his comments to Fox Business.
He told Larry Kudlow on that channel in August last year, that “the people in New York had better get off their butts and get out there and vote and make sure this communist [Mamdani] doesn’t run New York City.”
In December, twenty-five members of Congress requested that the Acting Inspector General of the Department of Commerce investigate his involvement in promoting artificial intelligence data centers at the same time as his adult children held immense interests in the AI data center industry.
“The American public deserves leadership that it can trust. Because you can no longer fulfill that role, you must step down,” Canter said.
Craig Holman, Ph.D., government ethics expert at Public Citizen, added: “As new personal and political scandals come to light and confidence in his tenure continues to plummet, it’s time for Lutnick to resign for the good of the American people.”
The Commerce Department has been approached for comment.
