A congressional panel investigating late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has released transcriptions of interviews with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Ted Waitt, the billionaire co-founder of Gateway computers.
Lutnick discussed having three interactions with Epstein - a neighbour of his in New York - which included a visit to the financier's home next door and a trip to his island in the Caribbean after he was thought to have cut ties with Epstein.
Waitt testified about his years-long relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, and his concerns about her working for him.
Neither Lutnick nor Waitt have been accused of any wrongdoing by Epstein's victims.
Lutnick appeared voluntarily on 6 May as part of the House Oversight Committee probe.
He said he and his wife were invited to Epstein's New York home in 2005 but they left abruptly when he showed them his massage table and made a remark about the kinds of massages he enjoyed.
Lutnick said he found the comment "off-putting", and so he and his wife excused themselves and he told his wife after that he did not want to interact with Epstein.
The commerce secretary had previously told Congress he cut ties with Epstein in 2005 after the incident.
But earlier this year, he confirmed visiting Epstein's island while on a family vacation in the Caribbean in 2012. Details about the visit were included in millions of documents released by the US justice department related to their investigations into Epstein.
The revelation that Lutnick visited Epstein's island long after he asserted that he had cut off contact led to bipartisan calls for the commerce secretary to resign from the Trump administration.
During the interview last week, Lutnick said he was contacted by Epstein's staff, who somehow knew he would be vacationing with his family near to the island Epstein owned.
Lutnick, his wife and children, another couple and their children, plus staff, took up the invitation for lunch. They dined outdoors on the island, the commerce secretary said, and never went inside.
"We sat outside, had lunch. It was boring. We left," Lutnick told the committee.
The committee also on Wednesday released the transcript from its 30 April interview with Waitt.
He told the committee about his relationship with Epstein's co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, which he said began in 2004 and lasted till 2010.
