Lutnick Agrees to Testify in House Epstein Investigation...

Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, agreed on Tuesday to sit for an interview with the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with the sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Lutnick, a billionaire businessman, lived next door to Mr. Epstein in New York. Until recently, he had claimed to have cut ties with Mr. Epstein in 2005, after he made a visit to the Manhattan townhouse where the authorities said Mr. Epstein engaged in sexual acts with underage girls. But after Congress passed a law requiring the Justice Department to disclose its investigative material on Mr. Epstein, the department released documents showing that Mr. Lutnick and Mr. Epstein continued to communicate and socialize for years after Mr. Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Mr. Lutnick later acknowledged in a Senate hearing that he had visited Mr. Epstein’s private island in 2012. The revelation that Mr. Lutnick had lied about the extent and timeline of his ties to Mr. Epstein prompted calls for his resignation from Democrats and Republicans, making him one of the highest-profile political figures in the country to come under scrutiny after the release of the files.