By David Shepardson and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, March 4 (Reuters) – U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Goldman Sachs lawyer Kathryn Ruemmler and Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black will testify before a House panel about their ties to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The House Oversight Committee’s chairman, U.S. Representative James Comer, said Lutnick was appearing voluntarily. Representatives for Ruemmler and Black also said they would answer lawmakers’ questions.
“I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the committee,” Comer said of Lutnick in an X post on Tuesday.
In a separate post, the Kentucky Republican said he was also calling on Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates, Lesley Groff, Sarah Kellen, Ted Waitt and Doug Band to appear.
Band founded the global consulting firm Teneo and was an official at the Clinton Foundation charity run by former President Bill Clinton, who testified before the House panel last week about his dealings with Epstein.
Groff and Kellen are former Epstein employees, according to CBS News. Waitt is the former CEO of Gateway.
Representatives for Black said he looked forward to answering lawmakers’ questions. Representatives for the other individuals could not immediately be reached for comment or did not immediately respond.
Goldman Sachs also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ruemmler, who is leaving the firm.
The Justice Department in January released millions of new files related to Epstein, including emails that showed Lutnick visited Epstein’s private Caribbean island for lunch years after he claimed to have cut off ties.
Lutnick, appointed by Republican President Donald Trump last year, now faces calls from Democrats and Republicans to resign.
The Commerce Department did not comment. Lutnick told Axios he looked forward to testifying, adding: “I have done nothing wrong, and I want to set the record straight.”
The former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald is one of a host of powerful men in politics, business and entertainment, including Trump himself, who are under fire for their ties to Epstein.
OTHER REQUESTED TESTIMONY
On Monday, shareholders sued Apollo Global Management, Black and Marc Rowan, another co-founder, for allegedly defrauding them for nearly five years about the private capital firm’s business dealings with Epstein.
Last month, Lutnick told lawmakers he “barely had anything to do with” Epstein but faces questions over his apparent contradictions between the newly released documents and his prior remarks about Epstein, who lived next door to Lutnick in New York.
Lutnick said he and Epstein had exchanged only about 10 emails and met three times over 14 years and that he only had lunch with Epstein because he was on a boat near the financier’s island, adding that his family was present.
Also last month, Goldman Sachs said Ruemmler would resign as chief legal officer after the documents showed she accepted gifts from Epstein and advised him on how to address media inquiries regarding his crimes. Her resignation is effective June 30, a source told Reuters.
Gates has acknowledged two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but said there were no ties to Epstein’s victims, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.
A Gates Foundation spokesperson later said Gates took responsibility for his actions over ties to Epstein during a meeting with the group’s employees.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Bhargav Acharya in Toronto; additional reporting by Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City, Saeed Azhar and Jonathan Stempel in New York; and Chandni and Shah Kanjyik in Bengaluru; Writing by Susan Heavey; Editing by Michelle Nichols, David Gregorio, Bill Berkrot and Diane Craft)
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