U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has acknowledged that he met Jeffrey Epstein twice after 2005, reversing his earlier claim that he had severed all ties with the disgraced financier from that point onward.

On February 10, Lutnick testified before a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee regarding his relationship with Epstein, who was once his neighbor in New York City.

“I had no relationship with him. I barely had any contact with him,” Lutnick told lawmakers, saying their interactions amounted only to a few emails and two meetings years apart. Democratic senators on the panel pressed him further, particularly after the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of pages of documents from the Epstein files, indicating the financier maintained contact with numerous U.S. officials and politicians.

Last year, Lutnick said on a podcast that he had interacted with Epstein but decided to cut ties after visiting Epstein’s home in 2005, a visit he said left both him and his wife feeling “uneasy.”

Under questioning from senators, Lutnick later walked back that statement, admitting he met Epstein twice after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. He said that in 2011 he had a one-hour meeting at Epstein’s home, and that in 2012 he and his family had lunch with Epstein on the financier’s private island.

Lutnick has since become the highest-ranking official in the U.S. administration to face bipartisan calls for resignation over personal ties to Epstein. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on February 10 that Lutnick “remains a very important member of President Donald Trump’s team” and that the president fully supports him.

In other countries, including the United Kingdom, the release of Epstein-related files has triggered resignations by officials linked to the financier, even though appearing in the documents does not necessarily imply criminal wrongdoing.

Epstein, born in 1953, was arrested in New York in July 2019 on charges of trafficking and abusing dozens of underage girls. He faced up to 45 years in prison if convicted, denied all allegations, and was held at a Manhattan jail. While awaiting trial, Epstein died by suicide in his cell in August 2019.