Democrat calls Howard Lutnick a 'pathological liar' after closed-door Epstein testimony

Lutnick participated in a voluntary closed-door interview with the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday to answer questions about Epstein as part of the panel's probe into the disgraced financier.

"I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar," Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., said when she left the room in the middle of the Capitol Hill testimony to give reporters an update.

She claimed the Trump official is complicit in "the most egregious cover-up in American history."

Democratic lawmakers, who have seized on the Epstein saga after largely ignoring it under former President Joe Biden, accused Lutnick of stonewalling their questions during their sit-down.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., accused Democrats of lying about Lutnick's testimony, which he characterized as "very forthcoming" - thought admitted he was not "100% truthful" in the past.

"The only cover-up that I've seen on the Oversight Committee is the cover-up of the Democrats trying to cover up our investigations of the Metro Police Department lying about crime statistics, and the cover-up of the Minnesota fraud by Tim Walz and Keith Ellison and the cover-up of the hospice fraud in California," Comer said, referring to several active probes under his purview.

A source familiar told Fox News that Lutnick told the panel that he only met Epstein three times. Lutnick never saw Epstein with young women or witnessed anything inappropriate with young women, the source added.

Lutnick did not respond to reporters' questions outside the Oversight Committee room on Wednesday.

Democrats in Congress have argued that Lutnick's acknowledgment of a brief lunch visit to Epstein's Caribbean island in 2012 with his wife, children and nannies after previously claiming he cut off ties seven years earlier undermines his credibility.

A spokesperson for the Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's inquiry on lawmakers' classification of Lutnick's testimony.

Comer acknowledged Wednesday that Lutnick withheld information about the 2012 lunch with Epstein, but argued that his credibility is up to Americans to decide.

"I haven't seen wrongdoing in the email correspondence, but he wasn't 100% truthful with whether or not he had been on the island," Comer told reporters.

"We're going to ask him all these questions, and we'll let the American people judge whether the credibility was damaged or not," he added.

Comer also said his unprecedented invitation to invite Lutnick, a Cabinet secretary, to appear before the committee shows the bipartisan nature of the Epstein probe.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is scheduled for a transcribed interview with the committee on May 29. Tech billionaire Bill Gates is slated to testify on June 10.