Howard Lutnick would be fired by Trump over Epstein testimony video, House oversight committee Democrats claim

Democrats have branded Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s closed-door testimony before the House oversight committee as “embarrassing”, pointing to what they describe as a series of alleged lies about his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “If Donald Trump had seen the video transcript, he would have fired Howard Lutnick,” said California congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat, after the hearing.

The accusations centre on apparent contradictions between Lutnick’s public statements and documented interactions. The commerce secretary had previously claimed on podcasts that he stopped associating with Epstein after 2005, saying he decided “never to be in the room” with him following a tour of the financier’s Manhattan home that unsettled him and his wife. However, case files released by the justice department show Lutnick had two engagements with Epstein years after that date: he attended an event at Epstein’s home in 2011, and his family had lunch with Epstein on his private island in 2012 — four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.

Lutnick admitted to the 2012 lunch during his testimony before the Senate appropriations committee on 10 February, telling senators: “I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation.” He insisted at that hearing that he “barely had anything to do” with Epstein. During the closed-door House session, according to Virginia congressman Suhas Subramanyam, Lutnick told lawmakers he “could remember nothing about the visit to the island. Couldn’t remember why he was there. Couldn’t remember anything he saw.” Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari reported that Lutnick described the visit to Epstein’s island as “inexplicable” and his encounters with the financier as “meaningless and inconsequential”. She told reporters: “I feel very comfortable saying that Howard Lutnick is a pathological liar who is enabling the most egregious cover-up in American history.”

James Comer, the Republican chair of the oversight committee, had told reporters ahead of the hearing that Lutnick had not been “100% truthful” in the past about whether he had visited Epstein’s island. But after the closed-door session, Comer changed his tone, describing the commerce secretary as “very forthcoming” about his “three” interactions with Epstein over a decade. He insisted there was no “cover-up”. Democrats also noted that Lutnick did not answer questions about whether he had spoken with Donald Trump before giving testimony.

Tennessee redistricting and state-level political battles

Meanwhile, Republican politicians in Tennessee have proposed a new congressional voting map that could take effect before the midterm elections in November. The map would eliminate the state’s only Democratic-controlled district by carving up a majority-Black voting bloc in Memphis, currently represented by Democrat Steve Cohen. In a post on X, Cohen described the proposal as “insane”, arguing that it would force voters in Shelby County and Williamson County — more than 200 miles apart — to share a single representative. “It’s a blatant, corrupt power grab that would destroy the Black community’s and our entire city’s voice,” he said. The move follows a recent Supreme Court ruling on the use of race in congressional maps, which civil rights leaders say weakens the Voting Rights Act. State House Speaker Cameron Sexton defended the plan, saying the Supreme Court has indicated that redistricting “should be color-blind” and that Tennessee’s approach will “reduce the risk of future legal challenges while promoting sound and strategic conservatism”.

In a related development, the FBI raided the office of Virginia state senator Louise Lucas, who played a key role in the recent fight to redraw Virginia’s congressional maps. According to people familiar with the matter, the search at Lucas’s district office in Portsmouth was part of a corruption investigation. The FBI confirmed it was executing a “court-authorized federal search warrant” in the city, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Lucas, 82, has served as a state senator for 34 years and is the first woman and first African American to hold the post of Virginia senate’s president pro tempore.

In a special election in Michigan, Democrat Chedrick Greene — a firefighter and marine veteran — won the 35th senate district, allowing Democrats to retain control of the state senate for the rest of the year. Greene defeated Republican Jason Tunney with more than 58% of the vote, compared with Tunney’s 39%. The district, which includes parts of Bay and Saginaw counties, was won by Kamala Harris by only a single percentage point in 2024, though Donald Trump ultimately won the state. The seat had been vacant since January 2025, when Democrat Kristen McDonald Rivet left to join the US House. Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, hailed Greene’s victory as a “massive defeat for MAGA Republicans”. Tunney has said he will challenge Greene again in November for the full four-year term.

FBI leak investigation targets journalist

The FBI has launched a “criminal leak investigation” focused on Sarah Fitzpatrick, an Atlantic journalist who wrote a detailed story last month about government officials’ alarm over the bureau’s director Kash Patel’s alleged “bouts of excessive drinking” and “unexplained absences”, two people familiar with the matter have said. The move is highly unusual, since leak investigations typically target government officials, not journalists. Sources have said there is concern among some FBI agents assigned to the probe. “They know they are not supposed to do this,” one source said. “But if they don’t go forward, they could lose their jobs. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” Fitzpatrick’s reporting cited more than two dozen anonymous sources who described alarm among FBI and justice department officials over Patel’s alcohol consumption and erratic conduct, with fears that his job was in jeopardy. Patel has sued The Atlantic, accusing the magazine of publishing “false and obviously fabricated allegations” and seeking damages for defamation. FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson denied the investigation, calling it “completely false”. Jeff Goldberg, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, said: “If true, this would be an outrageous, illegal, and dangerous attack on the free press and the First Amendment. We will defend Sarah and all of our reporters who are subjected to government harassment simply for pursuing the truth.”

Other developments in Washington

In the Oval Office, Donald Trump said Iran now wants to make a deal “very badly”, adding that the situation had changed quickly. “A few days ago. It’s a long time ago in the world of war,” he said. He repeated claims that the regime’s military capabilities have been decimated and said Iran has agreed not to have a nuclear weapon moving forward. The president also falsely claimed that Pope Leo XIV had suggested Iran should be able to create a nuclear weapon, warning that “the entire world would be hostage”. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, is set to meet the pope on Thursday in Rome in an effort to repair strained relations between Washington and the Vatican.

A new poll by the Associated Press and NORC has found that Donald Trump’s immigration-enforcement agenda has convinced a growing number of adults that the US is no longer a welcoming country for outsiders. About six in ten respondents said the country used to be a great place for immigrants, but no longer is. One-third said they or someone they knew had been directly affected by the administration’s crackdown in the previous 12 months, rising to about 60% of Hispanic adults. Nearly half of Hispanic adults surveyed said they had started carrying proof of US citizenship or permanent residence for fear of detention or deportation. Only a quarter of adults still believe the US is welcoming to immigrants. On birthright citizenship, 65% believe all children born in the US should be entitled to citizenship regardless of their parents’ status, and 75% hold the same view for children of non-citizen parents who are legally present on work visas. Trump has attempted to end birthright citizenship by executive order, but federal courts have blocked the move.

Trump also used a military Mother’s Day event at the White House to tout his new ballroom project, part of an “East Wing modernization project”. He said the ballroom now carries a $400m price tag and described it as “one of the most beautiful buildings of its kind anywhere in the world”. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans released an immigration enforcement reconciliation package that includes a proposed $1bn that could go to security measures related to the ballroom.

Ted Turner dies at 87

Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and one of the most transformative figures in US media, has died at the age of 87. The cause of death was not immediately released, but Turner had revealed in 2018 that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder. According to a news release from Turner Enterprises, he died surrounded by his family, and is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Turner launched CNN in 1980 as the world’s first 24-hour news channel, setting a template for live coverage of wars, trials, revolutions and disasters. In 1996, Time Warner Inc bought his Turner Broadcasting System for $7.5bn, creating the world’s largest communications company — encompassing HBO, Warner Bros, Time magazine, CNN, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav described Turner as a “visionary and a trailblazer” whose “entrepreneurial spirit, creative ambition and willingness to take risks changed the media industry forever”. Zaslav said Turner’s CNN “fundamentally changed how the world experiences history in real time”, and praised his creation of TNT, Turner Sports and Turner Classic Movies as preserving great films and iconic sporting moments. Rupert Murdoch, Turner’s longtime rival, called him a “trailblazer” who “transformed the media industry and left an indelible mark on our cultural landscape”. The two men had a famously hostile rivalry, stemming from a yachting collision in 1983 and later fuelled by the launch of Fox News in 1996, which Turner at one point compared to Adolf Hitler (he later apologised). In later years the rivalry became friendlier, with Turner acknowledging Murdoch’s business acumen. Donald Trump, in a social media post, called Turner “one of the Greats of All Time” and a “friend”, but used the moment to criticise CNN’s current ownership, saying the network had been “destroyed” and become “woke”. Trump suggested that Paramount Skydance, run by his ally David Ellison, might restore the network’s “former credibility and glory” after a multibillion-dollar deal to acquire Warner Bros Discovery is finalised.