Howard Lutnick, President Trump’s secretary of commerce, made a $5 million donation last month to a committee supporting House Republicans, an unusually large contribution for a sitting cabinet secretary.
The donation was made on April 1, four weeks after the House Oversight Committee arranged to interview Mr. Lutnick about his ties to the sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. The closed-door interview took place on May 6.
Mr. Lutnick gave the money to the Congressional Leadership Fund, the main super PAC behind House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson, according to a new filing made public on Thursday. Mr. Lutnick has recently been a major Republican donor, but this was his first contribution since being named commerce secretary. It ties his largest-ever federal donation, $5 million he gave to Mr. Trump’s super PAC in 2024.
“Mr. Lutnick made a political donation in his personal capacity, just as many Cabinet Secretaries from both parties have done in the past,” said Kristen Eichamer, a spokeswoman for the Department of Commerce.
Federal employees are permitted to make donations, but it is rare to see such a high-ranking official donate such a significant amount. Mr. Lutnick is the first Trump cabinet official to make a seven-figure disclosed federal donation after being confirmed to a post, according to a review of federal election filings.
The closest analogue in Mr. Trump’s administration was the role played by Elon Musk during his stint as a part-time government employee, during which he continued to donate millions to conservative causes.
The House Oversight Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The donation came at a sensitive time for Mr. Lutnick. Lawmakers have been scrutinizing his ties to Mr. Epstein since January, when the government released millions of pages of records related to Mr. Epstein. Mr. Lutnick lived next door to Mr. Epstein on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for more than a decade, and the commerce secretary’s name appeared in more than 250 documents in the Epstein files, a review by The New York Times found.
Mr. Lutnick had claimed until recently to have not been in the same room with Mr. Epstein after an encounter in 2005. But the files showed that Mr. Lutnick traveled to Mr. Epstein’s private island in 2012, and that they had other interactions.
Democrats grilled Mr. Lutnick about those connections in a previously scheduled congressional hearing in February. Then, on March 3, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced that Mr. Lutnick had agreed to appear before the committee to testify about the extent of his relationship with Mr. Epstein. The appearance helped to stave off a possible subpoena by lawmakers, who were considering ordering Mr. Lutnick to testify.
According to a subsequently published transcript, Mr. Lutnick told lawmakers that he had met Mr. Epstein three times: once for coffee in Mr. Epstein’s home in New York after they became neighbors, once to discuss construction on Mr. Epstein’s home in New York, and once when Mr. Lutnick and his family visited Mr. Epstein’s island in 2012. Mr. Lutnick condemned Mr. Epstein’s conduct and described the interactions as “meaningless and inconsequential.”
The disclosure on Thursday listed Mr. Lutnick’s “employer” as Cantor Fitzgerald and his “occupation” as chairman. Mr. Lutnick completed a divestment from Cantor in September, leaving his sons in charge of the firm. It was unclear why the filing listed him as chairman, though errors on Federal Election Commission filings are not uncommon. The super PAC, which Mr. Lutnick backed with $2.7 million between 2022 and 2024 as well, declined to comment on the donation or entry.
The Congressional Leadership Fund is charged with helping to re-elect House Republican incumbents, like those on the House Oversight Committee, and winning seats in battleground districts. Another major donor to the effort last month was Warren Stephens, Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, who gave $250,000 to the super PAC.
Michael Gold contributed reporting.
