Commerce chief Howard Lutnick to face Epstein grilling in closed-door interview today Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick will become the latest of Donald Trump’s cabinet to be questioned over ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein when he sits for a closed-door transcribed interview with the Oversight Committee later today. Lutnick has acknowledged visiting Epstein’s private island in 2012 with family members – a trip that contradicted his earlier claim that he had severed ties with Epstein in 2005. In March, the Department of Justice briefly deleted and then restored an undated photo of Lutnick and Epstein in an island setting. CBS News reported that Lutnick and Epstein were in business together as recently as 2014.…