Washington DC - Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday denied having connections to the infamous sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein as he came under fire from lawmakers calling for him to step down.

"Over a 14 year period, I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person," Lutnick told a Senate committee hearing.

A rising number of US lawmakers have called for Lutnick's resignation from President Donald Trump's administration.

Temperatures have risen since files released by the US Justice Department contradicted Lutnick's earlier comments that he had severed ties with Epstein more than two decades ago.

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Democratic Senator Adam Schiff on Monday said "Lutnick has no business being our Commerce Secretary, and he should resign immediately."

A day prior, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie told CNN that the commerce secretary "should just resign."

At the Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, Lutnick said he met Epstein when they were both in New York, and acknowledged having lunch with Epstein on a trip with his wife and children.

"We were on family vacation," he said of the trip around 2012.