Responding to the House Freedom Caucus’s Tuesday resolution to remove Plaskett from the House Intelligence Committee for being “actively coached” by Epstein while she questioned President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, Raskin asked, “Where is the ethical transgression?”
“Well, they want to give them another headline, which is that they’ve arraigned a Democratic member for taking a phone call from her constituent, Jeffrey Epstein, in the middle of a hearing,” said Raskin, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, shortly after the House voted to release the Epstein files in the afternoon.
“And of course, I don’t think there’s any rule here against taking phone calls in a hearing. Now, if you wanna actually give her the chance to explain what happened, then we would take it to the Ethics Committee,” the Maryland Democrat continued. “I still don’t see what the charge is. Where is the ethical transgression? Where is legal transgression? Are you saying anybody on your side of the aisle who had a phone call with Jeffrey Epstein should be censured?”
“Be careful your answer there because there’s a lot more that’s about to come out, right? So you should think about what is the principle behind this rush to judge,” he added.
The texts between Epstein and Plaskett, a nonvoting delegate from the U.S. Virgin Islands, were exposed by the latest trove of documents released last week by the House Oversight Committee.
While Epstein watched the February 2019 hearing live, he texted Plaskett that she looked “great” and explained to her that Cohen had referred to Trump’s former assistant, Rhona Graff, while he testified against his former boss.
One minute after Plaskett’s questioning was over, Epstein texted her, “Good work.”
The delegate also received thousands of dollars from Epstein in campaign contributions during the 2016 and 2018 election cycles, years after he was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008.
Epstein owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little Saint James, from 1998 until his death in 2019.
After Epstein was charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in July 2019, Plaskett was met with backlash after she initially said she would keep the campaign donations before reversing her decision, saying she would instead “make contributions to Virgin Islands organizations that work with women and children in the amount of his previous contributions.”
The Washington Post reported that six Epstein accusers in 2023 sued U.S. Virgin Islands officials, including Plaskett, “alleging that they helped and benefited from Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise in the U.S. territory.”
“The lawsuit against Plaskett was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice earlier this year,” the outlet noted.
The delegate’s office brushed off the texts in a statement to the Washington Post after it published its initial story.
“During the hearing, Congresswoman Plaskett received texts from staff, constituents and the public at large offering advice, support and in some cases partisan vitriol, including from Epstein,” Plaskett’s office said. “As a former prosecutor she welcomes information that helps her get at the truth and took on the GOP that was trying to bury the truth. The congresswoman has previously made clear her long record combating sexual assault and human trafficking, her disgust over Epstein’s deviant behavior and her support for his victims.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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