House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries avoided multiple questions on whether it was “appropriate” for Del. Stacey Plaskett, D-V.I., to be exchanging messages with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Wednesday.
Lawmakers voted against censuring Plaskett, the Virgin Islands’ nonvoting delegate in the House of Representatives, and stripping her of her role on a high-profile House committee on Tuesday over newly surfaced text messages between her and Epstein that were exchanged during the February 2019 congressional testimony of Michael Cohen.
CNN host Kaitlan Collins asked Jeffries three times whether he believed it was appropriate for a member of the Democratic caucus to be messaging with Epstein.
“Well, Stacey Plaskett is not accused of violating any House rule, any law, any statute. And she’s clearly and unequivocally denounced Jeffrey Epstein. And I think what the survivors fought for today is the type of transparency that came out of the House, went through the Senate, and is now on its way to Donald Trump’s desk, where hopefully he’ll sign it into law,” Jeffries responded.
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After Collins asked a second time, Jeffries said he hadn’t had a conversation with Plaskett about it before arguing that the resolution to censure her lacked any basis.
“Yes, I was just asking if you personally believe messaging with Jeffrey Epstein, who was at that point, a registered sex offender, is appropriate for a member of the House Democratic Caucus,” Collins asked again.
“That’s the third time you’ve asked me this question, and I’m going to give you the same exact answer. Our focus today is on making sure that the Jeffrey Epstein files were released. If you want to have a conversation with Stacey Plaskett about it, I’m sure she’d be willing to talk to you. It was an illegitimate effort to try to remove her from the House Committee on Intelligence, and that was defeated in a bipartisan way,” Jeffries said.
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Texts exchanged during the 2019 hearing, in which Cohen accused President Donald Trump of a scheme to pay off mistresses to hide evidence of extramarital affairs during his 2016 presidential bid, show Epstein taking a heavy interest in Plaskett’s questioning.
One text showed him saying, “He’s opened the door to questions re who are the other henchmen at trump org.”
Plaskett was shown to respond, “Yup. Very aware and waiting my turn.”
Plaskett’s office did not immediately return a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
She defended herself on the House floor on Tuesday and said, “I began to get innumerable texts from friends, from foes, from constituents about what was happening in that hearing. And I got a text from Jeffrey Epstein, who, at the time, was my constituent, who there was not public knowledge at that time that he was under federal investigation.”
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Collins also asked Jeffries about his own name appearing in the Epstein files.
She said, “The email was not sent from you. It was sent from a political consulting firm called Dynamic SRG, that says, ‘We are thrilled to announce we are working with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. Shoot us an email or give us a call if you would like to get involved.'”
Jeffries said he had no recollection of the email, and again expressed support for the release of all the files.
“I have no recollection of the email. I’ve never had a conversation with him, never met him, know nothing about him, other than the extreme things that he’s been convicted of doing. And that’s why, I’m just strongly supportive of the effort, backing the survivors to make sure that everything can come out, whatever is in those Department of Justice files,” he said.
He also told Collins he has never received a donation from Epstein.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
