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Embattled Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) had more extensive ties to Jeffrey Epstein than she acknowledged this week while opposing a House resolution to censure her, according to a report from the New York Post. On Wednesday, Plaskett described Epstein as merely a “constituent,” after recently released records from Epstein’s estate showed he had provided her with suggested questions during a 2019 congressional hearing — a disclosure that prompted calls for the disciplinary measure.
However, exhibits and depositions filed in a New York court case indicate that Epstein and his associates directed at least $30,000 in campaign contributions to Plaskett across three election cycles.
Plaskett, an attorney and former federal prosecutor who moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2005 to work for the territory’s economic development authority, first met Epstein at his St. Thomas office after identifying him as a possible donor during her initial congressional campaign in 2014, The Post noted.
She mentioned that she encountered him multiple times and had phone conversations with him over five occasions — yet when questioned in a 2023 deposition whether it was more than 10, she replied, “I do not recall.”
In an email from June 2014, the former first lady of the US Virgin Islands, Cecile de Jongh, communicated with the financier on behalf of Plaskett.
“Jeffrey, Your help is needed. We are trying to get Stacey Plaskett elected to Congress … we would have a friend in Stacey … Do you think any of your friends would give to her campaign?” The Post reported.
At that time, de Jongh oversaw Epstein’s companies in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Epstein had already admitted to sex offenses in 2008.
The letter was part of the evidence presented in a 2023 court document by JP Morgan Chase, which was responding to a lawsuit brought by the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands, said the report.
Plaskett received campaign contributions from several individuals connected to Jeffrey Epstein between 2014 and 2020, she acknowledged during a deposition.
Lesley Groff, who greeted Plaskett during her 2018 visit to Epstein’s Manhattan residence, donated $2,600 to her campaign. Epstein attorney Darren Indyke contributed $10,700, and Epstein’s accountant, Richard Kahn, also donated $10,700. Indyke’s administrative assistant, Bella Klein, added another $2,600.
“I see that,” Plaskett said when asked about Kahn’s contribution, giving similar acknowledgments regarding the others.
Plaskett also sought financial support from Epstein for the Democratic Party of the U.S. Virgin Islands, receiving $13,000, according to another exhibit in the case.
She attempted, unsuccessfully, to secure a $30,000 maximum contribution for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. According to the filings, Plaskett made that request during a visit to Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse in the fall of 2018.
Some five years later during her deposition, The Post reported, she talked about “walking through an even larger foyer stairwell area to a room immediately there that would appear to be a dining room, where [Epstein] was sitting at a very long table having a conversation with another gentleman … and me sitting down and having a conversation with him.”
This occurred less than a year prior to his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. He was discovered dead in his prison cell that same year, noted The Post. However, Plaskett was told “that he had not passed the DCCC’s vetting.”
Asked for more details, she responded, “I do not know the specifics of what that vetting was.”
A lawyer for the bank asked if she thought it could be related to Epstein’s status as a sex offender. “I was not sure of the totality of the circumstances,” Plaskett said in response, per The Post.
Plaskett said in 2019 that she had donated all campaign contributions linked to Epstein to women’s organizations.
Meanwhile, Senate Democratic investigators are examining more than $1 billion in Epstein-related transactions that passed through a major bank, and House Republicans are urging the U.S. Virgin Islands government to disclose additional information about its dealings with Epstein, said the outlet.
