Democratic Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett, who collaborated with Jeffrey Epstein to attack President Donald Trump, openly admitted on Wednesday that she was willing to communicate with a known sex offender to damage Trump’s reputation.
The newly released records from Epstein’s estate revealed text exchanges between Plaskett and Epstein right before she was about to question former Trump attorney Michael Cohen during his February 2019 testimony before a congressional body. During an appearance on “The Situation Room,” Plaskett said that she set aside Epstein’s criminal past in order to “get information” about Trump.
“I believe that Jeffrey Epstein had information and I was going to get information to get at the truth,” Plaskett said. “Having a friendship with him is not something that I would deem to have. And so I’m just looking forward. I’m moving forward. And I think that that’s what we as American people should do is move forward. If individuals are not involved in illegal activity, it’s extending his criminal enterprise or his financial enterprise or all of those things. I think that we need to look at what people are doing moving forward.”
“Wait, let me just better understand that. What is that point? Because at the time he was a known sex offender and it had been detailed all the sexual abuse,” CNN host Pamela Brown asked.
Plaskett answered that Trump also could have committed a crime and she felt she had to obtain that information.
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“There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes. And as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can,” Plaskett said.
Epstein gave Plaskett information about the Trump Organization before her questioning began, including the name of longtime Trump aide Rhona Graff.
“RONA?? Quick I’m up next is that an acronym,” the text message read.
Epstein clarified, “Thats [sic] his assistant.”
Plaskett then pressed Cohen about Trump Organization personnel and brought Graff up by name. Epstein also complimented her outfit, asked whether she was chewing during a televised shot and about how long she planned to stay at the hearing.
Plaskett’s office said that the congresswoman received text messages from several people during that hearing, including “staff, constituents and the public at large.” The statement also emphasized her previous work on sexual assault and trafficking cases during her time as a prosecutor.
Epstein owned two private islands in the U.S. Virgin Islands and donated to a variety of politicians, including Plaskett, according to a Business Insider investigation. She initially did not plan to return the donations, but eventually did so due to political pressure.
A group of Republicans introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure Plaskett for the text messages, though it failed in a 209 to 214 vote.
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