Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett claimed Wednesday that she wasnât trying to âmislead peopleâ when she falsely claimed that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin received political donations from registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Crockett made the false allegation during the debate on the floor of the House of Representatives on legislation to force the Trump administration to release files about Epstein. Crockett told âThe Sourceâ host Kaitlan Collins she had âmaybe 20 minutesâ before the debate took place.
âI never said that it was that Jeffrey Epstein,â Crockett claimed. âJust so that people understand, when you make a donation, your picture is not there. And because they decided to spring this on us in real time, I wanted the Republicans to think about what could potentially happen, because I knew that they didnât even try to go through the FEC. So my team, what they did is they Googled, and that is specifically why I said âa Jeffrey Epstein.â Unlike Republicans, I at least donât go out and just tell lies.â
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âBecause it was not the same one, thatâs fine, but when Lee Zeldin has something to say, all he had to say was, âIt was a different Jeffrey Epstein,ââ Crockett continued. âHe admitted that he did receive donations from a Jeffrey Epstein, so at least I wasnât trying to mislead people. Now, have I dug in to find out who this doctor is? I have not. So I will trust and take what he says, is that it wasnât that Jeffrey Epstein, but I was not attempting to mislead anybody. I literally had maybe 20 minutes before I had to do that debate.â
Zeldin pushed back against Crockettâs claims in a sharply-worded post on X Tuesday, refuting the claim.
âYes Crockett, a physician named Dr. Jeffrey Epstein (who is a totally different person than the other Jeffrey Epstein) donated to a prior campaign of mine,â Zeldin wrote before inserting clapping hands emojis in the next sentence.
The Daily Caller News Foundation took less than ten minutes to confirm that the donation to Zeldin took place in April 2020, months after the disgraced financier apparently committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial after he was arrested in 2019, and that the Epstein in question was a self-employed physician.
âI literally did not know. When you search FEC files, and thatâs what I had my team do, I texted them and I said, âListen, weâre going up. They are saying that she took donationsâŚââ Crockett claimed before Collins interjected with, âRight. But somebody might say, well, your team should have done the homework to make sure it wasnât the convicted sex trafficker.â
âWithin 20 minutes, you could not find that out, not from just doing a quick search on FEC,â Crockett replied. âSo, number one, I made sure that I was clear that it was a Jeffrey Epstein, but I never said that it was specifically that Jeffrey Epstein, because I knew that we would â we would need more time to really dig in.â
President Donald Trump told Republicans to back the legislation to release the files on Sunday, leading to the bill passing the House in a 427-1 vote on Tuesday. Trump announced he signed the legislation on Wednesday night after the Senate passed it via unanimous consent.
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