Democratic Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands admitted Wednesday that she would not have asked President Donald Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, certain questions without texts from registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Plaskett narrowly escaped censure by the House of Representatives over unearthed text messages between her and Epstein, with the resolution failing by a 214-209 vote due to reported defections to protect Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida from also being censured. “Situation Room” co-host Pamela Brown questioned Plaskett about initiating the exchange of messages.
“Why were you even texting with Epstein at the time? He was a known sex offender then,” Brown asked Plaskett, who replied, “Sure. You know, I explain to people, I’ve been a prosecutor for many years. And there are a lot of people who have information that are not your friends, that you use to get information for to get at the truth. This was seven years ago and people need to understand, this was a huge hearing that was taking place with Michael Cohen, finally coming forward to talk about monies that he had with the hush money, potential hush money that had been paid to Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about the allegations against Trump.”
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“We were entering a hearing, lots of people were texting me, lots of people were giving me information. And I find it really interesting and almost rich that The Washington Post took 30 seconds, one set of question line that I did, and say that Epstein was directing me as to what to question Michael Cohen. I have five minutes of questioning,” Plaskett continued. “I had a lot of questions, 20 years of experience that I had at the time, along with other information I was getting from many sources about issues that should have been raised. And I also want to say that the issues that I raised in that hearing related to individuals who were closest to the president and who could know about money has never been looked into.”
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure Mills over allegations of domestic abuse and stolen valor.
Epstein had extensive ties to celebrities, politicians, and executives, even after he was a convicted sex offender. Among those who were known to have been close were L Brands founder Lex Wexner, director Woody Allen, and former Prince Andrew.
“But, you know, no doubt you have an impressive resume, right? You’re a former federal prosecutor, you were an impeachment manager,” Brown said. “But yes or no, if Epstein had not brought up Rhona to you in that text, would you have asked Michael Cohen about her independently?”
“Probably not. I asked about three other individuals as well. Everyone knew — other people knew that this woman had been the president’s assistant,” Plaskett confessed. “I talked about other individuals who were also close to him that other people had given me information about, that I found other information about. And there were other issues that I talked with him about as well, Michael Cohen, that I brought up during that time.”
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent victims, did not accuse Trump of misconduct in her posthumous memoir released Oct.21, roughly six months after she committed suicide. Giuffre’s ghostwriter told People magazine that Giuffre was a huge fan of Trump.
Other victims of Epstein told NBC News reporter Hallie Jackson during a Sept. 3 panel that they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by Trump. Attorney Bradley Edwards, who represented some of Epstein’s victims, described Trump as someone who aided his efforts.
“The only thing that I can say about President Trump is that he is the only person who in 2009, when I served a lot of subpoenas against a lot of people … he is the only person that picked up the phone and said, ‘let’s just talk, I’ll give ya as much time as you want, I’ll tell ya what you need to know,’” Edwards said in a 2018 video.
“And [Trump] was very helpful in the information that he gave and gave no indication whatsoever that he was involved in anything untoward whatsoever,” Edwards continued.
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