Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Sunday declined to retract her claim that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin received money from deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Crockett made the false suggestion on the House floor Nov. 18, but the contributions in question were from a different Jeffrey Epstein. On MS NOW’s (formerly MSNBC) “The Weekend,” host Jacqueline Alemany offered Crockett a chance to correct herself, but the congresswoman declined to retract her accusation.
“You made a little bit of news last week when you mistakenly accused Lee Zeldin and other Republicans— ” Alemany said before Crockett interrupted to clarify her accusation was not an accident. Alemany then explained that Federal Election Commission (FEC) data showed Zeldin and other Republicans she accused did not take money from the deceased sex offender.
“I want to give you the opportunity to amend that,” the host said.
“I have no amendments,” Crockett replied before repeating her defense that she did not have enough time to verify which Epstein made the contributions.
“I had maybe 20 minutes. We researched the FEC and, because I like to speak with specificity — that’s kind of what comes with being an attorney — I made clear that there was a Jeffrey Epstein,” Crockett said. “They knew on the other side that I did not have time to actually pull up and actually research, especially since that particular one that Lee Zeldin got up in an uproar about was specifically out of the New York area. We know that he was out of that area and this obviously was not done post Jeffrey Epstein’s life, so I made sure that I said ‘a Jeffrey Epstein.’”
The physician named Jeffrey Epstein, however, made the contributions to Zeldin in 2020, one year after the notorious sex offender perished.
“But you were trying to insinuate that it was the Jeffrey Epstein,” Alemany pressed.
“Oh, I absolutely was insinuating that it could be possible. That is true,” Crockett admitted. “But the point is, I never said that it was that specific one because I did not have the adequate time to do it. And so the Jeffrey Epstein has stepped forward and that’s not like, you know, a normal name. And I think that what would have been problematic is if I would have claimed that, say, that happened and it legitimately never happened. So ultimately, he cleared the record. I have not researched further. I’ve not talked to this doctor.”
Alemany then pressed Crockett to acknowledge Zeldin did not get money from the deceased sex offender, but the congresswoman merely said Zeldin refuted her claim.
“I can agree that Lee Zeldin has said that he’s not received money from the Jeffrey Epstein,” Crockett said. “Absolutely.”
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