Hakeem Jeffries refuses to condemn Stacey Plaskett's Jeffrey Epstein texts as his own Epstein scandal erupts

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) refused to condemn his colleague, Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands), when faced with repeated questions on CNN about Plaskett's controversial text exchanges with the late convicted pedophile and sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.

This comes after the US House of Representatives rejected a Republican-led resolution to censure Democratic delegate Stacey Plaskett of the US Virgin Islands for exchanging text messages with Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing about President Trump's business dealings. The controversy was revealed last week when Epstein's estate released thousands of documents that included real-time texts between Plaskett and Epstein, which showed Epstein offering Plaskett feedback on her questioning strategy during the hearing, such as suggestions on how to "nail" certain points.

At the time, Epstein was a constituent of Plaskett and owned an infamous island in the US Virgin Islands known as "Epstein Island."

During the CNN interview, host Kaitlan Collins pressed Jeffries on Plaskett's involvement, asking if he believed messaging with Epstein—who was a registered sex offender—was "appropriate" for a House Democratic Caucus member. Jeffries responded by pivoting to the transparency bill, stating, "Well, Stacey Plaskett is not accused of violating any House rule, any law, any statute. And she's clearly and unequivocally denounced Jeffrey Epstein."

Collins followed up twice more, asking if the matter was appropriate, but Jeffries maintained his stance. "That's the third time you've asked me this question, and I'm going to give you the same exact answer. Our focus today is on making sure that the Jeffrey Epstein files are released. If you want to have a conversation with Stacey Plaskett about it, I'm sure she'd be willing to talk to you," Jeffries said.

The interview also touched on Jeffries' own apparent link to Epstein: an email from 2013 sent to Epstein by the political consulting firm Dynamic SRG, announcing it was working with Jeffries. The Congressman dismissed it, saying, "I have no recollection of the email. I've never had a conversation with him, never met him, know nothing about him, other than the extreme things that he's been convicted of doing."

The House Freedom Caucus introduced a resolution earlier this week to censure Plaskett and remove her from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, citing the texts as evidence of poor judgment. The measure was defeated Tuesday in a bipartisan 220-210 vote.