Embattled Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) had far deeper connections to Jeffrey Epstein than she let on this week while fighting a House resolution to censure her, The Post has learned. On Wednesday, Plaskett downplayed Epstein as just another “constituent,” after files released by Epstein’s estate revealed he fed her questions during a congressional hearing in 2019, prompting the call for the House sanction. But exhibits and depositions in a New York court case reveal the convicted pedophile and his associates shoveled at least $30,000 in campaign funds to Plaskett over three election cycles. Plaskett, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor who moved to the islands in 2005 and worked for the local economic development authority, first met Epstein at his office in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands after identifying him as a “potential donor” during her initial run for Congress in 2014. She said she met him more than once, and spoke to him on the phone more than five times but responded “I do not recall” when asked in a 2023 deposition if it was more than 10. In a June 2014 email, then-US Virgin Islands first lady Cecile de Jongh wrote to the financier on behalf of Plaskett. “Jeffrey, Your help is needed. We are trying to get Stacey Plaskett elected to Congress . we would have a friend in Stacey . Do you think any of your friends would give to her campaign?” At the time, de Jongh managed Epstein’s USVI companies. Epstein already pleaded guilty to sex crimes in 2008. The letter was included as evidence in a 2023 court filing by JP Morgan Chase, which was defending itself against a lawsuit filed by the government of the US Virgin Islands. Plaskett got donations from a number of Epstein-linked individuals between 2014 and 2020, she confirmed during a deposition. Lesley Groff, who was there to greet Plaskett during her 2018 meeting with Epstein at his home, gave her $2,600. Epstein lawyer Darren Indyke gave $10,700, and the pedophile’s accountant Richard Kahn gave $10,700. Indyke’s administrative assistant Bella Klein gave $2,600. “I see that,” responded Plaskett when asked the Kahn contribution, providing similar answers about the others. Plaskett also sought money from Epstein for the Democratic Party of the US Virgin Islands, and netted $13,000 from him, according to another exhibit in the case. She was less successful hitting him up for a $30,000 maximum contribution to the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, but not for lack of trying. Plaskett solicited the donation at his infamous Upper East Side townhouse in the fall of 2018. She spoke in her deposition five years later about, “walking through an even larger foyer stairwell area to a room immediately there that would appear to be a dining room, where [Epstein] was sitting at a very long table having a conversation with another gentleman . and me sitting down and having a conversation with him.” That came less than a year before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019. He was found dead in his prison cell that year. But Plaskett was told “that he had not passed the DCCC’s vetting.” Pressed for details, she responded, “I do not know the specifics of what that vetting was.” A lawyer representing the bank asked if she assumed it was related to Epstein’s status as a sex offender. “I was not sure of the totality of the circumstances,” Plaskett responded. Plaskett said in 2019 she has given all of the Epstein-linked contributions to women’s groups. Senate Democratic investigators are probing the more than $1 billion in Epstein transactions that moved through the bank, while House Republicans are pushing the Virgin Islands government to release more information on its interactions with Epstein. JP Morgan Chase and the USVI eventually settled in September 2023, with the financial behemoth agreeing to pay $75 million, including $30 million for local charities and $25 million to combat human trafficking. Epstein and Plaskett were connected enough that he fed her questions and gave her real time help on how to damage President Trump’s reputation during a February 2019 House Oversight Committee hearing featuring former Trump fixer Michael Cohen. The newly released documents immediately sparked a resolution by Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S. C.) to censure Plaskett, who serves as a non-voting delegate in Congress. It was narrowly defeated on a 209-214 vote amid charges of a backroom deal, with three Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. “Congress should never look the other way when a Member has a years-long financial and personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and then lies or stonewalls about it,” Norman told The Post. “My censure resolution may have been voted down, but the facts about Ms. Plaskett’s $30,000 in contributions, his staff’s donations, and her meetings and communications with Epstein are not going away, and neither should the need for accountability.” Plaskett did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment. Epstein, who had spent years cultivating top USVI officials, was quick with a compliment when Plaskett wrapped up her 2019 questioning of Cohen. “Good work,” he wrote her.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/22/us-news/court-docs-reveal-stacey-plasketts-long-ties-to-constituent-epstein/
Stacey Plaskett’s long ties to ‘constituent’ Epstein revealed
