Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) gave a rousing — and ultimately ridiculous — defense of Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) after it was revealed that she communicated with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.
The House on Tuesday voted to censure her over the matter.
While speaking on the House floor, Rasking claimed Republicans “want to give them another headline” and are attacking Plaskett “for taking a phone call from her constituent, Jeffrey Epstein, in the middle of a hearing.
“And of course, I don’t think there’s any rule here against taking phone calls in a hearing,” he added.
Yeah, but when this “constituent” is a sex trafficker, it’s going to raise some concerns about justice, Jamie.
The lawmaker further stated that Plaskett’s responses to Epstein were only routine and that she “welcomes information that helps her get at the truth.” He claimed his colleague has spent her career fighting against sex traffickers.
The House voted to proceed with censure proceedings against Plaskett over the debacle. They sought to reprimand her and strip her of her House Intelligence Committee position. Recently surfaced documents showed that Plaskett had incorporated the information Epstein gave her in the text messages during a 2019 hearing.
From The Washington Post:
The newly released documents from Jeffrey Epstein’s estate show that the convicted sex offender texted with a Democratic member of Congress, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands, during a congressional hearing with Michael Cohen, and that those text messages may have influenced the congresswoman’s questions of Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer.
In the texts, Epstein appeared to be watching the February 2019 hearing in real time and at one point informed Plaskett — whose name is redacted from the documents — that Cohen had brought up former Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff in his testimony. At the time, Cohen was testifying before the House Oversight Committee against his former boss, alleging that Trump was racist, manipulated financial records and directed hush money payments to cover up his extramarital affairs — allegations Trump denied. The president said on social media that Cohen was “lying” before testimony began.
“Cohen brought up RONA - keeper of the secrets,” Epstein texted, misspelling Graff’s first name.
“RONA??” Plaskett responded. “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym,” she added, suggesting she would question Cohen soon.
In the text message exchange, Epstein asked Plaskett to question Cohen about President Donald Trump’s former executive assistant — which she did. Epstein texted her, “good work.”
The resolution claims Plaskett “colluded” with the sex trafficker. Now that it has survived a challenge from Democrats, the House will later vote on the resolution.