Del. Stacey Plaskett defended her relationship with “constituent” Jeffrey Epstein by describing it as a prosecutorial tool she used to grill Michael Cohen.
“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 from to get at the truth,” said Plaskett, 59, on CNN’s The Situation Room Wednesday.
Plaskett, a non-voting delegate representing the Virgin Islands in Congress, faced severe scrutiny after last week’s Epstein emails release revealed that she received texts from the disgraced sex offender.
The controversy stems from a Nov. 14 Washington Post report that Epstein texted Plaskett about Rhona Graff, Trump’s assistant, while ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen was testifying before the House Judiciary Committee on managing Trump’s hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
“Cohen brought up RONA – keeper of the secrets,” Epstein texted Plaskett.
“RONA??” she responded. “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym.”
“That’s his assistant,” Epstein replied. Plaskett asked Cohen about Rhona Graff when she was given the microphone.
“I find it really interesting and almost rich that the Washington Post took 30 seconds from the question line that I did, and said that Epstein was directing me as to what to question,” said Plaskett on Wednesday.
When asked by Pamela Brown if she would have questioned Cohen on Graff without Epstein’s tip, Plaskett said, “Probably not.”
Plaskett did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Plaskett’s name in the Epstein emails release led to a congressional effort to censure her, but the measure failed, as all House Democrats and three Republicans voted against it. Three other Republicans voted “present.”
On the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin defended Plaskett by saying Republicans “arraigned a Democratic member for taking a phone call from her constituent, Jeffrey Epstein, in the middle of a hearing.”
Plaskett echoed that defense on The Situation Room, saying, “Jeffrey Epstein was a constituent. He was a resident of the Virgin Islands, lived there, I guess, more than half of the year, because he was registered there.”
“Like many constituents, individuals get your phone number,” she added. “They text you about issues, they speak with you. I have spoken with him about issues that are relevant, things that are going on in the Virgin Islands and elsewhere around the country.”
Plaskett, a Bushwick, New York native who attended Choate Boarding School, worked as a career prosecutor and had a stint working under James Comey, then Deputy Attorney General, before she was elected to Congress in 2014.
When pressed about her relationship with Epstein by Brown, Plaskett said she knew him but was not what she would consider a “friend.”
“I believe that Jeffrey Epstein had information, and I was going to get information,” she said. “The truth is, having a friendship with him is not something that I would deign to have. And so I‘m just looking forward.”
“What is that point?” challenged Brown. “Because at the time, he was a known sex offender and it had been detailed, all the sexual abuse.”
“There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes,” replied Plaskett. “And as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can. I‘ve interviewed confidential informants. I‘ve interviewed narcotics drug traffickers and others. And that doesn‘t mean that I‘m their friend.”
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