The newly released Epstein files have dropped a political bomb on Capitol Hill: documents show Delegate Stacey Plaskett was exchanging text messages with Jeffrey Epstein while Michael Cohen was testifying in a high-profile 2019 congressional hearing. For hardworking Americans watching from home, the image is nauseating — a sitting member of Congress seemingly coached in real time by a convicted sex offender. This isn’t naive gossip; it’s a record that raises questions about judgment, access, and the rot that corrodes our institutions.
The messages themselves are damning in their banality and usefulness: Epstein complimented Plaskett’s outfit, asked whether she was “chewing,” and then fed her specific leads — even flagging the name of a Trump aide that Plaskett later raised in questioning. The timeline lines up in the videos and the released texts, showing Epstein apparently watching the hearing and nudging the delegate toward particular lines of inquiry. It’s hard to square that conduct with the dignity and independence expected of anyone sitting in an oversight chair.
Plaskett has offered the same tired defense that elites always trot out: she called Epstein a constituent and insisted she was merely trying to get information as a former prosecutor. That explanation rings hollow to millions who remember Epstein’s conviction and the ugly, well-documented trail he left across elite circles. Republicans moved to censure and remove her from the Intelligence Committee, but the House ultimately rejected the measure in a vote that left many conservatives furious and crying foul at perceived double standards in Washington.
Conservative leaders and transparency advocates have rightly smelled a cover-up and demanded answers instead of spin. Senators like Rand Paul have been outspoken about getting the Epstein files into the light, pushing a transparency agenda because secrecy only protects the powerful. If you want to rebuild trust in government, you don’t excuse cozy, back-channel contact with a predator — you investigate it, you explain it, and you hold people accountable.
This moment should be a wake-up call for every patriot who believes in the rule of law: elites cannot be permitted to operate under different rules while ordinary Americans pay the price. Congress is finally being pushed — by members and by the public — to force the release of the Epstein files and to peel back the secrecy that protects well-connected wrongdoers. If Washington continues to shrug and play politics, voters will remember who defended the swamp and who tried to drain it.
