Newly released documents show Delegate Stacey Plaskett was exchanging text messages with Jeffrey Epstein during the February 2019 Michael Cohen congressional testimony, a revelation that should alarm every American who cares about integrity in government. The messages, now public after the release of Epstein estate records, indicate Epstein was watching the hearing in real time and was actively sending commentary and advice.
The raw content of the texts is damning in its own light: Epstein told Plaskett she “looked great,” urged her to press on certain lines of questioning, and messaged “Good work” just a minute after her time expired. That kind of realtime coaching from a convicted sex offender to a sitting member of Congress is not merely an ethical lapse — it’s a scandal that the mainstream media should not be allowed to paper over.
Plaskett’s explanation on cable news was predictable and insulting: she insisted Epstein was a “constituent” and compared using his messages to taking information from criminal informants in prosecutions. The “I was just getting information” defense might fly in a courtroom when handled transparently, but it does not excuse cozy, smiling texts from a man who trafficked minors and cultivated access to power.
Republicans rightly pushed to hold Plaskett to account, filing motions to remove her from committees and to censure her, while Democratic leaders scrambled to defend her and dismiss concerns as partisan attacks. That double standard — fierce moralizing about the right but reflexive protection for the left — is exactly why Americans have lost faith in a capital elite that thinks rules are for everyone else.
This story also resurrects inconvenient facts Democrats hoped the public had forgotten: Epstein donated to local Virgin Islands officials, including Plaskett, donations she later returned, and civil complaints tying local leaders to Epstein’s operations were filed and later dismissed in various legal maneuvers. Those financial ties and the suspicious timing of messages demand a thorough, bipartisan ethics probe, not the usual insider quieting and spin.
Patriots should be furious that a convicted sex offender could be whispering into the ear of a sitting Democrat during a high-profile hearing while the party apparatus rushes to protect its own. The fix is simple: full transparency, a real investigation, and consequences when public officials accept contact from predators, whether they call it “constituent outreach” or “informant work.” If Democrats want to lecture the country about morality, they should start by cleaning house and proving they mean it.
