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Email exchanges show that Epstein tried to arrange a meeting between top Democrats and US Virgin Islands representatives.
An aide to the United States Virgin Islands’ sole representative in the US Congress asked Jeffrey Epstein for help arranging a meeting between the politician and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to documents released by the US Department of Justice.
According to the documents, Epstein was reached on behalf of House of Representatives Representative Stacey Plaskett as the politician tried to lobby Schumer for help after two hurricanes struck the Caribbean in 2017.
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“We want to help Stacey meet Schumer. Any thoughts?” Erica Kellerhals, a tax attorney in the US Virgin Islands, wrote to Epstein via email on January 24, 2018.
“(S)knowing the cause and subject should not be a problem,” Epstein wrote back a few hours later.
“She couldn’t confirm a meeting with him. He’s running a disaster relief bill and is only talking about Puerto Rico and not the (Virgin Islands). She’s worried we’re going to be ignored,” Kellerhals told Epstein in response.
After the exchange with Kellerhals, Epstein emailed Kathy Rumler, a former chief adviser to US President Barack Obama, asking for help arranging a meeting with Schumer.
“Schumer is running the Puerto Rico. Virgin Islands relief=bill. Sixth Congress Rep. Stacey Plaskett, h=s unable to take the meeting. Confirmed with him. ca= you help?” Epstein wrote to Rumler, now chief counsel at Goldman Sachs.
“I have no relations with him=ip, but let me see if I can get to his COS,” Rumler said in response, referring to his chief of staff.
Email is one of them 3.5 million pages of files were released last week Those related to the US authorities’ investigation of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
It is unclear whether the meeting between Schumer and Plaskett went ahead, although Congress finally approved emergency funding for the US Virgin Islands as part of a two-year budget package passed in February 2018.
There is no public record of Schumer’s meeting or direct interaction with Epstein.
Schumer, Plaskett and Kellerhals did not respond to requests for comment. Rumler could not be reached for comment.
The email exchange with Epstein is the latest of countless examples of how the disgraced financier has wielded influence at the highest levels of politics and business despite being convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution with a minor.
Plaskett’s relationship with Epstein has been a source of controversy for years.
Plaskett narrowly escaped censure by the House of Representatives last year following revelations that Epstein coached her on texts during a February 2019 congressional hearing.
Shortly after Epstein’s second arrest in July 2019, Plaskett announced that she would donate to charity an amount equal to many of the campaign donations she received from Epstein and his associates.
While Plaskett is a non-voting member of Congress, the Democrat participates in floor debates and sits on several influential committees, including the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Plaskett has previously denied enabling Epstein, calling him a “monster” and saying she was “disgusted by his deviant behaviour”.