Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin on Tuesday downplayed his colleague’s decision to take a phone call from disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The phone call occurred in 2019.
Conservative lawmakers introduced a resolution to censure Democratic Virgin Islands Del. Stacey Plaskett and remove her from the House Intelligence Committee, accusing her of colluding with Epstein during a 2019 hearing after resurfaced messages showed her seeking his input on how to attack then-President Donald Trump. Raskin took to the House floor and defended Plaskett’s action as nothing more than a routine call with a “constituent.”
“Well, they want to give them another headline, which is that they’ve arraigned a Democratic member 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,” Raskin said.
Raskin brushed aside concerns about Plaskett’s conduct.
WATCH:
The Washington Post first reported that Plaskett exchanged messages with Epstein during the 2019 hearing, after the House Oversight Committee released a large tranche of records from Epstein’s estate that included the redacted correspondence. Michael Cohen appeared before the committee that day to accuse Trump of arranging hush-money payments to conceal alleged affairs — allegations the president has repeatedly rejected.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/CSPAN)
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