Top Democrat Offers Bizarre Defense of Colleague’s Texts With Jeffrey Epstein

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, offered a bizarre defense of Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) on Tuesday.

Plaskett is facing a Republican-backed resolution to censure and remove her from her post on the House Intelligence Committee over her texts with Jeffrey Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing featuring former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Epstein, relying on his knowledge of Trump’s inner circle, advised Plaskett on how to question Cohen; he was already a convicted sex offender at the time.

Raskin defended Plaskett on Tuesday afternoon shortly after the House voted to release the Epstein files by arguing that she was merely “taking a phone call from her constituent”:

Our minority whip introduced a perfectly reasonable amendment to say, let’s refer this to an Ethics Committee, let’s have a real hearing. They didn’t want to have a real hearing. They want a rush to judgment. Why? So there can be some headline that will please Donald Trump tomorrow, instead of a unanimous statement or forgive me, I think the distinguished gentleman from Louisiana may have dissented, but an otherwise unanimous verdict of the House of Representatives that the American people want all the files open. We’ve had enough of the cover-up, we want all of the truth. We want the survivors and the victims to have the possibility of accountability.

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. Now, if you wanna actually give her the chance to explain what happened, then we would take it to the Ethics Committee. I still don’t see what the charge is. Where is the ethical transgression? Where is legal transgression? Are you saying anybody on your side of the aisle who had a phone call with Jeffrey Epstein should be censured? Be careful your answer there, because there’s a lot more that’s about to come out, right? So you should think about what is the principle behind this rush to judge.

Watch above via C-SPAN.