EXCLUSIVE
Email exchange shows Epstein sought to arrange meeting between top Democrat and US Virgin Islands representative.
An associate of the United States Virgin Islands’ sole representative in the US Congress asked Jeffrey Epstein for help to arrange a meeting between the politician and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, according to documents released by the US Justice Department.
The outreach to Epstein was made on behalf of Stacey Plaskett, the islands’ delegate to the House of Representatives, as the politician sought to lobby Schumer for relief after two hurricanes ripped through the Caribbean in 2017, according to the documents.
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“We have to help Stacey get a meeting with Schumer. Any thoughts?” Erika Kellerhals, a tax lawyer in the US Virgin Islands, wrote to Epstein in an email on January 24, 2018.
“[S]hould not be a problem need to know the reason and subject,” Epstein wrote back a few hours later.
“She has been unable to confirm a meeting with him. He is driving the disaster relief bill and has only been talking about Puerto Rico and not the [Virgin Islands]. She’s concerned we will be ignored,” Kellerhals told Epstein in response.
After his exchange with Kellerhals, Epstein sent an email to Kathy Ruemmler, a former chief counsel to US President Barack Obama, asking for help in setting up a meeting with Schumer.
“schumer is driving the puerto rico . virgin islands relief=bill. the VI congressional rep Stacey plaskett , h=s not been able to get a meeting. confirmed with him. ca= you help?” Epstein wrote to Ruemmler, who is now the chief lawyer to Goldman Sachs.
“I do not have any relations=ip with him, but let me see whether I can get to his COS,” Ruemmler said in response, referring to his chief of staff.
The emails are among some 3.5 million pages of files released last week that relate to US authorities’ investigations into Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
It is not clear if a meeting between Schumer and Plaskett went ahead, though Congress ultimately approved emergency funds for the US Virgin Islands as part of a two-year budget package passed in February 2018.
There is no public record of Schumer meeting or directly communicating with Epstein.
Schumer, Plaskett and Kellerhals did not respond to requests for comment. Ruemmler could not be reached for comment.
The email exchange with Epstein, which has not been previously reported, is the latest among numerous examples of how the disgraced financier continued to exert influence at the highest levels of politics and business long after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution with a minor.
Plaskett’s ties to Epstein have been a source of controversy for years.
Plaskett narrowly escaped censure by the House of Representatives last year over revelations that Epstein had coached her over text during a Congressional hearing in February 2019.
Shortly after Epstein was arrested for a second time in July 2019, Plaskett announced that she would donate a sum to charity equivalent to several campaign donations she had 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 “demon” and saying she was “disgusted by his deviant behavior”.
