The House Freedom Caucus is leading an effort to censure Delegate Stacey Plaskett for texting with Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing so he could feed her questions.
A vote is expected Tuesday night.
Ms. Plaskett is the Democratic delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had owned a small private island where many of his sex crimes allegedly took place.
Documents from Epstein’s estate that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released last week include copies of text messages Ms. Plaskett exchanged with the wealthy financier a few months before he was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Epstein was already a convicted sex offender at the time, having pleaded guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution from a minor.
The texts were exchanged before and during a February 2019 House Oversight hearing Ms. Plaskett attended with Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, who was alleging in his testimony that Mr. Trump manipulated financial records and directed hush money payments to cover up an extramarital affair.
The messages suggest Ms. Plaskett leaned on Epstein’s advice as she developed the questions she planned to ask Mr. Cohen.
“I think she needs to be censured by the House and removed from the Intelligence Committee for colluding with a convicted felon during a congressional hearing,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, Maryland Republican. “That does not reflect well on the House of Representatives.”
Ms. Plaskett’s name was redacted in the Oversight documents, but she did not deny texting with Epstein during the 2019 hearing. She said it was not public knowledge at the time that he was under federal investigation for sex trafficking and that he was one of many constituents who reached out to hear after she had a viral moment early in the hearing.
“We all know that Jeffrey Epstein’s actions were absolutely reprehensible,” Ms. Plaskett said. “As a constituent, as an individual who gave donations to me when I learned of the extent of his actions after his investigation, I gave that money to women’s organizations in my community.”
Rep. Ralph Norman, a Freedom Caucus member, introduced the resolution to censure Ms. Plaskett for “inappropriate coordination with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.”
Censure resolutions are privileged, meaning any member can trigger a vote.
“This was not just casual contact,” he said of the texts Ms. Plaskett exchanged with Epstein. “They were deliberate communications, and they shaped her official line of questioning at a congressional hearing.”
Democratic leaders tried to refer the measure to the Ethics Committee, but their motion was rejected, 213-214.
The resolution already directs the Ethics Committee to conduct a full investigation into the extent of Ms. Plaskett’s ties to Epstein and “any potential further improprieties.”
It would also remove Ms. Plaskett from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Ms. Plaskett said she was not involved in any of Epstein’s crimes and that victims who had initially filed a lawsuit against her dismissed it on their own without prejudice.
In the texts, Epstein told Ms. Plaskett that Mr. Cohen “opened the door to questions re who are the other henchmen at trump org,” including former Trump executive assistant Rhona Graff, whom he described in one message as “RONA - keeper of the secrets.”
“RONA??” Plaskett responded. “Quick I’m up next is that an acronym.”
Ms. Plaskett then asked Mr. Cohen if the committee should be meeting with other Trump associates and specifically questioned him about a “Ms. Rhona.”
Mr. Cohen said Ms. Graff is Mr. Trump’s executive assistant “and she’s involved in a lot that went on.”
Ms. Plaskett said she got that one name from Epstein, but that was a small part of her five minutes of questioning at the hearing, which she had prepared for in advance.
“I don’t need to get advice,” she said. “I have been a lawyer for 30 years. I have been a narcotics prosecutor in New York City. I have had the honor of being a political appointee at the Justice Department after September 11, as a Republican appointee in the Bush administration. I know how to question individuals.”
Ms. Plaskett also accused Republicans of being hypocrites for condemning her for texting with a convicted felon.
“You want to talk about texting felons? How often do you text President Donald J. Trump?” she said.
House Democratic leaders initially dodged questions about Ms. Plaskett’s communication with Epstein by pointing to the larger effort underway in Congress to force the Justice Department to release its case files on Epstein. But they defended her on the House floor.
“She’s a woman of great intelligence and a woman of great integrity, and she deserves better than what she’s receiving from House Republican extremists,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat. “She deserves the opportunity to be heard. She deserves due process.”
Mr. Jeffries called the censure effort from Mr. Norman “a political stunt by a desperate, failed candidate for governor trying to pander to the people back in South Carolina.”
• Mallory Wilson contributed to this story.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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