The House Oversight Committee said Thursday it was asking the Justice Department to investigate sexual misconduct allegations made by Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s former assistant, Sarah Kellen, against two of his associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen was interviewed behind closed doors on May 21 by the committee as part of its investigation into Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring the transcribed interview, the Committee received testimony about alleged instances of criminal misconduct committed by Philip Levine, the former Mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017, and Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Fekkai, a French celebrity hairstylist,\u201d Chair James Comer wrote in the letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen also accused a third man with ties to Epstein, late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, of pulling down his pants in front of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, Comer, R-Ky., said the committee \u201cis not a law enforcement entity, and our role is not to determine guilt or innocence. We are referring these allegations to the Department of Justice, which has the tools to investigate criminal misconduct. We will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen worked for Epstein for over a decade and was at one point identified as one of his co-conspirators. In the May 21 interview, a transcript of which was released Thursday, Kellen said Fekkai was the person who introduced her to Epstein, the convicted sex offender financier who died in 2019 by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said the alleged sexual abuse by Fekkai happened before she met Epstein, and the alleged incident with Levine happened one or two years after she started working for Epstein. She said both of the alleged incidents occurred when she was in her 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A spokesperson for Levine said in a statement, \u201cNearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mark Herr, a spokesperson for Fekkai, said in a statement that \u201cMr. Fekkai was astonished to\u202fread of\u202fMs. Kellen\u2019s testimony. Mr. Fekkai never abused anyone. He never\u202fparticipated\u202fin any illegal behavior. He knew nothing about Epstein\u2019s repugnant depravity or trafficking. He did nothing wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demarchelier died in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three names made repeated appearances in the Justice Department\u2019s publicly released investigative files into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen, a North Carolina native who married a man five years her senior when she was 17, told the panel her former husband divorced and abandoned her in Hawaii when she was 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was after that that she said an unidentified makeup artist introduced her to Fekkai, who said he wanted to use her as a model at a hair show in Maui. When she arrived, she found out there was no show. \u201cHe sexually assaulted me that night,\u201d she told the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said he told her he wanted to introduce her to his friend Jeffrey, whom he referred to as \u201ca scout for Victoria\u2019s Secret.\u201d Epstein, she said, flew her to Los Angeles for a \u201ccasting\u201d call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He \u201cmade me think he was a model scout and told me to undress for him, which I did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fekkai also introduced her to Demarchelier, for whom she said she had posed before he walked up to her with his pants down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen said she was hired as an \u201cassistant\u201d to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which was when she said she found out he was a money manager, and not a model scout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Epstein, she said, \u201cgroomed me, sexually and psychologically abused me, controlled me, manipulated me, dominated me and gaslit me until I could no longer tell which thoughts were mine and which were his.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said Epstein reminded her \u201cevery day how powerful he was, how influential he was and that to turn on him or disobey him would mean losing everything: my job, my home, everyone I knew in the world, even my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe knew everyone in the highest echelons of society and everyone catered to him. He knew everyone in the fashion industry, academics, finance, government, powerful world leaders, dictators and everyone in between. From the beginning, he showed me that he was more powerful than basically anyone in the world,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said Levine assaulted her in either 2002 or 2003, when she was working for Epstein and Maxwell at a house they rented in St. Tropez and he came to visit. She said Epstein and Maxwell were in the house but not present when the assault happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen said Levine, whom she described as a good friend of Maxwell, came into her bedroom one night \u201cand basically forced himself on me.\u201d There was also a later incident when they were on the beach, she told the committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen said she did not leave Epstein\u2019s employ because she had nowhere else to go. \u201cI had no money, no family, no education and no sense that I deserved any better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen said Epstein abused her even while he was serving a Florida jail sentence, which began in 2008 \u2014 at one point allegedly forcing her to undress in a Skype call from the Palm Beach County Stockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she later discovered that she had been identified as a co-conspirator in the controversial nonprosecution agreement Epstein signed as part of a guilty plea to state charges of soliciting a minor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was not told this was happening,\u201d she said. \u201cNo one from law enforcement ever spoke with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI did not even know my name was in that agreement until after it had been signed and released to the public,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kellen said she \u201cfinally extricated myself from Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s grasp in 2013, when I became engaged to a man who gave me, for the first time in my life, a piece of footing outside of someone else\u2019s control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fekkai, Levine and Demarchelier all make appearances in the investigative files that have been released by the Justice Department as a result of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The law, which was passed months after the Justice Department and FBI released a joint memo last year saying they had conducted an \u201cexhaustive\u201d review of the Epstein case, found that while the politically connected moneyman had preyed on over 1,000 women, there was not enough evidence to investigate anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the DOJ were to act on Comer\u2019s recommendation, it would be the first known active investigation into the case since the prosecution of Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levine\u2019s name appears over 1,000 times in the files, mainly in various mass campaign emails to Epstein and sometimes in flirty email exchanges with Maxwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the two men did not exchange many personal emails, Levine did email him well wishes in 2010 \u2014 after Epstein finished his sentence on solicitation charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJust want you to know that I am happy that everything has come to a positive ending for you during these tough times…You are a great guy and I know all good things will come to you going forward. In Europe for a while and hope we can catch up soon. Your friend, Philip,\u201d the email read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an unusual interview last year with Blanche, Maxwell said Levine was \u201ca good friend of mine\u201d who at one point introduced her to former President Bill Clinton. Clinton, who appears in many photographs released as part of the DOJ\u2019s Epstein records, has never been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. He told the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door deposition this year that he \u201csaw nothing\u201d and \u201cdid nothing wrong\u201d related to Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Levine said in a statement to WLRN public radio of South Florida this year that \u201cmy only connection to Jeffrey Epstein arose solely through my former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell. I met Epstein only a few times. I never conducted business with him, never visited his island and never flew on his aircraft. I regret ever meeting him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An attorney for Maxwell didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fekkai\u2019s name appears over 3,000 times in the Epstein files, including for numerous appointments with unidentified women at his Manhattan salon. One 2018 email exchange discussing Fekkai\u2019s bills noted one person had a haircut \u201ccompliments of Jeffrey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another email to Epstein\u2019s bookkeeper from the salon in 2016 said it was a \u201cbig day\u201d there. \u201c5 cuts in all today,\u201d the email said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demarchelier\u2019s name is mentioned nearly three dozen times, including in several duplicates of an email exchange in 2012 between late modeling agency head Jean Luc Brunel and Epstein. In the exchange, Brunel tells Epstein he is going to be traveling with the photographer to St. Petersburg for a shoot for Russian Vogue. \u201cWhat dates?\u201d Epstein asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brunel was found dead of an apparent suicide in his prison cell in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of sexual harassment and rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Demarchelier, who worked closely with the late Princess Diana, was accused of sexually harassing and abusing seven models in a 2018 Boston Globe story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He told the Globe at the time that the allegations against him were \u201cridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople lie and they tell stories,\u201d he told the paper, adding he \u201cnever, never, never\u201d touched a model inappropriately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Kellen interview, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked Kellen about Epstein\u2019s relationship with President Donald Trump. Kellen said that Epstein had been a frequent visitor to Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago estate early on in her tenure, and \u201cwould use the gym a lot there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said she knew he and Trump had a \u201cfriendly\u201d relationship, but she only met the future president once, and only for a few minutes. Kellen said she\u2019d heard Trump banned Epstein from the resort because \u201che had like, hit on a member\u2019s daughter or something along those lines.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump and Epstein were friends for years, but the president has said they had a falling out after Epstein \u201ctook people that worked for me.\u201d Trump, who also appears numerous times in the Epstein files, has not been accused of misconduct by law enforcement and has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n