House Fails To Censure Democrat Who Texted With Epstein During Hearing
The Republican majority in the House of Representatives failed on Tuesday to censure Democratic Del. Stacey Plaskett and remove her from her position on the Intelligence Committee after defections from a handful of GOP members.
Plaskett became embroiled in controversy late last week after House Republicans released materials showing she texted with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing.
The late-night vote of 209–214 came just hours after the House approved a separate bill directing the Justice Department to release files from its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Three Republicans joined Democrats in opposing the measure, while another three Republicans voted “present.”
In the days leading up to the vote, the House Oversight Committee began releasing large batches of documents obtained from Epstein’s estate, including text messages and other communications, UPI reported.
The documents included copies of text messages between Epstein and Plaskett as she prepared to question Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, during a 2019 congressional hearing, reports noted.
Republicans quickly responded to the disclosure. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) introduced a censure resolution alleging that Plaskett had “inappropriately coordinated” with Epstein by receiving suggested lines of questioning and messages of encouragement. The resolution also sought to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee for further investigation.
Plaskett, a Democrat, serves as the non-voting delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands in the House. While she may participate in committee work and other chamber functions, she is not permitted to vote on the House floor.
In a floor speech, Plaskett defended her actions, stating that Epstein was a constituent and that her communications with him were part of her effort to gather information.
“I know how to question individuals. I know how to seek information. I have sought information from confidential informants, from murderers, from other individuals because I want the truth,” she said.
Epstein had two properties in the Virgin Islands, but he lived in New York City.
Norman, however, told The Washington Post that it was “beyond comprehension” for Plaskett to have communicated with the disgraced financier in connection with House business.
“The American people expect honesty, the American people expect integrity and judgment from their elected officials,” he said in a floor speech, according to the Post. “They expect members of Congress to conduct themselves with one word — decency — not to seek advice from a predator who exploited minor children.”
Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), perhaps accidentally, engaged in a moment of truth on Monday when responding to a reporter’s inquiry, saying that Americans are asking why the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s files were not released during President Joe Biden’s term.
“Why wouldn’t they have been released the last four years when President Biden was in office?” a reporter asked Schumer. “That’s the question every American is asking,” he responded. “Not every American, but so many Americans are asking. What the hell is [Donald Trump] hiding? Why doesn’t he want them released?” he added.
In fact, Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Sunday and urged the majority of Republicans in the House and Senate to vote in favor of releasing the files.
Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails and documents they claim tied Trump to Epstein’s child sex trafficking, but in reality, the emails did no such thing.
Republicans have speculated for months that if Trump really was involved, the Biden administration would have most certainly released or leaked that information during the 2024 campaign cycle to damage Trump’s chances at getting elected again.
Also Monday, Trump said he would immediately sign legislation authorizing the release of Epstein materials.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him.
"""My husband brought his mistress to our daughter’s wedding—and then asked me to give her my seat beside him. For a few seconds, I honestly thought I was looking at the wrong table, because my name card had vanished and Melissa’s was sitting exactly where mine had been on every seating chart. She wore a pale blue silk dress, lifted her champagne as if she belonged there, and avoided my eyes when I stopped beside the chair. David stood up, pointed to an empty seat at the next table, and quietly said, “For tonight, why don’t you sit over there?”
I had spent fourteen months helping our daughter, Emily, plan that wedding, from dress fittings and florist meetings to late-night calls over napkins and seating charts. That morning, while I fastened the pearl buttons on her gown, she made me promise I would enjoy the day and not let anything between her father and me touch it. I meant that promise, because whatever was left of my marriage, I would not make my daughter’s wedding the battlefield where it died. But David had apparently made a different plan, and he expected me to cooperate with it in silence.
When I asked what Melissa was doing there, David’s face showed guilt for only a second before he hid it behind irritation. He acted as though I were creating the problem simply by noticing that his mistress was seated at the family table in the place reserved for the bride’s mother. Then Melissa looked at me and said, “Honey, today really isn’t the day to make Emily uncomfortable.” I almost laughed, because the woman who had been sleeping with my husband for nearly a year was now warning me not to embarrass my own daughter.
I could feel people settling into nearby seats, laughing and talking, unaware that my marriage was being quietly rearranged in front of them. David kept his voice low and told me we should not “do this here,” as if the humiliation belonged to me because I refused to disappear politely. I looked at the empty chair he had chosen for me between a cousin and someone from the groom’s side, and I realized something colder than anger. This was not spontaneous; he had thought about where Melissa would sit, and he had assumed I would move.
For twenty-eight years, I had been the woman who adjusted, explained, forgave, and made excuses when David forgot anniversaries, missed dinners, or put work ahead of family. When he became distant, I learned to expect less instead of asking for more, and somewhere along the way he mistook that patience for permission. Even now, part of me considered taking the other chair, smiling for photographs, swallowing the humiliation, and telling myself it was all for Emily. I actually reached for the chair because protecting my daughter still mattered more to me than winning a public fight.
Then I heard one word behind me: “Mom?” Emily was walking toward us in her wedding dress, still glowing from the ceremony, and at first she looked confused rather than angry. Her eyes moved from me, to the empty chair, to Melissa, then back to the family table where she had personally placed me months ago. David quickly stepped in and announced that he had “rearranged a few things,” as if changing the bride’s seating chart without permission were no more serious than moving a centerpiece.
Emily asked why I was not sitting in my seat, and David casually pointed to the neighboring table and said I would be sitting “right there.” Her smile disappeared, and her eyes dropped to the place card in front of Melissa. I watched my daughter’s expression go completely still as she picked up that card and turned it over in her hand. In that instant, I understood the worst part: Emily had not approved this, and David had brought his mistress into our daughter’s wedding believing he could force everyone to accept what he wanted once it was already done.
What Emily did not know was that six months earlier, I had discovered David’s affair through a message that appeared on his phone while he was in the shower. Melissa had written, “I hate pretending I don’t miss you when she’s around,” followed by another message asking whether Friday was still theirs. When I confronted him, David spent eleven minutes calling me paranoid, insecure, dramatic, suspicious, and unfair before I repeated Melissa’s words exactly. The silence that followed ended our marriage long before either of us ever said the word divorce.
We had kept the details quiet because Emily was planning her wedding, and I refused to turn her happiest season into a crisis about us. David told me he was “confused,” that what he had with Melissa was “more complicated than an affair,” and that he needed time before making decisions. I agreed only that Emily’s wedding came first, so we slept in separate rooms, spoke carefully, and tried to appear functional while our marriage quietly collapsed. I believed David understood that one day required restraint, but he had apparently used that silence to prepare something else.
Three weeks before the wedding, he had casually asked whether Emily had finalized the family table and whether every seat had been assigned. At the time, I thought it was harmless conversation, but standing there with Melissa’s card in my daughter’s hand, I finally understood why he had asked. He had been checking whether there would be room, and when there was not, he simply removed me. Emily looked up at her father and asked, very quietly, “Where is Mom’s place card?”—and for the first time that night, David had no easy answer.
…FULL STORY IN THE COMMENT 👇👇👇"" "
