Stacey Plaskett

Stacey Plaskett is the Democratic delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives for the U.S. Virgin Islands — the same jurisdiction where Jeffrey Epstein claimed legal residence, operated his private island estate on Little St. James, and collected more than $300 million in territorial tax incentives through his company Southern Trust Co.¹² That geographic overlap is not incidental background. Plaskett has represented the USVI's at-large congressional district since 2015, making her the elected federal voice for the very territory whose Economic Development Commission handed Epstein one of the largest documented tax subsidy packages in the islands' history.

The practical consequences of that shared jurisdiction became concrete on February 27, 2019, when documents later released by the House Oversight Committee showed Epstein texting Plaskett in real time as she prepared to question Michael Cohen before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.³⁴ The exchange, with the delegate's name redacted in the original release, was identified by The Washington Post through timestamp and live footage analysis. Plaskett texted "RONA?? Quick I'm up next is that an acronym," responding to Epstein's suggestion that she press Cohen about Rhona Graff, Trump Organization's longtime executive assistant. Epstein clarified, then fed additional lines of inquiry. After Plaskett's turn, he texted approval. The episode surfaced six years later as part of broader Epstein document disclosures, and the House voted 209–214 on November 18, 2025 to reject H.Res.888, a resolution that would have censured her and stripped her Intel Committee seat.⁵⁶

  Background and Career

Born in Brooklyn in 1966 and raised with deep ties to St. Croix, Plaskett graduated from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and earned her law degree from American University.⁷ She prosecuted narcotics cases in the Bronx before moving through federal corridors — counsel to the House Ethics Committee, senior counsel to the deputy attorney general at DOJ, and eventually general counsel for the USVI Economic Development Authority starting in 2007.⁸ That last posting placed her inside the same agency whose predecessor programs would later provide Epstein's Southern Trust Co. with its controversial incentive packages.

She won the USVI delegate seat in 2014 and took office in January 2015. As a nonvoting delegate, she cannot cast a floor vote on legislation but holds full committee voting rights. By 2019 she had secured a coveted assignment to the House Oversight and Reform Committee and later joined the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.⁹ Her prosecutorial credibility and telegenic presence made her a prominent figure during both Trump impeachment proceedings.

  The Text Exchange

The February 27, 2019 Cohen hearing was one of the most-watched congressional sessions of that Congress, broadcast live as Cohen described financial irregularities inside the Trump Organization. Epstein, then not yet rearrested (his federal sex-trafficking charges would come in July 2019), watched the proceedings and texted the redacted delegate in real time.³

The recovered messages show Epstein identifying targets and framing angles: he flagged Rhona Graff as "keeper of the secrets" and suggested she was a productive line of inquiry. Plaskett's reply — "RONA?? Quick I'm up next is that an acronym" — indicates she was receiving the guidance moments before she began questioning. After her turn concluded, Epstein sent a message conveying approval of her performance.⁴

Plaskett's office issued a statement saying she had received texts from "staff, constituents and the public at large," including Epstein, during the hearing and that sourcing questions from constituents was standard practice for a prosecutor-turned-legislator.³ That framing is the fulcrum of the entire controversy: whether Epstein was acting as an ordinary constituent providing civic input or as a well-connected operator with a material interest in the direction of congressional oversight.

  The USVI Connection

Epstein established Little St. James as his primary legal residence in the late 1990s, purchasing the roughly 70-acre island in 1998 for $7.95 million through the shell company L.S.J. LLC.² He added the adjacent Great St. James in 2016 for $22.5 million. His financial company Southern Trust Co. — relocated from New York to St. Thomas — drew on USVI Economic Development Commission rules that can reduce federal corporate and personal income tax exposure by up to 90 percent. JPMorgan, in civil litigation, estimated that Epstein accumulated roughly $300 million in such incentives across two decades.¹

The USVI government itself filed a civil suit against Epstein's estate, eventually settling in November 2022 for $105 million plus a share of island sale proceeds, acknowledging that the territory had been used as an operational base for sex trafficking.¹⁰ Plaskett, as the islands' federal delegate, occupied the precise political seat through which USVI residents might have expected federal attention to Epstein's presence — an attention that the 2025 document release suggests ran in the opposite direction.

  H.Res.888 and the Censure Vote

Representative Ralph Norman of South Carolina introduced H.Res.888 in November 2025, captioned "Censuring and condemning Delegate Stacey Plaskett and removing her from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for conduct that reflects discreditably on the House of Representatives for colluding with convicted felony sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing."⁵ The resolution grounded the censure on the documented text exchange and characterized it as coordination with a convicted sex offender to steer congressional inquiry.

The House voted on November 18, 2025. The measure failed 209–214, with three Republicans breaking with their party to vote against censure and no Democrats crossing to support it.⁶ Plaskett retained her Intelligence Committee seat. The narrow margin — five votes — reflected partisan sorting more than a considered judgment on the substance of her conduct, and the facts themselves were not disputed.

  Documented vs. Alleged

What the documents show: Plaskett and Epstein exchanged texts in real time during the Cohen hearing; Epstein suggested lines of questioning; Plaskett acknowledged receipt; Epstein expressed post-hearing approval. These exchanges are from released documentary evidence.

What remains disputed: whether Epstein's input materially altered Plaskett's questions, whether Epstein had any specific interest in the Cohen hearing's outcome, and whether the contact constituted coordination in any legally or ethically operative sense. Plaskett has not been charged with any offense and has denied wrongdoing. No formal House ethics investigation was announced as of the censure vote.

  Timeline

---

  References

  Footnotes

1. Jeffrey Epstein Got $300M in U.S. Virgin Islands Tax Incentives, Al Arabiya / Reuters ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Little Saint James Island, Wikipedia ↩ ↩²

3. Epstein Texted Democrat Hints for Questions During Cohen Hearing, Washington Post via AOL ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. 'Quick, I'm Up Next': Dem Del. Plaskett Caught Texting Epstein, Daily Caller ↩ ↩²

5. Text of H.Res.888, 119th Congress, Congress.gov ↩ ↩²

6. House Votes Against Censuring Plaskett Over Epstein Texts, ABC News ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. Stacey Plaskett, Wikipedia ↩

8. Stacey Plaskett Biography, Ballotpedia ↩ ↩²

9. Congresswoman Plaskett Appointed to House Oversight and Reform Committee, St. John Source ↩

10. Jeffrey Epstein's Estate Reaches $105M Settlement With the U.S. Virgin Islands, NPR ↩ ↩²