How Jeffrey Epstein's island politics helped elect Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett

• Court filings show how Jeffrey Epstein exerted power in the US Virgin Islands, two of which he owned.
• He generously donated to local politicians, including now-congresswoman Stacey Plaskett.

It was 2018, and Rep. Stacey Plaskett was running for reelection in Congress. She expected to win a third term easily, running unopposed in both the Democratic primary and the general election.

The US Virgin Islands, where Plaskett is from, doesn't have normal congressional representation. Like Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, it has a nonvoting delegate. She can serve on committees but doesn't have any say when the full House of Representatives votes on a bill.

One part of her job, however, is the same as that of every other Democrat in Congress: She's expected to fundraise for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That year's campaign cycle, the committee gave her a target of around $250,000 to raise for the organization, which recruits and supports candidates for the party, she said in a deposition taken earlier this year.

Plaskett had a list of people to ask for money. It included previous donors, alumni, and "individuals who were interested in the same topics for which committees I sat on," she said in the deposition.

On that list, she said, was Jeffrey Epstein.

A financier worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Epstein owned two islands in the US Virgin Islands (there are roughly 50 islands overall). His main residence, on the island of Little St. James, was lavishly furnished in the style of a resort. He had even shipped in more sand and palm trees to make it look exactly as he desired. Plaskett wanted to persuade Epstein to donate $30,000, the maximum amount an individual could donate to a national campaign committee at the time.

There was just one issue for Plaskett. Epstein was a convicted sex offender, having pleaded guilty 11 years earlier to soliciting sex from a minor. Law enforcement had separately concluded he sexually abused scores of underage girls at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. But, with the help of high-powered lawyers, Epstein got a light sentence.

For two decades, Epstein had also flexed his political muscles and exerted control in the US Virgin Islands' halls of power. New court documents show how the territory's first lady steered him through political waters, guiding donations to key politicians. Epstein weighed in on an overhaul of sex-offender laws, considered putting a lawmaker "on retainer," and made a customs office look the other way by simply buying all 78 staff members turkeys for Thanksgiving, court filings say.

Plaskett, though, was focused on hitting her $250,000 goal. A $30,000 donation was a feasible ask for Epstein. He had donated generously to Democratic politicians from the US Virgin Islands for years. In exchange, recent court filings say, he got $300 million in tax incentives and was able to fly girls to his islands without customs batting an eye.

And Plaskett had taken Epstein's money before, for her own campaign.

Earlier that year, on July 12, Plaskett sent an email to Epstein's assistant Lesley Groff, inviting the pedophile to a fundraiser for her campaign. She said she would be "grateful" for whatever support Epstein could provide.

Epstein responded just two minutes later in his typically typo-marred prose.

He wrote: "get maximum ampounts allowed."

'We would have a friend in Stacey'

Epstein kept up the generosity. In September that year, a consultant on Plaskett's campaign invited Epstein to two dinners on St. Thomas and St. Croix, the two main islands in the US Virgin Islands, emails show. Epstein swiftly promised he would donate the "max" but said he didn't want his name attached.

At some point in fall 2018, Plaskett visited Epstein at his Manhattan mansion. Plaskett said Groff greeted her at the foyer and brought her to Epstein, who was sitting at a long dining-room table. He agreed to give the full $30,000 that Plaskett had asked him to contribute to the DCCC.

The committee ended up rejecting the donation.

"He had not passed their vetting," Plaskett said in the deposition. "I was informed by my chief of staff that the DCCC informed him that Mr. Epstein's contribution would not be accepted by the DCCC."

A representative for Plaskett didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.

Just a few months after Plaskett's 2018 reelection, federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought a sex-trafficking indictment against him. He died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, so he had no other chance to donate to one of Plaskett's campaigns.

She did, however, accept money from him on previous occasions.

Epstein donated $5,400 to Plaskett's campaigns in the 2016 campaign cycle, hitting the contribution limits for the primary and general elections, Federal Election Commission records show. He maxed out his donation to her unopposed campaign in the 2018 cycle as well.

His financial support of Plaskett's political career stretched back to 2014, the first year she won her seat in the House.

It was a close campaign. In the Democratic Party primary, Plaskett, then a lawyer for the Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority, was running against Shawn-Michael Malone, who held a powerful perch as the president of the US Virgin Islands Senate.

At that time, Epstein was getting political advice from Cecile de Jongh, the first lady of the US Virgin Islands. Her husband, John de Jongh Jr., served as governor from 2007 to 2015.

In addition to her duties as first lady, Cecile de Jongh had a day job at the Southern Trust Co. Epstein claimed to use the corporation for his philanthropic foundations, though several lawsuits have alleged it served as a vehicle for his sex-trafficking operation. Epstein appeared to be a generous employer, paying tuition for de Jongh's children in addition to her salary, court records show. A representative for de Jongh declined to make her available to comment.

Malone, de Jongh wrote in a June 2014 email to Epstein, was no fan of the financier. De Jongh pleaded for Epstein to donate to Plaskett's campaign — and to ask his rich friends to contribute more money. Malone, she said, had criticized Epstein at a recent hearing.

"Shawn is the one who came after you in the senate hearing last week," she wrote. "He is nasty and needs to be defeated and we would have a friend in Stacey."

Epstein assented and offered the names of several associates who might donate as well. Among those suggestions was Groff, along with Epstein's lawyers Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, who became his estate executors when he died five years later. All of them donated to Plaskett's campaign, FEC records reviewed by Insider show.

There's no evidence that Epstein reimbursed his associates for their donations, but the remarks raised red flags for Stuart McPhail, a lawyer for the government-ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. McPhail told Insider that if Epstein was using other people to bring more of his own money into Plaskett's campaign, it could amount to a straw-donor scheme — an illegal practice of using a conduit to make political donations on someone's behalf when they've exceeded campaign-finance limits.

"There's enough here to raise concern. And I think the questions should be asked if these individuals were actually the source," McPhail said. "And if they weren't — if this was actually Jeffrey Epstein's money that was passed through them — then yes, that would be an unlawful straw-donor violation."

A lawyer representing Indyke and Kahn said they weren't reimbursed for the donations. An attorney representing Groff declined to comment.

The August 2014 primary was a close race.

Plaskett won, defeating the well-known Malone by just 737 votes.

One local news organization called it "one of the biggest upsets in Virgin Islands politics."

It wasn't until a month later that Plaskett and Epstein met for the first time in person, introduced by Erika Kellerhals, a local lawyer. They had a meeting on September 5, according to copies of Epstein's schedules obtained by Insider through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Plaskett was expected to coast to victory in the general election. The local Democratic Party has a firm grip on the territory's politics. Since 1981, the Virgin Islands has only once sent a non-Democrat to Congress.

Nonetheless, de Jongh pushed for more money to support Plaskett.

In October 2014, she wrote an email to Epstein memorializing a $13,000 donation to a Democratic Party operation in Plaskett's support from the Southern Trust Co.

"Hi Jeffrey, I am confirming with you that STC will send $13K to the Democratic Party for the benefit of Stacey Plaskett," de Jongh wrote.

JPMorgan and the US Virgin Islands blame each other for Epstein escaping justice

Plaskett's deposition and the emails between Epstein and de Jongh have been produced in litigation between the US Virgin Islands and JPMorgan Chase over who bears responsibility for letting Epstein run amok. A compensation program funded by his estate found he sexually abused more than 100 girls before his death.

The US Virgin Islands government sued JPMorgan in December in a New York federal court, alleging the bank "pulled the levers" of Epstein's sex-trafficking operation and ignored numerous red flags. Epstein had banked with JPMorgan and its subsidiaries for decades, using entities like the Southern Trust Co. to transport girls and pay them for their silence, the US Virgin Islands alleged.

The criminal trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate and onetime girlfriend, in 2021 had already shed some light on how Epstein used his JPMorgan accounts. One bank official testified about documents showing that Epstein gave Maxwell at least $30.7 million between 1999 and 2007. Part of that compensation was for helicopter-pilot lessons. Witnesses testified that after passengers from Epstein's plane arrived on St. Thomas, Maxwell flew passengers from the airport there to his private island of Little St. James, which locals nicknamed "pedophile island." Another trial witness testified that one of Epstein's jets — which prosecutors said he used to traffic girls for sex — was owned by a company called Hyperion Air, which was incorporated through JPMorgan. The trial jury convicted Maxwell on charges that she trafficked girls to Epstein for sex and sexually abused them herself. She's serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Documents obtained by the US Virgin Islands in the case show deep ties between Epstein and top JPMorgan officials, including Mary Erdoes, who's widely considered to be second in line to Jamie Dimon's CEO post. Epstein's main contact at JPMorgan was Jes Staley, the head of private banking who later became the CEO of Barclays bank, only to step down in 2021 following a UK government investigation into his ties to Epstein.

JPMorgan's defense in the lawsuit has basically been: "I'm rubber; you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you."

The Virgin Islands had access to the same information about Epstein but did nothing to stop him, JPMorgan has said in filings.

If anything, the US Virgin Islands government was in Epstein's thrall, JPMorgan has argued. Authorities exercised practically no oversight when Epstein brought girls to his island even though he was a registered sex offender, lawyers for the bank said. The Virgin Islands government, JPMorgan said, got greedy after already reaching a settlement with Epstein's estate last year.

"Having sought and obtained more than $100 million from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and businesses for damages caused by his sex-trafficking crimes, the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) now casts farther afield for deeper pockets," lawyers for JPMorgan wrote in a filing.

And the Southern Trust Co.? In testimony to the US Virgin Islands Senate in 2012, Epstein billed it as a corporation that would help find cures to cancer by analyzing DNA sequences, trade stocks with an algorithm that would ingest information about pharmaceuticals trials, and offer "cutting edge consulting services to companies around the world relying in part upon the use of biomedical and financial informatics" — whatever that means.

This same organization — which the US Virgin Islands says was actually Epstein's vehicle for sex trafficking — was managed by none other than de Jongh, JPMorgan has said in court documents.

The litigation has already caused some fallout in the US Virgin Islands political sphere.

Denise George, the attorney general who secured the $105 million settlement with Epstein's estate, was fired by Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. several days after she brought the JPMorgan lawsuit. Bryan wanted to be kept apprised of the lawsuit's status, The New York Times reported — an unusual expectation for any elected official.

JPMorgan has already agreed to pay $290 million to settle a separate class-action lawsuit brought by one of Epstein's victims, filed around the same time as the US Virgin Islands lawsuit, as did Deutsche Bank, to the tune of $75 million.

But the litigation between the US Virgin Islands and JPMorgan is moving full steam ahead with no indication of a settlement in the works. US District Judge Jed Rakoff has pushed the parties to move incredibly quickly, with a trial scheduled for October.

Court filings show the depths of Epstein's political connections

Part of Epstein's story is how, as a sex offender and serial rapist, he moved freely among powerful people such as Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, and Prince Andrew.

Less clear is how he pulled levers of power. The court records show that, at least in the US Virgin Islands, he exerted influence with little friction.

The records dredged up by JPMorgan appear damning. Epstein practically had the entire government in his pocket through de Jongh and received $300 million in tax incentives over a 19-year span, JPMorgan has said.

Plaskett's connections to Epstein drew some attention in 2019 after federal prosecutors charged him with trafficking girls for sex. After initially refusing to return his campaign contributions, Plaskett later said she would donate the funds "to Virgin Islands organizations that work with women and children."

"I am uncomfortable having received money from someone who has been accused of these egregious actions multiple times," Plaskett said at the time.

Since she joined Congress in 2015, Plaskett's star has risen. During Trump's second impeachment, she served as an impeachment manager. In the current congressional term, Plaskett serves as a counterweight to Republicans on the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, blasting what she sees as right-wing efforts to undermine the rule of law.

De Jongh's connections and advice for Epstein went well beyond just helping out Plaskett. In emails, she drew detailed pictures of the US Virgin Islands political landscape, explaining how Epstein could curry favor with candidates at different points in each election cycle. In one election, Epstein outright asked de Jongh for a list of people he should vote for.

The frankness is startling. In a 2015 email, de Jongh suggested putting one politician "on some sort of monthly retainer.

"That is what will get you his loyalty and access," she wrote.

Epstein later gave that politician $10,000 "to consult on changing the name of one of Epstein's islands," a JPMorgan filing said. The financier did not change the name of either of his islands.

At de Jongh's direction, Epstein doled out money freely to John de Jongh's political allies, JPMorgan wrote. Emails submitted as exhibits show Epstein agreed to spend $10,000 for the inauguration committee of Gov. Kenneth Mapp in 2014 and forked over $75,000 for Mapp's PAC in 2016. Cecile de Jongh solicited $25,000 for the 2019 gubernatorial inauguration of Bryan, who later fired the attorney general who brought the lawsuit against JPMorgan.

When John de Jongh was governor, Epstein seemed to see the US Virgin Islands as one big financial instrument.

Epstein asked Cecile de Jongh in a typo-filled February 2017 email: "the vi govt is desperate for cash. does john knowof any asset they might have that ican use as collateral. islands. Etc."

"Yes, John said that there are properties," she responded, appearing to refer to her husband. "How much do you need to collateralize?"

Epstein found de Jongh's connections helpful in other ways. In 2015, she helped fast-track a dental license in the territory for Karyna Shuliak, Epstein's girlfriend at the time of his death and the last person he spoke with on the phone before he died. In 2013, she arranged student visas for two women Epstein wanted to bring to one of his islands. When Epstein was slow to offer the details she needed to register them in a class for English-as-a-second-language speakers, de Jongh rushed him.

"They are structuring the class around the ladies," she told him.

Shortly before Thanksgiving in 2012, de Jongh facilitated Epstein's purchase of 78 turkeys for every employee of the St. Thomas customs office — the agency responsible for checking everyone who arrived on his private plane.

Earlier that year, the US Virgin Islands passed a bill updating its sex-offender laws that Epstein was unhappy with.

De Jongh and Epstein had tried to stop it from happening. In 2011, she showed him draft bills asking: "This is the suggested language; will it work for you?"

The pedophile had some suggestions. He said he wanted to make sure some files would be kept secret, lest they be "accessible by the press." He also wanted to make sure he could easily get away on his private jet.

"We should add out of country for more than 7 days , otherwise I could not go for a day trip to Tortola at the last minute," Epstein wrote.

When the final version of the bill passed, de Jongh offered Epstein some comfort. The new child-sex-offender law wasn't exactly what Epstein wanted, JPMorgan has said. They had been assured by lawmakers, de Jongh suggested, that things would be different.

"I know this was a horrible week and i am really sorry about how things panned out. Not being able to take someone at their word is incredibly frustrating," de Jongh wrote. "However, all is not lost and we will figure something out by coming up with a game plan to get around these obstacles."

This story has been updated with comments from attorneys representing Leslie Groff and Jeffrey Epstein's estate executors.