Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett on Sunday refused to retract her claim that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin received money from deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Crockett made a false statement assumption on the November 18 House floor, but the contributions in question were made by a different Jeffrey Epstein. On MS NOW's (formerly MSNBC) “The Weekend,” host Jacqueline Alemany challenged Crockett to make amends, but the congresswoman refused to retract her accusations. (RELATED: CNN Anchor Fact-checks Jasmine Crockett in Real Time on Trump-Epstein Claim)
LOOK:
“You made some news last week when you wrongly accused Lee Zeldin and other Republicans…” Alemany said before Crockett interrupted her to clarify that her accusation was not an accident. Alemany then explained that Federal Election Commission (FEC) data showed that Zeldin and the other Republicans she accused did not take money from the deceased sex offender.
“I want to give you the opportunity to fix this,” the host said.
“I have no correction,” Crockett replied, before repeating it protection that she did not have enough time to verify what Epstein contributed.
“I had maybe 20 minutes. We researched the Federal Election Commission, and because I like to be specific – which is what a lawyer does – I made it clear that Jeffrey Epstein existed,” Crockett said. “On the other hand, they knew I didn't have time to stop and do research, especially since the particular person Lee Zeldin was making a fuss about was outside of New York. We know he was outside of the area, and it obviously wasn't done after Jeffrey Epstein's life, so I made sure I said 'Jeffrey Epstein.'”
However, a doctor named Jeffrey Epstein donated to Zeldin in 2020, a year after the notorious sex offender's death.
“But you were trying to imply that it was Jeffrey Epstein,” Alemany insisted.
“Oh, I absolutely implied that it was possible. It's true,” Crockett admitted. “But the thing is, I never said it was a specific name because I didn't have enough time to do that. And so Jeffrey Epstein came forward, and it doesn't seem like a common name. And I think it would be problematic if I claimed that, let's say, this happened, and in fact it never happened. He ended up clearing the record. I didn't do any further research. I didn't talk to that doctor.”
Alemany then pressed Crockett to admit that Zeldin did not receive money from the deceased sex offender, but the congresswoman simply said that Zeldin refuted her claim.
“I can agree that Lee Zeldin stated that he did not receive money from Jeffrey Epstein,” Crockett said. “Absolutely.”
All content produced by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and unbiased news service, is available free of charge to any legitimate news publisher that can reach a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter's byline and DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our policies or partnerships with us, please contact [email protected].
