Congress

Congress’ Epstein probe raises a thorny question: Who counts as a victim?

Published

2 months ago

May 11, 2026

Nearly a year after the launch of the House Oversight Committee’s Jeffrey Epstein investigation, lawmakers are now wading into a thorny debate over whether certain women in Epstein’s orbit should be considered co-conspirators or victims.

The Republican-led panel, eager to haul in witnesses who can shed new light on the convicted sex offender’s crimes, appears to have taken a side in recently asking Sarah Kellen — a top assistant to the late, disgraced financier — to sit for a transcribed interview on May 21.

Kellen was one of four women named as possible co-conspirators in the now-controversial 2007 agreement with Florida federal prosecutors that granted all of them immunity, while also allowing Epstein to spend minimal time in a county jail rather than face federal sex-trafficking charges.

“There is a list of four alleged victims that took plea deals that I think are co-conspirators and got let off the hook,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a member of the Oversight Committee, said recently. “And I’d like to bring them in.”

“If you’re an adult female and you’re recruiting underage girls, you’re not a victim. You’re a prostitute, a child predator, and a sex trafficker,” said Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), another committee member, in an interview. “Certainly the adult women that were recruiting underage girls should go to jail.”

But few of Epstein’s former associates have proven as fraught a subject for federal prosecutors as Kellen. In the immediate aftermath of Epstein’s suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, federal officials grappled with the question of whether to prosecute Kellen, according to two people familiar with the matter as well as documents released in the Epstein files.

The files show that Manhattan prosecutors discussed a possible witness tampering charge for Kellen and that they submitted a prosecution memo concerning her to then-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. But Kellen argued that she was a victim, according to the files and people familiar with the deliberations, who like others were granted anonymity to share private conversations. Prosecutors opted not to bring a case against her.

A lawyer for Kellen did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in an interview that several GOP women on his committee were eager to have Kellen testify and he has deferred to them in deciding which women should be invited to give statements in the Epstein probe. But while some members of Congress support the decision to bring in Kellen, others are also signaling they, too, recognize the complicated dynamics of questioning a woman who claims to have been sexually abused.

“For folks who are not trauma-informed, and folks who don’t understand this world, I think it can be an easy ‘yes, we should charge this woman,’” said Rep. Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), who sits on the panel and previously worked in the San Francisco District Attorney’s office. “It’s a conversation that should be taken seriously.”

Simon added that she has been providing committee staff with “resources [on] how we look at how we treat and support survivors while they’re coming here, how to look at women who historically have been in these situations.”

At the same time, the committee is under increasing pressure to surface new information after the Justice Department’s haphazard release of the Epstein files — and as law enforcement in the United Kingdom has seized opportunities to arrest Epstein associates in contrast to the U.S.’ continued finger-wagging.

In the interview last month, Comer blamed the committee’s lack of progress, in part, on disagreements about who is and isn’t an Epstein victim.

“That is honestly one of the reasons why there’s been issues getting documents — [DOJ] released documents, and some of the victims say, ‘oh my gosh, you didn’t redact the names’ … Well, they were victimizers too,” Comer said. “Like they recruited other girls to come in. But they, I do believe, were victimized. This is a tough issue.”

Kellen had been accused in numerous civil lawsuits of scheduling young girls to give Epstein massages, with one lawsuit dubbing her “the lieutenant.” In Palm Beach, where police investigated Epstein, girls told detectives that Kellen would prepare rooms for the massages, laying out tables and lotions intended for their use.

But when prosecutors were mulling charges, Kellen’s attorneys argued that their client was abused, writing that “given the fact that we see her basically as a cog in Epstein’s wheel, acting entirely at his direction and doing what she did at a time that she herself was a very vulnerable victim, a [non-prosecution agreement] would be the appropriate disposition.”

In an interview with The Sun published around the period in 2020 in which her lawyers were attempting to fend off potential charges, Kellen also described herself as a “victim,” saying that she was “raped and abused weekly.”

During the sentencing in 2022 of Epstein’s only convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan described Kellen as “a knowing participant in the criminal conspiracy.”

Lauren Hersh, a former sex-trafficking prosecutor in Brooklyn who is now the CEO of World Without Exploitation — a coalition combating human trafficking and sexual exploitation — said situations like Kellen’s are “really common.” The Oversight panel, she suggested, would be better served by focusing on those who could not conceivably be considered a victim of Epstein instead of trickier cases like Kellen’s.

“There are a lot of people where it’s absolutely clear-cut they should be brought in,” Hersh said of Epstein’s associates. “So let’s start there.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the GOP’s most vocal proponents of Congress using all available tools to bring Epstein’s co-conspirators to account, had a similar perspective.

Asked how one could determine whether someone like Kellen is a victim or a perpetrator, Massie said, “I don’t think you’re gonna figure that out in the forum that the Oversight Committee has. I think you need to have an investigation with discovery and presentation, adversarial presentation of facts in a courtroom to decide that — matters of guilt or innocence.”

Some members of the Oversight Committee who worked as, or with, prosecutors prior to serving in Congress also cautioned it was important to tread carefully.

“I’ve prosecuted cases where someone has been a victim and has also been charged with a crime, and that’s something that in the due course of justice — a court or jury can determine. Those types of factors can be considered,” said Rep. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), a former St. Louis County prosecuting attorney.

But, he added, “given the circumstances at this point in time, anyone connected with the investigation should be called in.”

Other lawmakers defended the panel’s decision to call in Kellen. Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), a member of the Oversight Committee, said that since the committee’s ultimate goal was to support future trials of co-conspirators and build an evidentiary basis, it made sense to interview Kellen.

“Folks like Sarah Kellen were complicit in crimes,” Stansbury said. “Were they also victimized by Jeffrey Epstein? It’s very likely that was his pattern of abuse. But does that absolve them from culpability in this case? I think it depends on the specifics and the individual, and that’s why DOJ’s investigation and investigation and prosecution of these individuals is really important.”

Congress

Mitch McConnell is still in the hospital after medical episode, his office says

Published

15 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sen. Mitch McConnell remains hospitalized, his office said in a statement Thursday — without offering details about a recent medical episode that has renewed concern about the health of the former Republican majority leader.

McConnell “continues his recovery in the hospital” and “continues to improve,” his office said.

“Senator McConnell appreciates the outpouring of support he’s receiving while he continues his recovery in the hospital,” the statement said. “The Senator continues to improve, and is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters while the Senate is out of session.”

The statement did not explain why he was hospitalized last month.

The update comes after multiple outlets reported details of a first responder dispatch call indicating emergency medical personnel responded to McConnell’s home last month to treat an unconscious person who had experienced “cardiac arrest.”

Blue Light News has not independently verified the dispatch call.

The 84-year-old senator, who is retiring at the end of this term, has experienced multiple medical incidents in recent years. On two occasions in 2023, he froze while speaking with reporters. He has also suffered multiple falls and temporarily used a wheelchair, a move his office described at the time as a precautionary measure.

Congress

House Ethics says it doesn’t have information to share on lawmaker sexual misconduct settlements

Published

23 hours ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The House adopted a resolution Tuesday requiring the House Ethics Committee to release information on taxpayer funds used to pay out sexual misconduct settlements with lawmakers — but the committee now says it has no information it can share.

In a statement Thursday, the committee reiterated it does not manage sexual harassment lawsuits or their settlements; taxpayers have not footed the bill for those payments since 2018.

Since that time, according to the statement, “the Committee has not been notified of any awards or settlements relating to allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or other sexual misconduct by a Member.”

Instead, the bipartisan Ethics Committee said it was up to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to publicly release a list of each member who has received settlements for sexual misconduct allegations, as mandated by the resolution championed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The committee, in the Thursday statement, said it “fully supports the release of information about sexual misconduct settlements and calls on OCWR to abide by [the resolution] and make publicly available information about Member sexual misconduct matters resulting in payment of taxpayer funds.”

Massie, in a text message Thursday, said “OCWR can release it.”

The OCWR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The bipartisan Ethics Committee has been under pressure in recent months to show it takes allegations of sexual misconduct against colleagues seriously. Two former House members — Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) and Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) — were forced to resign earlier this year amid serious accusations against them.

The renewed reckoning has prompted new questions about whether the House is up to the task of policing its own. The resolution earlier this week was adopted nearly unanimously, with just one member, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), voting “present.”

House Ethics Chair Michael Guest (R-Miss.) said in an interview earlier this week that while he would support Massie’s resolution, the relevant “information was already out in the public domain.”

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

AOC endorses El-Sayed in Michigan Senate race

Published

1 day ago

July 2, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) endorsed Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign for Michigan’s open Senate seat on Thursday, a decision that comes as progressives look to capitalize off a series of recent high-profile primary victories in New York, Colorado and elsewhere.

Her endorsement could provide El-Sayed with a critical boost just over a month before the state’s Aug. 4 primary. The former public health official is locked in a heated contest against Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow for the right to take on Republican Mike Rogers in the general election.

It also comes as El-Sayed has risen to the top of the pack in recent public polling.

Virtually any Democratic path to flipping the Senate in this year’s midterms would see the party hold the open Michigan Senate seat, with two-term Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) retiring at the end of his term.

The race has emerged as perhaps the largest battleground over the ideological future of the party. El-Sayed, who unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2018, has collected endorsements from progressives, while Stevens has the tacit backing of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, with AIPAC also boosting her candidacy.

El-Sayed, Ocasio-Cortez said in an interview with The New York Times, is her party’s best chance.

“Despite our ideological differences and whatever disagreements there are in the party, every single one of us sees this moment as existential,” she said. “And I think many people are willing to put aside differences in order to give us the best chance at winning. And I think that Abdul gives us that right now.”