Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Minority Leader, found himself unexpectedly entangled in the ongoing controversy surrounding Jeffrey Epstein after an alleged email surfaced, suggesting that Epstein had been invited to a fundraising dinner. On Tuesday, Jeffries firmly denied ever having any contact with the late financier, telling CNN, “I have no recollection of the email. I’ve never had a conversation with him, never met him, know nothing about him other than the extreme things that he’s been convicted of doing.” This statement comes as President Trump prepares to sign a congressional bill that will make all Epstein-related files public.

President Trump has been vocal about Epstein’s associations, stating, “all of his friends were Democrats.” The email in question, reportedly sent by a consulting firm associated with the Democratic Party, was addressed to Epstein in 2013. The message from Dynamic SRG, which had ties with Jeffries at the time, read: “Dear Jeffrey, we are thrilled to announce that we are working with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, one of the rising stars in the New York Congressional delegation.” The firm invited Epstein to participate in a dinner or to get to know Jeffries better, praising him as “an impressive guy who will be a progressive voice in New York politics for years to come.” It’s important to note that by 2013, Epstein was already a registered sex offender, having pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution. The email even likened Jeffries to “Brooklyn’s Barack,” a nod to then-President Barack Obama, who was also expected to attend the dinner.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee did not miss the opportunity to scrutinize Jeffries on social media, citing the email as evidence of a connection to Epstein. “Epstein documents reveal that Hakeem’s consulting firm reached out to Jeffrey Epstein to arrange a dinner between them,” the committee posted, questioning, “Is ‘Brooklyn’s Barack’ telling us everything he knows?” As the controversy unfolds, The Daily Mail has sought comments from both Jeffries and Dynamic SRG. Meanwhile, Jeffries was not the sole Democrat facing scrutiny on Tuesday, as both the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to release the Epstein files.

Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett was slammed after being caught texting Epstein as she questioned Trump’s fixer Michael Cohen during a 2019 hearing. Plaskett, the US Virgin Island non-voting delegate, corresponded with Epstein in the middle of the hearing into Trump, according to the latest files release. ‘I got a text from Jeffrey Epstein who at the time was my constituent, who was not public knowledge at that time that he was under federal investigation,’ she attempted to explain Tuesday. ‘And who was sharing information with me.’ The Washington Post uncovered that it was Plaskett involved in the texts, after her name was originally redacted from the releases. Her office confirmed their report. Plaskett denied ‘taking advice’ from Epstein because she doesn’t need it ‘from any individual.’

The delegate narrowly avoided a censure in the House of Representatives Tuesday and nearly lost her spot on the House Intelligence Committee. The House voted 209-214 against formally reprimanding Plaskett for communicating Epstein. Three House Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Lance Gooden of Texas and Dave Joyce of Ohio — sided with Plaskett and voted with all Democrats against the measure. In a bombshell vote on Tuesday, both the House and Senate acted decisively to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on Epstein. The vote was a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from Trump and Republican leadership. The Senate passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act by unanimous consent Tuesday evening with no roll call votes for the bill.

In a stunning turn of events, Trump is expected to sign the Epstein bill in the Oval Office on Wednesday. White House insiders have told the Daily Mail that the move by Trump wasn’t a U-turn, but a calculated move to expose senior Democrats who had links to Epstein. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday: ‘We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do – all of his friends were Democrats. I believe that many of the people that we, some of the people that we mentioned, are being looked at very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, but they were with him all the time. I wasn’t. I wasn’t at all, and we’ll see what happens,’ he added. Trump now has the authority to release the entire trove of files himself after repeatedly promising full transparency despite months of tense clashes with House Republicans over the most explosive details.

Aides had planned to give Trump the option to sign the bill Tuesday night, on or off camera, or to do so Wednesday morning, CNN reports. But the president had a packed schedule Tuesday evening as he hosts Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at the White House. Meanwhile, the president took to his Truth Social page, asking his fellow Republicans to remember their victories since he took office in January. ‘I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future, I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had,’ Trump wrote before rattling off his achievements.

Trump said he would support the measure in a stunning reversal on Monday after spending the weekend hitting out at Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie for supporting the passage of the bill. The president claimed in a Truth Social post he had ‘nothing to hide’ while insisting the entire saga was a ‘hoax.’ ‘House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files,’ he wrote. ‘We have nothing to hide, and it´s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.’

The president went on to note that his Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages on Epstein – and hinted that the files could potentially damage Democrat enemies like Summers, Bill Clinton and Reid Hoffman. Trump’s association with Epstein has been well- established, with flight logs showing the president flew on his private jet four times in the mid-1990s. He was even cited in thousands of pages of documents the Republican-led House Oversight Committee released last week, which included a 2019 email that Epstein wrote to a journalist claiming Trump ‘knew about the girls.’ The president has insisted that he cut Epstein off decades ago.