A Democrat caught texting Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing in 2019 danced around questions about the scandalous exchange during an appearance on CNN . E mails from Epstein’s estate released last week showed that Stacey Plaskett , a non-voting delegate from the US Virgin Islands, secretly communicated with the late convicted [sexual] offender at a 2019 hearing during which former Trump attorney Michael Cohen testified against the President. On Wednesday, a day after Plaskett narrowly avoided being censured over the exchange, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown wasted no time in pressing her about the texts.

Brown pointed out that Epstein was already a ‘known [sexual] offender’ when the delegate communicated with him. Plaskett, 59, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she had ‘lots of people’ texting her that day and that she had been chatting with Epstein , one of her constituents, to obtain information. She denied that Epstein had been ‘directing’ her about what to say at the hearing, despite texts showing he alerted her about one of Trump’s former executive assistants.

Brown asked whether Plaskett would have still asked Cohen about the executive assistant if it weren’t for Epstein’s texts. ‘Probably not,’ Plaskett conceded, before being asked by Brown if she had ‘any regrets’ about the correspondence given Epstein’s known sexual abuse. ‘Well, listen, I think Jeffrey Epstein is a reprehensible person. Absolutely disgusting. I lived in a house during childhood with a mother who had been sexually abused by her dad. And I know the effect that had on her, as well as us as her family,’ Plaskett replied.

‘And so I understand what the victims are going through, and I want them to get their relevant – their justice, their peace out of this. ‘I believe that Jeffrey Epstein had information, and I was gonna get information to get at the truth. Having a friendship with him is not something that I would deem to have. ‘And so I’m just looking forward – I’m moving forward,’ she maintained, before urging the ‘American people’ to do the same.

‘ If individuals are not involved in illegal activity, extending his criminal enterprise or his financial enterprise or all of those things, I think that we need to look at what people are doing moving forward.’ Brown stopped to again emphasize that many of Epstein’s crimes were already public, as he had already pleaded guilty to state prostitution charges in 2008 and was facing accusations from dozens of other women. ‘There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes, and as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can,’ Plaskett responded.

‘I’ve interviewed confidential informants, I’ve interviewed narcotics, drug traffickers and others, and that doesn’t mean that I’m their friend. ‘That doesn’t mean that they are friendly with me. It means that they have information that I need and that I’m trying to get at the truth, and that’s what I do.’ Brown again asked if Plaskett regretted the decision.

‘So no regrets, basically, is what you’re saying?’ the co-host asked. ‘I’m moving forward,’ Plaskett replied. At the time of the messages, Epstein was a resident of the Virgin Islands. The Washington Post uncovered that the pair had texted after her name was initially redacted from the emails. Her office confirmed their report. The delegate avoided censure Tuesday after the House voted 214-209 against formally reprimanding her over the texts. Months after the Cohen hearing, in August 2019, Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan.