EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is once again firing back at Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) after she refused to retract her false claim that he received political donations from Jeffrey Epstein — not the convicted sex offender, but a completely unrelated doctor with the same name.
During an appearance on MSNBC’s The Weekend, Crockett was pressed on the issue and refused to walk back the accusation, claiming she had “no amendments” to make. Crockett initially brought up the donation during a House floor debate, attempting to shield Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-VI) from criticism over her own financial and personal ties to the now-deceased sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
“I was insinuating that it could be possible,” Crockett admitted, referring to her claim that Zeldin had also received a donation from the infamous Epstein. However, she claimed she didn’t have enough time to confirm the identity of the donor and cited campaign finance records showing a “Jeffrey Epstein” had given to Zeldin.
What Crockett left out: the donation in question came from a well-known neurosurgeon named Dr. Jeffrey Epstein — and was made in 2020, more than a year after the sex offender was found dead in a New York jail.
When MSNBC co-host Jacqueline Alemany pointed this out, Crockett doubled down, saying, “I can agree that Lee Zeldin has said that he’s not received money from the Jeffrey Epstein.” Zeldin, not mincing words, took to social media Sunday to call her comments a flat-out lie.
“In her latest defense of the indefensible, Genius Jasmine Crockett, JD, now claims the donation I received from Dr. Jeffrey Epstein was BEFORE the other Jeffrey Epstein died,” Zeldin wrote on X. “That is a LIE and she knows it.”
Zeldin pointed out that the FEC record Crockett herself cited shows the donation came after Epstein’s death, clearly identifying the donor as a physician. He slammed Crockett for continuing to play word games instead of apologizing for a baseless smear.
Crockett’s comments follow the failure of a GOP-led effort to censure Plaskett over her interactions with Epstein, including texts exchanged during a 2019 congressional hearing. Plaskett had received thousands in donations from Epstein even after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
Zeldin concluded his post by warning that Crockett’s refusal to backtrack shows a troubling level of dishonesty: “She previously conceded that I ‘cleared the record,’ AND even though the record she has referenced herself as her source says the donation I received was from a physician… she continues to lie.”
