House Committee Refers Two Men to DOJ for Prosecution Over Epstein Allegations

Members of a Republican-led House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein have referred two men to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution after a survivor’s sexual assault allegations.

Former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai are the first names to emerge from the House Oversight Committee after lawmakers began reviewing the federal government’s handling of the investigations into the dead sex offender and alleged ties to a wider network of powerful abusers.

The referral follows the committee’s interview with Epstein’s former assistant Sarah Kellen on May 21.

She testified about the “horrific abuse she endured for years” involving Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the committee’s Republican chair James Comer said Thursday.

“Ms. Kellen provided new information crucial to our investigation that is helping to bring transparency for the American people and accountability for survivors,” he added.

Those “serious allegations of criminal misconduct” are now in the hands of the Justice Department, “which has the tools to investigate criminal misconduct,” Comer said.

In a letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Comer and four other House Republicans urged the Justice Department to use “all available tools” — including providing “immunity for certain witnesses” — to investigate Kellen’s allegations.

Levine’s name appears more than 600 times throughout the millions of documents released by the Justice Department related to federal investigations into Epstein, and Comer’s letter describes Fekkai as a “close friend” of Epstein who “played a role in his grooming schemes by routinely providing salon services to women at Mr. Epstein's instruction.”

None of the men have been charged with a crime in connection with Epstein, and the inclusion of one’s name in the so-called Epstein files is not evidence of wrongdoing.

According to a newly released transcript of her closed-door interview with the committee, Kellen accused both men of sexually assaulting her in separate incidents.

She also accused French fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier of exposing himself to her, according to the transcript.

Kellen was among four potential co-conspirators named in Epstein’s 2007 controversial “non-prosecution agreement” that helped him evade more serious criminal charges in Florida.

She has denied wrongdoing in connection with the case. In her opening statement to the committee, she said Epstein had sexually and psychologically abused her for more than a decade.

“I was trapped inside Jeffrey Epstein's world,” she said. “He groomed me, sexually and psychologically abused me, controlled me, manipulated me, dominated me, and gaslit me until I could no longer tell which thoughts were mine and which were his.”

She said she was never contacted by any federal, state, local or foreign law enforcement agency from the time she began working for Epstein in the early 2000s until July 2019, after which she spoke to federal prosecutors in New York

Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.

This is a developing story