House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has forcefully denied allegations that he had dinner with or solicited campaign donations from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The claims surfaced after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said documents reviewed by the committee referenced outreach to Epstein connected to a Democratic fundraising event.
According to Comer, emails were found within a larger batch of documents provided by the Department of Justice to the committee. He stated that the communications involved invitations to a dinner event connected to Jeffries and occurred after Epstein’s earlier legal troubles had become public. The documents themselves have not yet been broadly released to the public.
Jeffries rejected the allegations, saying he was unaware of any such outreach and dismissing Comer’s claims in strong terms. He suggested that if any consultant had sent communications, he had no knowledge of them. Jeffries also characterized the accusations as politically motivated and an attempt to distract from other legislative matters.
The controversy comes as Congress recently passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation requiring the Department of Justice to release additional materials related to Epstein’s case. The bill passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support and was subsequently approved by the Senate. Federal officials now have a set timeframe to comply with disclosure requirements, and additional documents are expected to become public in the coming weeks.