Victim or accomplice? More controversy surrounding the Epstein case. This time it's about his assistant

— If you are an adult woman and you recruit underage girls, you are not a victim. “You are a prostitute, a child abuser and a human trafficker,” Republican Nancy Mace, another committee member, said in an interview. —Certainly adult women who recruited underage girls should be sent to prison.

But few of Epstein's former associates have presented as difficult a subject for federal prosecutors as Kellen. Immediately after Epstein's suicide in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, federal officials considered whether to indict Kellen, according to two people familiar with the matter and documents disclosed in Epstein's file.

Records show that Manhattan prosecutors were considering charging Kellen with witness tampering and that they forwarded a prosecutor's memo on her case to then-federal prosecutor Geoffrey Berman. However, according to files and accounts of people familiar with the deliberations who were granted anonymity, Kellen argued that she was a victim. Prosecutors decided not to bring charges against her. Kellen's attorney did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, said in an interview that several GOP women on his committee really wanted Kellen to testify and that he deferred to them in deciding which women should be called to testify in the Epstein investigation. But while some members of Congress support the decision to subpoena Kellen, others also indicate they recognize the complicated dynamics of questioning a woman who claims she was sexually assaulted.

“For people who don't know about trauma and don't understand this world, I think it's easy to say, 'yes, we should charge this woman,'” said Democratic House Rep. Lateefah Simon, who serves on the committee and previously worked in the San Francisco district attorney's office. “This is a conversation that should be taken seriously,” she emphasized.

Simon added that she would provide committee staff with “material on how to treat and support victims when they come here and how to look at women who have been in these situations in the past.”

A cog in Epstein's machine?

At the same time, the committee is under increasing pressureto reveal new information after the Department of Justice's chaotic release of the Epstein files – and as law enforcement in the UK seized the opportunity to arrest associates of the financier, in contrast to the United States, which continues to limit itself to issuing warnings.

In an interview last month, Comer partly attributed the commission's lack of progress to disagreements about who is a victim of Epstein and who is not.

— Honestly, this is one of the reasons why there were problems with obtaining documents. [Departament Sprawiedliwości] he released the documents and some of the victims are saying, 'Oh my gosh, you didn't black out the names'… Well, they were perpetrators too,” Comer said. “For example, they recruited other girls. But I believe they were victims themselves. This is a difficult issue, he added.

Kellen was accused in numerous civil lawsuits of arranging massages for Epstein by young girls, and in one of the lawsuits she was referred to as “the lieutenant.” In Palm Beach, where police were investigating Epstein, girls told detectives that Kellen set up massage rooms and set up tables and lotions for their use.

But as prosecutors considered filing charges, Kellen's attorneys argued that their client had been exploited. “Given the fact that we see it fundamentally as a cog in Epstein's machineacting only in accordance with his orders and carrying out her tasks at a time when she herself was a very defenseless victim, [ugoda o nieściganiu] would be the right solution,” they wrote.

In an interview with The Sun published around 2020, as her lawyers tried to fend off potential charges, Kellen also described herself as a “victim,” saying she was “raped and abused every week.”

Lauren Hersh, a former Brooklyn sex trafficking prosecutor who is now CEO of World Without Exploitation, a coalition fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation, said situations like Kellen's are “really common.” She suggested that the commission should focus on people who could in no way be considered Epstein's victims, rather than more complicated cases like Kellen's.

“There are a lot of people who are absolutely clear should be subpoenaed,” Hersh said of Epstein's associates. – So let's start with this.

House member Thomas Massie, one of the Republican Party's staunchest advocates for Congress to use all available tools to hold Epstein's accomplices accountable, felt similarly.

Asked how one could determine whether someone like Kellen was a victim or perpetrator, Massie replied: “I don't think it would be possible to determine that in the forum that the Oversight Committee has.” “I think that in order to resolve the issue of guilt or innocence, an investigation with the disclosure of evidence and an adversarial presentation of facts in the courtroom is needed,” he said.

Some members of the Oversight Committee who served as or worked with prosecutors before taking their positions in Congress also cautioned that caution should be exercised.

— I've handled cases where someone was a victim and was also charged with a crime, and that's something that a fair trial – either a court or a jury – can determine. These types of factors can be taken into account, said Rep. Wesley Bell, R-Democratic, a former St. County District Attorney. Louis. But he added that “given the current circumstances, anyone associated with the investigation should be summoned.”

Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, a member of the Oversight Committee, stated that since the ultimate goal of the committee is to support future trials of accomplices and gather evidence, Kellen's hearing makes sense.

“People like Sarah Kellen were complicit in crimes,” Stansbury said. — Were they also victims of Jeffrey Epstein? It is very likely that this was his pattern of abuse. But does that absolve them of responsibility in this matter? “I think it depends on the details and the individual, and that's why the Department of Justice investigation and the investigation and prosecution of these individuals is really important,” she said.