Key takeaways:
- House Oversight Chairman James Comer and several Republican lawmakers asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations involving Philip Levine and Frédéric Fekkai.
- Sarah Kellen testified that Epstein sexually and psychologically abused her for years and also accused Ghislaine Maxwell of abuse.
- Fekkai’s spokesperson said he never abused anyone, while Levine’s spokesperson said any allegation of a nonconsensual encounter is not true.
House Republicans asked the Justice Department on Thursday to investigate sexual misconduct allegations made by Sarah Kellen, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime assistant, against former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai.
The request from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and several Republican lawmakers came in a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, released alongside a transcript of Kellen’s May 21 closed-door interview with the committee. The panel is examining the federal government’s handling of the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases, as well as Epstein’s network of associates.
“Sarah Kellen bravely provided testimony before the House Oversight Committee about the horrific abuse she endured for years involving Epstein and Maxwell,” Comer said in a statement. “During her transcribed interview, the Oversight Committee received serious allegations of criminal misconduct involving two individuals.”
In the letter, Comer and Reps. Clay Higgins, William Timmons, Andy Biggs and Lauren Boebert urged the Justice Department to use “all available tools, including immunity for certain witnesses,” to investigate the allegations and “any other criminal conduct committed by” Levine and Fekkai.
Comer, R-Ky., also said the committee “is not a law enforcement entity, and our role is not to determine guilt or innocence. We are referring these allegations to the Department of Justice, which has the tools to investigate criminal misconduct.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment, according to CBS News and NBC News.
Kellen, who worked for Epstein for more than a decade after starting around 2000, testified that Epstein “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 also accused Maxwell of abuse.
Asked whether anyone associated with Epstein had abused her, Kellen replied, “Frédéric Fekkai, also Philip Levine, Ghislaine obviously,” according to the transcript.
Kellen told lawmakers that Fekkai introduced her to Epstein after an unidentified makeup artist connected her with the hairstylist in Hawaii. Fekkai said he wanted to use her as a model at a hair show in Maui, she testified, but when she arrived, “there was no show.” She told the panel, “He sexually assaulted me that night.”
Fekkai then introduced her to Epstein, whom she said was described to her as “a scout for Victoria’s Secret.” Epstein flew her to Los Angeles for what she described as a “casting” call and “made me think he was a model scout and told me to undress for him, which I did,” Kellen testified.
Mark Herr, a spokesperson for Fekkai, said: “Mr. Fekkai was astonished to read of Ms. Kellen’s testimony. Mr. Fekkai never abused anyone. He never participated in any illegal behavior. He knew nothing about Epstein’s repugnant depravity or trafficking. He did nothing wrong.”
Kellen said Levine assaulted her in either 2002 or 2003 while she was working for Epstein and Maxwell at a rented house in St. Tropez, France. She described Levine as a good friend of Maxwell and said he came into her bedroom one night “and basically forced himself on me.” She also described a later incident on a beach.
A spokesperson for Levine told NBC News, “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.” CBS News reported Levine could not immediately be reached for comment.
NBC News reported that Kellen also accused late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier of pulling down his pants in front of her. Demarchelier died in 2022.
Kellen testified that she did not tell anyone at the time about the alleged abuse by Levine and Fekkai and that no one witnessed it. The committee also said she testified that no federal, state, local or foreign law enforcement authorities contacted her from the time she began working for Epstein until July 2019, after his arrest in New York.
Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on federal sex-trafficking offenses.
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