The House Oversight Committee said Thursday it was asking the Justice Department to investigate sexual misconduct allegations made byJeffrey Epstein’s former assistant, Sarah Kellen, against two of his associates.
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Kellen was interviewed behind closed doors on May 21 by the committee as part of its investigation into Epstein.
“During the transcribed interview, the Committee received testimony about alleged instances of criminal misconduct committed by Philip Levine, the former Mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017, and Frédéric Fekkai, a French celebrity hairstylist,” Chair James Comerwrote in the letterto acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Kellen also accused a third man with ties to Epstein, late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, of pulling down his pants in front of her.
In a statement, Comer, R-Ky., 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. We will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for survivors.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kellen worked for Epstein for over a decade and was at one point identified as one of his co-conspirators. In the May 21 interview, a transcript of which was released Thursday, Kellen said Fekkai was the person who introduced her to Epstein, the convicted sex offender financier who died in 2019 by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
She said the alleged sexual abuse by Fekkai happened before she met Epstein, and the alleged incident with Levine happened one or two years after she started working for Epstein. She said both of the alleged incidents occurred when she was in her 20s.
A spokesperson for Levine said in a statement, “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.”
Mark Herr, a spokesperson for Fekkai, said in a statement that “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.”
Demarchelier died in 2022.
All three names made repeated appearances in the Justice Department’s publicly released investigative files into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Kellen, a North Carolina native who married a man five years her senior when she was 17, told the panel her former husband divorced and abandoned her in Hawaii when she was 20.
