The House Oversight Committee on Thursdayreleased the transcript of its interviewwith Jeffrey Epstein’s former personal assistant and called on the Justice Department to investigate sexual assault allegations she made against a former politician and celebrity hairstylist.
Sarah Kellen, who worked as an assistant for Epstein for more than a decade beginning in 2001,testified before the committeelate last month about the late convicted sex offender’s network of co-conspirators. According to the transcript, Kellen alleged she was sexually abused by Epstein as well as Philip Levine, the former mayor of Miami Beach and a Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and French celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai.
Kellen said she was assaulted by Levine around 2002 or 2003, years before he served as mayor, starting in 2013, or ran for governor in 2018. In one of the instances
In a statement provided to MS NOW on Thursday, a spokesperson for Levine said: “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.”
Scroll down to read the full transcript of Kellen’s interview.
Kellen said Fekkai abused her in a hotel room in Maui “when he asked me to come be in a hair show that didn’t exist” and that Levine abused her in a house in Saint-Tropez and in a “shack” on the beach there, according to the Oversight Committee transcript. She told the committee she was unsure if either Fekkai or Levine had abused anyone else. Kellen alleged Fekkai introduced her to Epstein, and that he said he was a model scout for Victoria’s Secret.
A representative for Fekkai did not respond to a request for comment from MS NOW.
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee’s chairman, and other committee leaders wrote a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche relaying the allegations, noting Levine’s name appears more than 600 times in the Epstein files and that Epsteinsent the girlshe abused, as well as staffers, to Fekkai’s salons. The letter asks the department to “use all available tools, including immunity for certain witnesses, to investigate the allegations against, and any other criminal conduct committed by” the men.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW on Thursday morning.
In her interview with the committee, Kellen also alleges the late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier once exposed himself to her. Kellen said that “nothing happened, but he tried.”
A son of Demarchelier has not responded to requests for comment from MS NOW.
Kellen said she began working for Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, after a friend in Hawaii told her a wealthy couple was looking for a traveling assistant. She told the committee Epstein was “terrifying” and “completely dominating of everything in my life,” dictating every aspect of her appearance. She described him as “Jekyll and Hyde.”
“He could turn at the drop of a hat, and you would see the fire in his eyes, and it was horrifying,” Kellen told the committee of Epstein. “I would witness him bring even Ghislaine to tears, who I thought was like the strongest, coldest woman I had met. And you just didn’t want his rage turned on you.”
In response to questioning from House Oversight Committee members about Epstein’s relationship with President Donald Trump, Kellen said she knew the late financier “had been friendly” with Trump, whom she said she met “for, like, 5 minutes at Mar-a-Lago.”
“I had seen photos of him — them together around the houses,” Kellen said of Epstein and Trump. “So I knew that they were friendly in that regard.”
