House committee asks DOJ to look into former Miami Beach mayor in Epstein case
The House Oversight Committee on Thursday asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate sexual assault allegations made by a former assistant of Jeffrey Epstein against former Miami Beach mayor and 2018 Florida gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine.
The committee called on the Department of Justice to “use all available tools, including immunity for certain witnesses,” to look into the claims by Sarah Kellen against both Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai.
Also on Thursday, the committee released a transcript of Kellen’s testimony on May 21, revealing the details of the alleged encounter between Kellen and Levine. The Miami Herald reported the day after the testimony that Kellen had accused Levine of sexual assault.
According to the transcript, Kellen said that, in the summer of 2002 or 2003, Levine came to stay at a house that Epstein had rented in Saint Tropez. Kellen was in her early-to-mid 20s at the time. Levine was around 40.
After Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, had gone to bed, Kellen and Levine were still awake, Kellen said. Kellen was working for Epstein and Maxwell at the time.
Kellen testified that Levine “came up to me, and he was like, ‘You know, must be so lonely for you working with them because you’re with them all the time, and you can’t have your own life, so you must be — must be really lonely,’ and he basically forced himself on me.”
Later in her testimony, Kellen said Levine had sexually assaulted her “at the house and then again on the beach.”
“We were kind of all walking, and I think it was Jeffrey and Ghislaine were kind of ahead of us, and then there was me and Philip,” Kellen said. “And then there was, like, this wooden kind of shack on the beach. And he just, like, grabbed my hand and pulled me into the shack.”
Kellen said that she didn’t recall having further contact with Levine after that, but that she “knew that him and Ghislaine were very friendly.” She testified that no one witnessed the abuse and that she didn’t tell anyone. She said she was “not sure” whether Levine abused anyone else.
Asked by lawmakers if she had ever considered suing or pursuing criminal charges against Levine, Kellen said no.
A spokesperson for Levine told the Herald on Thursday: “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said in a press release that the committee “received serious allegations of criminal misconduct” involving Levine and Fekkai.
“The Oversight Committee is not a law enforcement entity, and our role is not to determine guilt or innocence,” Comer said. “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.”
Kellen worked for Epstein for about 15 years, starting in about 2001. She herself was recruited to work as a personal assistant when she was about 21 years old. She was called to testify before the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Epstein’s criminal network.
It was the first time a victim had testified about Epstein before Congress. Kellen was not sworn in to testify for the interview, which was conducted behind closed doors. But it is against the law to lie to Congress, so she can be prosecuted if her statements are found to be untrue.
In a statement she read before the committee, Kellen said that she was sexually and emotionally abused by Epstein for almost the entire time she worked for him.
When she was asked whether anyone else associated with Epstein had abused her, she said yes: “Frédéric Fekkai, also Philip Levine, Ghislaine obviously.”
Kellen testified that Fekkai introduced her to Epstein in the early 2000s. She said that, prior to meeting Epstein, she stayed in a hotel room with Fekkai, and “he took advantage of me that night.”
A representative for Fekkai told CNN that Fekkai “never ‘took advantage’ of Sarah Kellen and he did not introduce her to Jeffrey Epstein.” The representative previously said Fekkai “never assaulted anyone.”
In its letter to Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, the committee noted that “Levine’s name appears over 600 times” in files related to Epstein that have been released by the Department of Justice.
Levine, who became mayor of Miami Beach in 2013 and ran as a Democrat for Florida governor in 2018, previously said he “never had a friendship or business relationship” with Epstein, who was charged with child sex trafficking in 2019 and died in his jail cell later that year.
Epstein had more than a dozen contacts for Levine in his so-called “little black book.” Days after Epstein’s death, Levine told the Herald he had met Epstein “a couple of times” but had “no clue” how they’d met.
But files released by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year indicated that Levine had a closer relationship with Epstein and Maxwell than he had previously let on — including an exchange in which Levine and Maxwell joked about Levine being “hung like a horse.”
READ MORE: Who is Philip Levine, the ex-Miami Beach mayor named by Jeffrey Epstein associate?
In July 2010, as Epstein’s probation period was ending after a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors, Levine sent Epstein an email calling him “a great guy” and signing it, “Your friend, Philip.”
The files also revealed flirty and sexually suggestive emails between Levine and Maxwell from the early 2000s. In an October 2001 message, Levine told Maxwell to tell a woman whom Levine was planning to meet “that the rumor is that I am hung like a horse...not a rumor!!!”
Maxwell wrote to Levine the same day: “I told her that you were hung like a horse and she sd [sic] that she would like to see it at breakfast - I told her to take pictorial evidence for me.”
Last year, Maxwell told the Department of Justice that Levine was her “very good friend,” and that she had been introduced to former President Bill Clinton “because of Philip Levine.”
Levine denied introducing Maxwell to Clinton, saying last year that his relationship with Maxwell “was that of a friend to my wife and I, nothing more and nothing less.” Levine married in 2018.
This story was originally published June 4, 2026 at 1:14 PM.
