莎拉·凯伦，一名被定罪的性侵犯者的长期私人助理杰弗里·爱泼斯坦根据美国广播公司新闻频道(ABC News)获得的一份她准备好的开场陈述，周四，她告诉众议院监督委员会，她被这位已故金融家“在性和心理上虐待”了十多年。
“他培养我，对我进行性虐待和心理虐待，控制我，操纵我，控制我，用煤气灯点燃我，直到我再也分不清哪些想法是我的，哪些是他的，”声明说。
闭门会议是该委员会正在进行的对联邦政府处理已故性犯罪者调查的调查的一部分。
根据法庭文件和记录，47岁的凯伦之前是刑事调查的对象，但从未被指控，部分原因是她自己指控这位名誉扫地的金融家持续进行性虐待今年早些时候发布被司法部逮捕。
众议院监督委员会主席詹姆斯·卡莫。在休息时对记者说，“我相信她现在是受害者了。”
“我会屈服于委员会的其他成员，尤其是女性成员，让他们给你，他们的意见，”卡莫说。“但她今天很有帮助，非常可信，非常聪明。你知道，这是一个可怕的故事，她第一次被爱泼斯坦虐待是在21岁。”
卡莫称凯伦的出现是“我们进行的最实质性、最有成效的采访”，他说凯伦给了委员会“三个涉嫌虐待的人的名字”
“这些名字对我们来说是新的，所以我们会尽快公布记录，”卡莫说，他不愿透露三人的名字，也不会透露任何关于所谓虐待的细节，如谁、何时和在什么背景下。
“新名字——这就是我们一直在等待的，”卡莫说。“所以今天很有帮助，我希望我们能继续下去，因为我们希望看到人们被追究责任。我们希望看到男人——我们不在乎他们是谁——为可怕的非法犯罪行为承担责任。”
凯伦在她的计划声明中说，她是在夏威夷的一家酒店被一名同事招募来担任爱泼斯坦的助理，她17岁结婚后就去了那里。她声称，在离婚和与教会断绝联系后，她完全孤独了，成了爱泼斯坦的“完美目标”。
“我21岁，远离我长大的地方，被困在一个荒岛上，没有大学学位，没有家人，没有朋友，没有钱，也没有地方住，”她说。
她说，她与爱泼斯坦的工作开始于一段时间的培训，她与他一起乘坐私人飞机前往他在美国维尔京群岛、佛罗里达和纽约的家，她说她“被难以想象的奢华所包围”
“在几个月的无偿劳动之后，他指示我在他的岛上给他拉一个浴缸，然后命令我脱下衣服和他一起进去，他说，‘这份工作是你的。她在声明中说，现在你只需要保持它。”然后，他把我拉到他的床上，向我解释了“保住工作”的必要条件。只是在我屈服于他的性虐待之后，工资才开始发放。”
凯伦告诉委员会，爱泼斯坦的虐待“每周”都发生，有时甚至是暴力的，包括在棕榈滩的一次事件，她说他暴力地掐死并强奸了她。
“有人付钱让我被强奸。我每天每个小时都在给他打电话，”她在声明中说。
凯伦说，由于爱泼斯坦的虐待，她继续遭受抑郁、焦虑和创伤后应激障碍的折磨。
凯伦是2004年被提名为潜在同谋的四名女性之一不起诉协议爱泼斯坦和迈阿密的联邦检察官于2007年达成协议..她告诉委员会，她对该协议一无所知，直到几年后该协议公开时，她才知道自己的名字在其中。
“没有一个执法部门的人和我说过话，听过我的说法，问过我一个问题。我甚至不知道我的名字在那份协议上，直到它被签署并向公众公布。美国联邦政府在与虐待我的人的秘密交易中给我贴上了罪犯的标签，从来没有和我说过话，”声明说。
她预料到委员会成员会问她为什么要和爱泼斯坦在一起——即使在他因涉及一名未成年少女的罪行而入狱之后——她解释说，她觉得自己“无处可去”
“我没有钱，没有家庭，没有受过教育，也不觉得我应该过得更好，”她在声明中说。
她还指出，爱泼斯坦与社会“最高层”的关系让她害怕反抗他。
“他认识时尚界的每一个人，学者、金融、政府、强大的世界领袖、独裁者，以及介于两者之间的每一个人，”她在声明中说。“从一开始，他就向我展示了他比世界上任何人都更强大。”
“杰弗里能够愚弄和操纵世界上最聪明的头脑;美国受害者没有机会，”声明说。“我是北卡罗来纳州的一名高中辍学生。我是坐在椅子上的一具沉默的尸体，旁边是发动和结束战争的人。我完全明白，如果杰弗里能走进这些房间，他就能走进世界上任何一个房间。他可以在地球上的任何地方找到我。”
凯伦出现在国会大厦之际，该委员会正加紧进行调查，调查于去年2月正式启动。计划在未来几个月内出庭作证的其他著名证人包括爱泼斯坦的长期行政助理莱斯利·格罗夫、前美国司法部长帕姆·邦迪、前高盛首席法律顾问凯瑟琳·鲁姆勒以及亿万富翁比尔·盖茨和利昂·布莱克。
该委员会的主席，众议员詹姆斯·科莫(R-Ky。)表示，将在年底前就其调查结果编写一份报告。
遵循爱泼斯坦的羁押中死亡2019年7月，纽约联邦检察官调查可能的合作者，与凯伦和她的律师进行了为期一年多的讨论。DOJ今年早些时候公布的文件包括检察官对凯伦的潜在案件的内部评估，以及她的律师试图劝阻政府提起指控的电子邮件。
“我们认为，鉴于(凯伦)的虐待，鉴于我们基本上将她视为爱泼斯坦的一个齿轮，完全按照他的指示行事，并在她自己也是一个非常脆弱的受害者的时候做她所做的事情，不起诉将是适当的处理方式，”凯伦的律师说书写2020年春天。
根据DOJ的记录，政府没有否认凯伦“自己也是爱泼斯坦虐待的受害者”，指出她的叙述与其他为爱泼斯坦工作并据称遭受性剥削的人一致。
检察官在2020年底发给凯伦律师的一份拟议“事实陈述”中详细说明，几名“未成年受害者向联邦特工报告说，爱泼斯坦在她们还是未成年女孩时付钱给她们进行色情按摩，包括在(凯伦)安排的按摩期间。”
根据DOJ记录，凯伦承认，2000年代初，当他住在佛罗里达州棕榈滩的住所时，爱泼斯坦指示她安排他的日常按摩。她声称有人给她提供了一份名单，并告诉她该给谁打电话，她否认知道有些来家里的人还未成年。
她告诉检察官，她将“女按摩师视为她的同龄人——即20出头的年轻人——她从未[想过]她们中有任何人是未成年人，”政府律师在2019年12月的一份备忘录中写道，该备忘录总结了他们对时任纽约最高联邦检察官的杰弗里·伯曼(Geoffrey Berman)的调查。
根据记录，凯伦说她“在2000年代中期，当新闻报道开始出现时，才知道爱泼斯坦对未成年人进行性虐待”。”她回忆当时感到震惊、愤怒和失望。她对爱泼斯坦操纵她帮助策划对其他女性的虐待尤其愤怒，”记录说。
联邦检察官最终决定不起诉凯伦，尽管导致这一结果的内部审议尚不清楚。起诉备忘录中的许多法律分析仍然在DOJ记录的公开版本中被编辑。
爱泼斯坦的前合伙人吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦尔仍然是唯一一个被指控与爱泼斯坦的罪行有关的人。她在招待客人20年徒刑在德克萨斯州的联邦监狱。马克斯韦尔目前正在寻求撤销对她的定罪或减刑。
凯伦-在很大程度上避免了围绕爱泼斯坦调查的公开评论-告诉一家英国报纸的记者，她在2020年在纽约的街上接近她，她“每周都被强奸和虐待”。
“我被认为是这样一个怪物，但这不是真的。据英国《太阳报》报道，凯伦说:“我是杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的受害者。”
在与联邦检察官讨论期间代表凯伦的律师没有立即回应凯伦在华盛顿特区出庭前的置评请求
Former Jeffrey Epstein assistant tells House Oversight Committee he abused her for years
Sarah Kellen, a longtime personal assistant to convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epstein, told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday that she was "sexually and psychologically abused" by the late financier for over a decade, according to a copy of her prepared opening statement obtained by ABC News.
"He 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," the statement said.
The closed-door session was part of the panel's ongoing inquiry into the federal government's handling of investigations into the late sex offender.
Kellen, 47, was previously a subject of criminal investigations but has never been charged -- due, in part, to her own allegations of persistent sexual abuse at the hands of the disgraced financier, according to court documents and recordsreleased earlier this yearby the Justice Department.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaking to reporters during a break, said, "I believe she was a victim now."
"I would yield to other members of the committee, especially the female members, and let them give you, their opinion," Comer said. "But she was very helpful today, and very believable, very intelligent. You know -- terrible story to get there, and she was 21 when she was first began being abused by Epstein."
Calling Kellen's appearance "the most substantive, productive interview that we've had," Comer said that Kellen had given the committee "three names of people that were involved in abuse."
"These were new names for us, so we'll be releasing the transcript as quickly as possible," said Comer, who would not reveal the names of the three people nor divulge any details on the alleged abuse, regarding who, when and in what context.
"The new names -- that's what we've been waiting for," Comer said. "So today was very helpful, and I hope that we can continue that because we want to see people held accountable. We want to see men -- we don't care who they are -- held accountable for terrible, unlawful criminal behavior."
Kellen, in her planned statement, said she was recruited for the job as Epstein's assistant by a co-worker at a hotel in Hawaii, where she had gone to live after getting married at 17 years old. She claimed that after a divorce and ex-communication from her church, she was completely alone and "a perfect target" for Epstein.
"I was 21 years old, far from where I grew up, stuck on an island in the middle of nowhere, with no college degree, no family, no friends, no money, and nowhere to live," she said.
Her job with Epstein, she said, began as a period of training where she traveled with him on his private jet to his homes in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Florida and New York, where she says she was "surrounded by unimaginable luxury."
"After months of unpaid labor, he instructed me to draw him a bath on his island, then ordered me to undress and get in with him, and he said, 'The job is yours. Now you just have to keep it,'" she said in the statement. "He then pulled me onto his bed and made clear what 'keeping the job' required. Only after I submitted to his sexual abuse did the paychecks begin."
Kellen told the committee that Epstein's abuse happened on a "weekly basis" and was at times violent, including an incident in Palm Beach where she says he violently choked and raped her.
"I was being paid in part to be raped. I was on call to him every hour of every day," her statement said.
Kellen said she continues to suffer from depression, anxiety and PTSD as a result of Epstein's abuse.
Kellen was one of four women named as potential co-conspirators in thenon-prosecution agreementreached in 2007 between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Miami.. She told the committee that she was completely in the dark about the agreement and had no idea her name was in it until it became public a few years later.
"No one from law enforcement ever spoke with me, ever heard my side, ever asked me a single question. I did not even know my name was in that agreement until after it had been signed and released to the public. The federal government of the United States branded me a criminal in a secret deal with my own abuser, without ever once speaking to me," the statement said.
Anticipating questioning from committee members about why she stayed with Epstein -- even after he went to jail for a crime involving an underage girl -- she explained that she felt she had "nowhere else to go."
"I had no money, no family, no education, and no sense that I deserved any better," her statement said.
She also noted that Epstein's connections to the "highest echelons" of society made her fearful of defying him.
"He knew everyone in the fashion industry, academics, finance, government, powerful world leaders, dictators, and everyone in between," her statement said. "From the beginning, he showed me that he was more powerful than basically anyone in the world."
"Jeffrey was able to fool and manipulate the brightest minds in the world; us victims didn't stand a chance," the statement said. "I was a high school dropout from North Carolina. I was a silent body in a chair beside men who started and ended wars. I understood, completely, that if Jeffrey could walk into those rooms, he could walk into any room in the entire world. He could find me anywhere on earth."
Kellen's appearance at the Capitol comes as the committee ramps up for a busy stretch of its investigation, which was officially launched in February of last year. Other notable witnesses scheduled in the coming months include Epstein's longtime executive assistant Lesley Groff, former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, former Goldman Sachs chief counsel Kathryn Ruemmler, and billionaires Bill Gates and Leon Black.
The committee's chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has indicated that a report on its findings will be produced before the end of the year.
Following Epstein'sdeath in custodyin July 2019, federal prosecutors in New York investigating possible collaborators engaged in discussions with Kellen and her attorneys that spanned more than a year. Documents released by the DOJ earlier this year included prosecutors' internal assessments of a potential case against Kellen and emails from her attorneys trying to dissuade the government from filing charges.
"We feel that given [Kellen's] abuse, and given the fact that we see her basically as a cog in Epstein's wheel, acting entirely at his direction and doing what she did at a time that she herself was a very vulnerable victim, a [non-prosecution] would be the appropriate disposition," an attorney for Kellenwrotein the spring of 2020.
According to DOJ records, the government did not dispute that Kellen "was herself a victim of abuse by Epstein," noting that her account was consistent with others who worked for Epstein and allegedly experienced sexual exploitation.
Prosecutors detailed in a proposed "statement of facts" sent to Kellen's attorneys in late 2020 that several "minor victims reported to federal agents that Epstein paid them for sexualized massages while they were underage girls, including during massages that [Kellen] scheduled."
Kellen conceded that Epstein directed her to schedule his daily massages in the early 2000s when he was staying in his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, according to the DOJ records. She claimed she was provided a directory of names and instructed on who to call, and denied having knowledge that some who came to the house were underage.
She told prosecutors she viewed the "masseuses as her peers -- i.e. young adults in their early 20s -- and it never [crossed] her mind that any of them were minors," government lawyers wrote in a December 2019 memo summarizing their investigation for Geoffrey Berman, then the top federal prosecutor in New York.
Kellen said she "only learned that Epstein was sexually abusing minors when news articles started coming out about it" in the mid-2000s, according to the records. "She recalled being shocked, angry, and disappointed. She was particularly angry with Epstein for manipulating her to help orchestrate the abuse of other women," the records said.
Federal prosecutors ultimately decided against charging Kellen, though the internal deliberations that led to that outcome are unclear. Much of the legal analysis in the prosecution memos remains redacted in the publicly available versions of the DOJ records.
Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell remains the only other person charged in connection with Epstein's crimes. She is serving a20-year sentencein a federal prison camp in Texas. Maxwell is presently seeking to have her conviction vacated or her sentence reduced.
Kellen -- who has largely avoided public comment surrounding the Epstein investigation -- told a reporter from a British paper who approached her on the street in New York in 2020 that she was "raped and abused weekly."
"I have been made out to be such a monster -- but it's not true. I'm a victim of Jeffrey Epstein," Kellen said, according to the U.K. Sun report.
An attorney who represented Kellen during discussions with federal prosecutors did not immediately respond to a request for comment ahead of Kellen's appearance in Washington, D.C.
