Democrats are slamming Jeffrey Epstein’s accountant for his shifting claims about a settlement said to have been paid to an alleged Donald Trump accuser from the convicted sex offender’s estate.
Richard Kahn was deposed by the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday as part of the congressional investigation into the late pedophile’s crimes.
But his remarks about a potential settlement to an alleged Trump accuser have led to a heated back-and-forth between Republicans and Democrats on the committee.
Democrats released a new statement on Friday urging Kahn to come clean about what Epstein’s estate actually knows.
“In a statement during the deposition of Epstein accountant Richard Kahn, Mr. Kahn’s attorney claimed that Jane Doe 4, who accused both Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein of abuse, never received any settlement from the estate,” Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Rep. Ro Khanna began. “Now, Mr. Kahn’s attorney says he can no longer confirm or deny there was a settlement.”
After Wednesday’s deposition, Kahn’s lawyer, Daniel Ruzumna, told Democratic committee staff attorneys on a call on Thursday that “Jane Doe 4″ had in fact filed a claim against the estate, but it was denied, and no settlement was reached. Democrats said that statement was also inaccurate.
In a second call that day, Kahn’s lawyer then said he could no longer stand by the claim that no settlement was reached and could neither confirm nor deny the settlement had occurred with “Jane Doe 4.”
On Friday, Garcia and Khanna sent Ruzumna a new letter demanding that the estate confirm in writing whether or not the alleged Trump accuser filed a claim against the Epstein estate, and whether she received a settlement.
The confusion came after Kahn first testified on Wednesday that “a Trump accuser” did receive money from the survivor fund managed by the estate, according to Democratic Rep. Suhas Subramanyam.
The Virginia lawmaker posted about it on X and also told reporters about it on Capitol Hill, but did not go into details on who the alleged victim was.
However, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee were quick to refute Subramanyam’s claim.
A spokesperson for Chairman James Comer told the Daily Beast that earlier testimony from Kahn that an alleged Trump accuser received a settlement was incorrect.
According to his office, Kahn’s attorney later went back on the record to clarify that the person Democrats believed was Jane Doe 4 was not someone they had ever heard of.
Committee Republicans also took to X to slam Subramanyam’s original post on Thursday, writing: “It’s been over 17 hours since part of this tweet was debunked, and @RepSuhas has not corrected the record or deleted it. It’s typical for Democrats to provide false information to the public and never retract it."
But on Friday, House Democrats released their own follow-up statement indicating that Kahn’s story had shifted again.
Subramanyam also dropped his own post responding to committee Republicans by claiming that their X post blasting him earlier in the week “aged poorly.”
He said that Kahn had said under oath that the Epstein estate had provided a payout to a woman who had accused Trump before his lawyer backtracked and claimed they did not know the woman.
“Now they are muddying the waters further by not being able to say yes or no,” he said in a statement. “It should be a simple question: did a Trump accuser receive a payout from the Epstein estate? Richard Kahn and his lawyer need to clarify what he and the Epstein estate know.”
Asked by the Daily Beast about the latest shift in Kahn’s story, a spokesperson for Comer said his office stands by its earlier comment that the alleged Trump accuser’s claim was incorrect.
