Epstein’s Assistant Names Three New Abusers in Bombshell Testimony
Sarah Kellen’s harrowing account before Congress may be the biggest breakthrough yet in the long fight to hold Epstein’s network accountable
The Epstein investigation just took its most significant turn in years. On Thursday, May 21, 2026, Sarah Kellen, Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime personal assistant, walked into a closed-door session on Capitol Hill and handed Congress something it has been searching for since the disgraced financier died in federal custody in 2019: three previously unknown names of alleged abusers connected to his network. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer called it “by far the most substantive and productive interview” his panel has conducted in the entire investigation. For the survivors who have waited years for accountability, and for Americans who have wondered whether the truth would ever fully come out, Thursday’s testimony represents a moment that demands attention.
Who Is Sarah Kellen and Why Does Her Testimony Matter?
From Assistant to Alleged Victim
For years, Sarah Kellen existed in a legal gray zone. Court documents and civil lawsuits described her as Epstein’s “lieutenant,” someone who scheduled appointments and managed the inner workings of his household. She was named as a potential “co-conspirator” in Epstein’s notorious 2008 non-prosecution agreement, a sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors in Florida that shielded him from federal sex-trafficking charges and set a standard so lenient it drew bipartisan outrage for over a decade.
But Kellen, now 47, has consistently maintained she was not a co-conspirator. She says she was a victim.
On Thursday, she made that case directly to Congress.
“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,” Kellen said in her prepared opening statement, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News.
She also addressed head-on how she was secretly named in that 2008 deal. “I was not told this was happening. I was not asked about it,” she told the committee.
A Life That Made Her Vulnerable
Kellen’s testimony also offered context that explains how someone ends up trapped in a situation like Epstein’s orbit. She told lawmakers she first entered his world after being recruited while living in Hawaii, following a marriage at 17, a subsequent divorce, and isolation from her religious community. She described herself as “a perfect target” for Epstein’s calculated grooming.
“I had nowhere else to go,” she told the committee, explaining why she remained with him for more than a decade. “I had no money, no family, no education, and no sense that I deserved any better.”
That testimony reflects what researchers and advocates have documented for years about how traffickers and abusers select and control their victims. Vulnerability is not weakness. It is the condition predators deliberately seek out.
The Abuse: Graphic, Persistent, and Violent
Weekly Attacks Over More Than a Decade
Kellen did not spare the committee from the reality of what she says she endured. She told lawmakers the abuse “happened on average on a weekly basis, and was at times violent.”
She described one assault in Palm Beach with specific, harrowing detail: Epstein trapped her in a gym by lowering a metal hurricane shutter, choked her, and “violently raped” her.
She described another incident in which Epstein entered her bedroom in the middle of the night and assaulted her while she slept.
“I was being paid in part to be raped. I was on call to him every hour of every day,” her opening statement said.
The abuse did not stop even when Epstein was supposedly serving his 2008 Florida jail sentence, which allowed him to leave confinement six days a week on work release. Kellen testified that during that period, Epstein contacted her via Skype from the Palm Beach County Stockade and ordered her to undress for him on camera.
The Psychology of Entrapment
The picture Kellen painted is consistent with what trauma experts call coercive control: a system of psychological manipulation, financial dependency, and fear that makes leaving feel impossible even for someone who, from the outside, appears to have had options. The committee heard testimony that aligns with what survivors of trafficking and workplace sexual abuse have described in public discourse for years.
Jena-Lisa Jones, who says she was first abused by Epstein at age 14 and spoke at a House Oversight field hearing in West Palm Beach on May 12, put it plainly. “If you subpoenaed someone to testify before your committees and she tells you she is a victim, listen to her. Believe her,” Jones said. “The girls should not be treated like criminals.”
The Breakthrough: Three New Names
What Comer Revealed
The most consequential part of Thursday’s session came at the end. After hours of closed-door testimony, Chairman Comer emerged and told reporters that Kellen had provided three new names of individuals allegedly connected to Epstein’s abuse network — names the committee had never heard before.
“The new names, that’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Comer said. “I’m more optimistic today than I have been in a long time.”
Comer declined to publicly identify the three individuals. He said the committee will release a transcript of Kellen’s testimony as soon as possible, but must first redact the names of victims mentioned during the proceedings to protect their privacy.
He also said clearly that after listening to Kellen’s testimony, he now believes she was a victim of Epstein’s crimes rather than a co-conspirator. That is a significant shift from how she has been characterized in public documents and media coverage for nearly two decades.
Not Everyone Was Satisfied
The session was not without tension. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a Democrat on the committee, signaled that while Kellen’s testimony was valuable, she did not answer every question lawmakers put to her.
“We need more answers, and probably we’re gonna have to do it under oath again in a compelled setting, maybe,” Krishnamoorthi told reporters. “Maybe with a subpoena, because certain questions were not answered by the witness.”
That tension reflects the broader dynamic of the investigation: progress is being made, but the full picture of who was involved in Epstein’s network, and who in government helped shield him from accountability, has not yet been fully revealed.
The Larger Investigation: Government Failures and Upcoming Testimony
A Pattern of Institutional Failure
Comer made a point of noting that the Justice Department did not interview Kellen until 2019, more than a decade after Epstein’s 2008 sweetheart deal and well after years of reported abuse. He called that a clear example of how investigators mishandled the case.
“More evidence emerges every time we bring somebody in that the government failed the victims. That’s the obvious,” Comer stated.
The committee has now interviewed a wide range of figures connected to the case, including former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Epstein’s longtime attorney Darren Indyke, accountant Richard Kahn, and a former prison guard connected to Epstein’s time in federal custody before his 2019 death.
The DOJ and the Epstein Files
Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act last November, requiring the Justice Department to release its full investigative files. The DOJ ultimately released roughly 3 million pages of documents, but withheld millions of others, citing survivor privacy and ongoing investigations. That response drew bipartisan criticism.
Former Attorney General Pam Bondi faced direct scrutiny over the DOJ’s compliance with the law. After failing to appear for an April deposition and prompting Democrats to file a contempt resolution, Bondi has now agreed to testify before the committee on May 29. Her appearance will likely address why the department withheld files, how it handled the original Epstein investigation, and what officials knew and when.
That testimony has the potential to be another significant moment in an investigation that, after years of delays and frustration, is finally producing results.
Why This Matters Beyond Washington
The System That Protected Epstein Was Not Accidental
Epstein’s ability to abuse dozens of girls and women over more than a decade was not simply the result of one man’s depravity. It required a network: people who helped facilitate access to victims, institutions that looked the other way, prosecutors who offered terms that survivors and legal experts have called unconscionable, and powerful individuals who associated with him and, in some cases, allegedly participated in abuse.
Thursday’s testimony is a reminder that the full scope of that network has still not been publicly revealed. Three new names have now been given to Congress. The question is whether the institutions that failed before, the Justice Department, federal prosecutors, law enforcement will do better this time.
What Survivors Deserve
More than 20 years after some of this abuse began, the women and girls Epstein victimized deserve a full accounting. They deserve to see the people who harmed them face consequences. They deserve a justice system that treats their testimony with seriousness rather than suspicion.
Sarah Kellen’s willingness to walk into that hearing room and describe, in explicit detail, what was done to her is an act of considerable courage. Whatever questions remain about her own role in Epstein’s network, her testimony has moved the investigation forward in a way that months of other interviews did not.
What Comes Next
The House Oversight Committee has signaled it will move quickly to release a redacted transcript of Kellen’s testimony. Pam Bondi’s deposition on May 29 is the next major scheduled milestone. The three new names Kellen provided will likely trigger additional investigative steps, including potential subpoenas.
For those who have followed this story for years, the path forward is familiar: slow, incomplete, and contested. But Thursday was different. Three new names. A witness Comer called the most helpful yet. An investigation that, for the first time in a while, appears to be breaking new ground rather than relitigating old territory.
The women who survived Jeffrey Epstein have been asking for justice for a long time. They deserve to see it through.
