A Long Island neurosurgeon who happens to share his name with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found himself in the throes of a controversy surrounding the newly released Epstein files.
His name surfaced after a Congresswoman mistakenly linked his political donations to those of the disgraced billionaire.
During a House Session, US Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett alleged that Jeffrey Epstein donated to former Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin. The donations she referenced were made in 2020, a year after the sex offender Epstein died in jail.
In her speech, Crockett stated that the campaign donations made to Lee Zeldin in April and August 2020 were made by Jeffrey Epstein. Later, it was discovered that the donor was actually Dr Jeffrey Epstein, with no connection to the financier or the ongoing scandal.
Dr Jeffrey Epstein has now reacted to the mix-up, jokingly saying, "I think that I should contribute money to Jasmine Crockett and then let everybody know that she also took money from Jeffrey Epstein."
Asked if people had ever confused him with the convicted sex offender before, he said it had never been an issue until Crockett brought it up publicly. "Until she said something, it was never an issue," Dr Jeffrey Epstein told the NY Post.
The doctor admitted that when he told people his name, some of them gave him strange looks because they immediately thought of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein.
"I say my name and sometimes people will give me a look, or whatever," he said, adding, "I always look at them and say, 'I don't understand', and I make it like I'm dumb. Listen, that's my name."
He mentioned that whenever someone shares a name with a criminal, it can create awkward situations. Still, he insists he really doesn't care and isn't bothered by it. "Listen, anytime a doppelganger is tied to a less-than-desirable, it's never a good situation," Dr Jeffrey Epstein said.
"But it doesn't matter to me. I couldn't care less. The only thing that bothers me about having the name Jeffrey Epstein is people like you calling me to ask me these questions," he added.
Earlier this week, Crockett, speaking on the House floor, claimed she was "gonna expose it all" after discovering that "somebody named Jeffrey Epstein" donated to the campaign of former Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).
She added that when she and her team checked the Federal Election Commission (FEC) files for donations, she didn't realise at first that the Jeffrey Epstein who donated was not the convicted sex offender, according to local media.
"Within 20 minutes, you could not find that out, not from just doing a quick search on FEC," Crockett said, adding that she never directly said it was the convicted sex offender as she only noted that a Jeffrey Epstein had donated.
"So, number one, I made sure that I was clear that it was a Jeffrey Epstein, but I never said that it was specifically that Jeffrey Epstein, because I knew that we would we would need more time to really dig in," Crockett added.
