Moulton doubles down on Epstein-related attacks on Markey

During their second debate Monday night, Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton were each given the chance to ask a question of their opponent directly. Turning to Markey, Moulton claimed that the incumbent senator’s name appears “repeatedly” in newly-released files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Moulton asked Markey how he could “take a meeting with a lobbyist on behalf of” Epstein. 

The question prompted an outraged response from Markey, who has been a vocal public figure in calling for the full release of files related to Epstein.

“What you are doing right now is absolutely reprehensible,” the senator told his primary challenger. 

Markey adamantly denied knowing Epstein in any capacity and strongly condemned the notorious financier’s crimes. 

Now, the Moulton campaign is doubling down on the topic. Moulton posted a series of images to social media Wednesday morning that purport to show how Markey was part of the “Epstein lobbying effort.”

Reached for comment Wednesday, a Markey spokesperson referred to a statement the campaign issued Monday after the debate. The Epstein comments are a way for the Moulton campaign to distract from a new report in The American Prospect about Moulton’s apparent investments in the defense sector, Markey said.  

“Seth Moulton tonight sunk to a reprehensible new low in this race with a disgusting, desperate Trumpian lie,” Markey said after the debate. “It is a desperate attempt to distract from a new report that revealed how he is making millions of dollars off investments with defense companies before his congressional committee. This is the lowest of the low and a pathetic smear that is not worthy of this or any race.”

The files referenced by Moulton do not show evidence of a direct connection between Markey and Epstein. 

The allegations center on a lobbyist named Bob Crowe. Markey apparently met with colleagues of Crowe in 2015 regarding Karim Wade, the son of Senegal’s former president, who had been sentenced to prison there for corruption. Crowe then forwarded an email to Epstein with details about the briefing, according to documents released by the Department of Justice. 

Moulton pointed to reporting in The Miami Herald that uncovered how Epstein paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for Wade’s legal fees and for the services of Crowe’s lobbying firm to help free Wade.

Later in 2015, Crowe’s colleagues invited Epstein to a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee that included Markey, according to the files referenced by Moulton. 

Crowe told Epstein in 2016 that lawmakers he was lobbying pressured Senegal’s former president to release Wade, according to the files. Wade was released shortly afterwards. Later that year, Markey led a Congressional delegation to Senegal to meet with the former president. He was the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health at the time. 

Moulton highlighted financial records that showed how Crowe donated to Markey’s campaigns. But Moulton also accepted Money from Crowe, according to federal records. 

Upon learning about the connection with Epstein, the Moulton campaign said that it immediately donated past contributions from Crowe to a local nonprofit. The donation was made in June, according to a receipt posted by the Moulton campaign. 

“Voters deserve to know whether Senator Markey used his position as the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health (on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) to assist a friend of Jeffrey Epstein at the request of an Epstein-hired lobbyist,” the Moulton campaign said in its statement.

The Moulton campaign called on Markey to “immediately donate all associated campaign contributions and provide a full accounting of his office’s interactions with Epstein’s representatives.”