Sarah Kellen spent more than a decade working for Jeffrey Epstein, but on Thursday she told lawmakers she was far from his accomplice. Instead, she described a relationship built on control, manipulation, and abuse that left her psychologically trapped and financially dependent.
Kellen, 46, testified before a House oversight committee investigating the federal government's handling of the Epstein case. In her prepared remarks, she rejected characterizations that cast her as a willing participant in the financier's criminal enterprise.
"I worked for, and was sexually and psychologically abused by, Jeffrey Epstein for over a decade," Kellen said. She described a pattern of grooming and domination that extended across her entire employment with Epstein beginning in 2001.
Her testimony arrives at a sensitive moment. In 2007, Kellen was named as one of four women granted immunity from prosecution in Epstein's controversial plea deal with Florida federal prosecutors. That agreement allowed Epstein to plead guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor, serve just 13 months in county jail, and avoid federal sex-trafficking charges altogether. For years, the public has seen Kellen through the lens of that immunity grant, leaving many to conclude she was complicit in his crimes.
Kellen disputes that narrative entirely. She told lawmakers she was unaware of the 2007 agreement at the time it was negotiated and signed. "No one from law enforcement ever spoke with me, ever heard my side, ever asked me a single question," she said. "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."
Throughout her employment, Kellen alleged, Epstein maintained absolute control through fear and isolation. She described weekly assaults, some violent. When Epstein served his jail sentence in Palm Beach County, she said he continued to abuse her remotely, using Skype calls from inside the facility to order her to undress on camera.
"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.
She also rejected comparisons to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime associate now serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes. Some media reports have called Kellen a "lieutenant" to Maxwell. Kellen described that characterization as completely false, saying Maxwell herself referred to her as a "slave" and "minion."
Over the years, multiple Epstein survivors have accused Kellen of arranging massages and sexual encounters for Epstein, as well as helping recruit underage girls. In 2020, a spokesperson for Kellen acknowledged she had scheduled appointments "at their direction," while also stating that Epstein had abused her for years. Department of Justice records indicate Kellen claimed she was given directories of names to contact but denied knowing that some of the girls involved were underage.
When Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in 2019 awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, New York prosecutors considered bringing charges against associates in his circle, Kellen among them. She was never charged.
Thursday's testimony marks one of Kellen's most direct and detailed public statements about her relationship with Epstein. When asked why she did not leave, she explained the absence of escape routes: no money, no family, no education, no belief that she deserved better. Epstein's wealth and power, she said, made defiance seem impossible.
"He made certain I knew that defying him would cost me my life," Kellen said. "He knew everyone in the highest echelons of society and everyone catered to him."
Author James Rodriguez: "Kellen's story exposes a gap between how the 2007 plea deal portrayed her and who she actually was, but the real question is whether the government should have bothered to ask before writing her name into an immunity agreement."
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