Epstein mix-up: How did an error from Congress pull a Long Island doctor into a namesake scandal?

Name mix-up sparks political flap

A Long Island neurosurgeon named Dr Jeffrey Epstein has been unintentionally swept into controversy after a case of mistaken identity led a US lawmaker to link him to the late financier and convicted sex offender of the same name.

The confusion began during a House session when Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett suggested that “Jeffrey Epstein” had donated to former Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin’s campaign. She cited two 2020 contributions — made in April and August of that year — despite the fact that the disgraced billionaire Jeffrey Epstein died in jail in 2019. It later emerged that the donor was Dr Jeffrey Epstein, a New York surgeon with no connection whatsoever to the scandal or the notorious figure.

Reacting to the misunderstanding, Dr Epstein spoke light-heartedly about the mix-up. “I think that I should contribute money to Jasmine Crockett and then let everybody know that she also took money from Jeffrey Epstein,” he joked. He also clarified that public confusion over his name had never been a problem until the Congresswoman referred to him on the House floor. “Until she said something, it was never an issue,” he told the New York Post.

He acknowledged that his name occasionally draws awkward reactions. “I say my name and sometimes people will give me a look, or whatever,” he said. “I always look at them and say, ‘I don’t understand’, and I make it like I’m dumb. Listen, that’s my name.”

Dr Epstein added that sharing a name with a widely reviled criminal inevitably produces uncomfortable moments, though he insists he is unfazed. “Listen, anytime a doppelganger is tied to a less-than-desirable, it’s never a good situation,” he 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.”

Congresswoman Crockett, meanwhile, has defended her comments. Earlier in the week, speaking on the House floor, she said she was “gonna expose it all” after seeing that “somebody named Jeffrey Epstein” had contributed to Lee Zeldin’s campaign. She later explained that when her team reviewed the Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, they did not immediately realise it referred to a different individual with the same name.

“Within 20 minutes, you could not find that out, not from just doing a quick search on FEC,” she said, adding that she never explicitly claimed the donor was the late sex offender. “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 need more time to really dig in,” she added.