New Times Illustration. Epstein photo by Patrick McMullan. Levine photo Photo by Stian Roenning. Maxwell photo by Mike Goad via Flickr.
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The House Oversight Committee has referred former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine for criminal prosecution after a former assistant for Jeffrey Epstein told the committee Levine was among the men who abused her, according to a Committee on Oversight and Government Reform transcript from an interview with Sarah Kellen, who worked with Epstein for 15 years.
In a document the Committee released Thursday morning (appended at the bottom of this story), following an interview in late May, Kellen told the committee about the sexual assaults by Levine.
Kellen told the committee that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein for a decade, beginning when she was 22, saying, “It was pretty consistent. It wasn’t – it had a period of slight reprieve when he was in jail for a short period of time, and then he got out on work release. It wasn’t as bad in the years that followed his – when he got out of work release. But it was still – it still continued, just not to the frequency as much, the last few years.”
Then, when asked if anyone associated with Epstein had abused her, she said, “Frederic Fekkai, also Philip Levine, Ghislaine obviously.”
She described the incident as happening in her first or second year working for Epstein, saying, “They rented a house in Saint Tropez one summer, and Philip was really good friends with Ghislaine, and he came to stay with us in the house. And Jeffrey and Ghislaine had gone to bed, and Philip and I were still up.
“And he [Levine] — he came up to me, and he was like, ‘You know, must be so lonely for you working with them because you’re with them all the time, and you can’t have your own life, so you must be – must be really lonely,’ and he basically forced himself on me.”
Kellen said that nobody witnessed the abuse by Levine and that she didn’t tell anyone about the incident.
The connection between Levine, who served as mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017, and Epstein became clear when his name appeared more than 600 times in the files released January 30, as first reported by New Times.
The documents paint a picture of a close relationship between Levine and Epstein that dates back to at least 2003, from business meetings to sending words of encouragement as Epstein dealt with a 2008 prostitution case.
In a July 2025 interview with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Epstein’s co-conspirator and longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell referred to the former Miami Beach mayor as her “very good friend,” and said she met Clinton after he left the White House in 2001 and later became friendly with him through Levine. When New Times questioned Levine about Maxwell’s statement in December 2025, he said, “The precise nature of our relationship was that of a friend to my wife and I, nothing more and nothing less.”
The seeming inconsistencies in Levine’s recollection to New Times late last year, however, unraveled in the DOJ’s release.
After federal prosecutors offered Epstein a widely criticized nonprosecution plea deal in 2008 and Epstein served time at a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detention center under a work-release program, Levine congratulated Epstein on moving past that chapter.
“Hi, Just want you to know that I am happy that everything has come to a positive ending for you during these tough times,” Levine wrote in July 14, 2010, email. “You are a great guy and I know all good things will come to you going forward. In Europe for a while and hope we can catch up soon. Your friend, Philip.”
The DOJ files release also revealed a cozy relationship between Levine and Epstein’s right-hand woman, Maxwell, with emails between them dating back to at least 2001. The pair exchanged flirty messages, discussing dinner plans, traversing the globe together, and even, apparently, Levine’s generous genitals.
“PS,” a January 1 email from Maxwell to Levine reads (the year the email was sent is unclear in the underlying document). “I told her that you were hung like a horse and she sd [sic] that she would like to see it at breakfast — I told her to take pictorial evidence for me”
Kellen also alleged that celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai assaulted her and that photographer Patrick Demarchelier exposed himself to her, according to Newsweek.
When called for a comment, a spokesman for Levine told New Times, “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.”
This is a developing story and will be updated as needed.
