Sarah Kellen, who once worked as Jeffrey Epstein’s “personal assistant,” gave closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee describing years of psychological manipulation, coercion, and sexual abuse she says she suffered while working for him. According to a newly released transcript, Kellen said she was “trapped inside Jeffrey Epstein’s world” for more than two decades and that he groomed, controlled, manipulated, and sexually abused her until she could no longer distinguish her own thoughts from his. She described the experience as being like “living with a permanent virtual-reality headset on.”
Kellen’s testimony adds a disturbing survivor account to the ongoing congressional review of Epstein’s network of abuse, even after his death in 2019. She said Epstein exploited her background, noting that she had been raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, a strict religious environment in which women were expected to submit to men. Kellen testified that he used that vulnerability to control her. She also said she believed she had been hired to become a model, but that the job offer was a deception intended to pressure her into undressing for him.
According to Kellen, the abuse began only after months of unpaid labor. She recalled that Epstein instructed her to draw him a bath on his private island, then ordered her to get in with him naked before telling her, “The job is yours.” She testified that he did not begin paying her until after she submitted to his sexual abuse. Kellen said she earned only $25,000 a year while working nonstop, on call 24/7, for months at a time without days off. She said Ghislaine Maxwell referred to her as a “slave and minion,” and she told lawmakers, “I was being paid, in part, to be raped.”
Her account describes abuse that allegedly continued for years across multiple locations, including Epstein’s private jet, his private island Little Saint James, and properties in the continental United States. Kellen said the island was not a luxurious getaway but a place of isolation. She also recounted an assault at a Palm Beach gym, where she said Epstein turned the music up so loud no one could hear, then choked and raped her. Even during Epstein’s 18-month sentence in 2008, she said, he maintained contact and used a computer inside the Palm Beach County Stockade to Skype her and order her to undress on camera.
Kellen’s testimony underscores the extent of Epstein’s alleged power and control over victims and associates, and it highlights how abuse can persist even when a perpetrator is incarcerated. Her account presents herself not as a willing participant, but as a victim trapped in a system of coercion, exploitation, and fear.
