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For months, President Donald Trump’s base and congressional Republicans have fought over the release of files and documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
But Wednesday, Epstein’s survivors took the floor.
Over a dozen survivors of Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell gathered at the U.S. Capitol, first for a nonpartisan rally hosted by the organization World Without Exploitation and then at a news conference hosted by a trio of lawmakers uniting across the political spectrum to push for more transparency.
“What once kept us silent now fuels that fire and the power of our voice,” said Epstein survivor Jess Michaels. “We are not the footnotes in some infamous predator’s tabloid article. We are the experts and the subjects of this story. We are the proof that fear did not break us.”
Survivors, their lawyers and advocates came to the Capitol asking for three main things: a full release of the Epstein files, justice for survivors and no presidential pardons or concessions for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking charges.
“For far too long, survivors have been sidelined,” said Lauren Hersh, World Without Exploitation’s executive director. “They have been silenced. But that stops today.”
Liz Stein, an Epstein and Maxwell survivor, said the day she met Maxwell was a “sliding glass doors moment” in her life. Afterward, she said, “it felt like someone shut off the lights to my soul.”
“As survivors, we are initiated into a sisterhood,” she said. “We’re in a sorority that none of us asked to join, but we all stand here today, stronger together, because our collective voice is powerful.”
The issue of the Epstein files has animated Trump’s base but frustrated Trump, who was friendly with Epstein before becoming president and whose name is reportedly mentioned in the files though he has not been formally accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. The president, taking questions in the Oval Office on Wednesday, dismissed the files as “a Democrat hoax.”
The comment drew recriminations from survivors including Haley Robson, who said she is a registered Republican.
“I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, to see us for who we are and to hear us for what we have to say,” she said at the news conference. “There is no hoax.”
And to Trump, she said: “I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax.”
Top officials now serving in the Justice Department said for years said that if Trump were elected to a second term in 2024, the department would publicly release more files connected to Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in custody awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
But the level of Epstein disclosures from officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, proved to be underwhelming to many in the