Epstein survivors implore Congress to act as push for disclosure builds
[September 04, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse made their
voices heard Wednesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force
the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier
and pushing back on President Donald Trump's effort to dismiss the issue
as a “hoax.”
In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of
supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some
publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein's abuse
by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They demanded that the
Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what
they endured as teenagers.
It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called
Epstein files reaches a pivotal moment in Washington. Lawmakers are
battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the
Republican president, after initially signaling support for transparency
on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat
hoax.”
“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday.
He added, “Really, I think it’s enough."
But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump's
closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for
Trump to support their cause.
“It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is
understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re
here in person,” said Haley Robson, one of the survivors who said she is
a registered Republican.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019
on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of
underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he
secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of
nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage
girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.
Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, was
convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring teenage
girls for him to abuse. Four women testified at her trial that they were
abused by Epstein as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at his homes in
Florida, New York and New Mexico. The allegations have also spawned
dozens of lawsuits.
A Trump ally crosses party lines
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is usually closely aligned with
Trump, described her support for a bill that would force the Justice
Department to release the information it has compiled on Epstein and
Maxwell as a moral fight against sexual predation.
“This isn’t one political party or the other. It’s a culmination of
everyone working together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey
Epstein and his cabal,” Greene said at the news conference.
She also told reporters that she had spoken with Trump on Wednesday to
tell him that he should host the survivors in the Oval Office, “not any
of Jeffrey Epstein's rich, powerful friends.”
Greene is one of four Republicans — three of them women — who have
defied House GOP leadership and the White House in an effort to force a
vote on their bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the
effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a
concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best
way for Congress to deliver transparency.
“I think the Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and
they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads," Johnson, R-La.,
said.
He added that the White House was complying with the committee to
release information and that he had spoken with Trump about it Tuesday
night. “He says, ‘Get it out there, put it all out there,’" Johnson told
reporters.
[to top of second column]
|
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., center left, and House
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., talk to reporters
after a closed-door meeting with victims in the Jeffrey Epstein sex
trafficking case investigation, at the Capitol in Washington,
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The Oversight Committee on Tuesday night released what it said was
the first tranche of documents and files it has received from the
Justice Department on the Epstein case. The folders posted on Google
Drive contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings
related to Epstein, but contained practically nothing new.
Warnings from the White House
Meanwhile, the White House was warning House members that support
for the bill to require the DOJ to release the files would be seen
as a hostile act. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is
pressing for the bill, said that the White House was sending that
message because “They’ve dug in.”
“They decided they don’t want it released,” he said. “It’s a
political threat.”
But with Trump sending a strong message and Republican leadership
moving forward with an alternative resolution, Massie was left
looking for support from at least two more Republicans willing to
cross political lines. It would take six GOP members, as well as all
House Democrats, to force a vote on their bill. And even if that
passes the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and be
signed by Trump.
Survivors speak out
Still, the survivors saw this moment as their best chance in years
to gain some justice for what had been done by Epstein. One
survivor, Chauntae Davies said that she remembered feeling powerless
when she saw how Epstein was connected to some of the most rich and
powerful people in the world. Davies said she once traveled to
Africa with Epstein on a trip that included former President Bill
Clinton and other notable figures.
“He bragged about his powerful friends, including current President
Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually,” Davies said.
Now, the women say it's time to reveal a full accounting of everyone
involved or complicit in Epstein's behavior. Several of them are
compiling a list of people who may have been involved, but are still
deliberating whether to release that publicly, fearing potential
repercussions.
Bradley Edwards, an attorney who has represented many of the
survivors, refuted the notion that Epstein kept a list of clients,
but said others were still involved.
“His scheme was to personally abuse women,” Edwards said. “When they
reached a certain age, he did farm a section of them, some of them,
out to some of his friends. That doesn’t mean all of his friends.”
Ultimately, the women said they spoke out in hope that lawmakers and
federal officials would act to ensure that abusers like Epstein are
not let off lightly or allowed to continue their abuse. They were
especially affronted that Maxwell had recently been moved to a
minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
“Justice and accountability are not favors from the powerful. They
are obligations decades overdue” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said
she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, told the rally on the
Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s
going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding
truth, demanding accountability.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
