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, . 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 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 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. , 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.
The Oversight Committee on 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. , 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 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 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.”
