Epstein Survivors Return to Capitol - Still Begging for Justice

The discharge petition is one signature away from forcing a vote on releasing the files

Epstein survivors are scheduled to return to the Capitol on October 8th. They’re planning another press conference demanding Congress force a vote on releasing the files. This will be their second public appearance in a month.

The fact that they have to keep doing this should tell you something.

In September, more than a dozen women stood outside the Capitol and shared what happened to them. Marina Lacerda spoke publicly for the first time as “Minor Victim 1” from Epstein’s 2019 federal indictment. She was 14 when she met him. Jena-Lisa Jones described meeting Epstein at 14 and said through tears, “I had never been more scared in my life than I was that first time that he hurt me.”

Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna organized that press conference. They introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the Justice Department to release all records within 30 days. They’re using a discharge petition to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote if they can get 218 signatures.

So far: four Republicans signed on. Massie, Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert. Every sitting House Democrat has signed, too. That puts the petition at 217 - one short of 218. The last signature is expected from Adelita Grijalva, who won Arizona’s special election in September, as soon as she’s sworn in.

Transparency for trafficking victims. Justice. Accountability. This should pass easily.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson says the petition “does not adequately protect the innocent victims.” Johnson met with survivors the day before the September press conference. He called them “some of the bravest women I have ever met.” He left saying there were “tears in the room” and “outrage.” Then he went right back to blocking the transparency those survivors were begging for.

The Trump administration made things worse. While the September press conference was winding down, Trump sat in the Oval Office with Poland’s president and told reporters the push for the files was a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”

Survivor Haley Robson had to address him directly: “Mr. President, Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican - not that that matters because this is not political - however, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. We are real human beings.”

Trump promised during his campaign he’d release the Epstein files. Part of the whole “drain the swamp” routine about exposing powerful people hiding truth from the public. Now he’s the one hiding it.

The House Oversight Committee released over 33,000 pages in September. Democrats on the committee say 97 percent were already public. The only new disclosure was fewer than 1,000 pages from Customs and Border Protection showing flight logs from 2000 to 2014.

The Justice Department released a memo in July claiming they found no evidence Epstein kept a “client list.” Attorney General Pam Bondi had said in February that document was sitting on her desk. So either Bondi lied, the DOJ is lying now, or we’re supposed to believe a man accused of trafficking underage girls to powerful men somehow didn’t keep records of who those men were.

The survivors aren’t buying it. At the September press conference, they announced they’re compiling their own list. Lisa Phillips said survivors would “confidentially compile the names we all know, who were regularly in the Epstein world.”

Victims of sex trafficking threatening to out their own abusers because the government won’t. They have documents with their names on them confiscated from Epstein’s house. Documents that could help them “put the pieces of their own life back together,” according to one survivor. They can’t access their own files - Marina Lacerda says the unredacted versions should go to survivors themselves.

Multiple surveys show most Americans believe the administration is hiding details about the Epstein case. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from July found that most Americans think there’s more to the story.
Of course there is. Epstein was connected to presidents, princes, tech billionaires, Hollywood moguls. A lot of people believe his Palm Beach mansion and Manhattan townhouse were honey traps where he collected blackmail material on the rich and powerful - even though the Justice Department says it found no evidence he blackmailed prominent figures. The idea that all those people are just going to let their dirty laundry get aired is laughable.

Both parties are using these women’s trauma for political theater. Republicans released documents they knew were already public so they could claim transparency. Democrats are pushing the discharge petition partly because it embarrass Trump.

Meanwhile the survivors keep showing up and reliving their worst memories in public just to beg for basic accountability.

The discharge petition is one signature short. That signature belongs to Adelita Grijalva - and Speaker Johnson has refused to swear her in during the House’s pro forma sessions, even though he swore in Republicans that way earlier this year. One swearing-in is all that stands between these women and a forced vote.

Release the files with redactions to protect victim identities and ongoing investigations. Show the American people what their government knew and when they knew it. Stop protecting wealthy predators and their enablers.

The fact that this is controversial tells you where our priorities are. We’ll move heaven and earth to protect the reputations of wealthy men while trafficking survivors can’t get access to their own case files.
These women will stand at the Capitol again on Wednesday. They’ll tell their stories again. They’ll plead for transparency again. Congress will probably find another excuse not to act.

SOURCES

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5537693-epstein-victims-capitol-hill/

https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/jeffrey-epstein-victims-news-conference-capitol-hill/

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jeffrey-epstein-survivors-set-speak-capitol-hill/story?id=125211468

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-live-epstein-survivors-stand-with-reps-massie-and-khanna-to-push-for-epstein-files-transparency-act

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5483730-epstein-discharge-petition-gop/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/politics/video/jeffrey-epstein-and-survivors-client-list-vrtc

Correction, September 28th, 2026: This essay first said the discharge petition needed two more Republican signatures - by early October it had 217 of the 218 it needed, every sitting House Democrat had signed, and the last signature was waiting on Speaker Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva. It also said Trump had a fighter jet fly over the September press conference to drown out the survivors - the jets that flew that day were a White House welcome for Poland’s president. It also said Johnson called the petition “poorly written” - what he said was that it “does not adequately protect the innocent victims.” It also said the survivors’ next event was on Tuesday - it was Wednesday, October 8th. And it said Johnson met with survivors for over two hours, said Massie and Greene offered to name names on the House floor, and slightly misquoted Lisa Phillips - those lines are fixed or gone.

Update, September 28th, 2026: A few lines now say who says so - that Epstein was accused of trafficking girls to powerful men, that the Justice Department says it found no evidence he blackmailed prominent figures, and that Marina Lacerda wants survivors to get the unredacted files.