Survivors of Jeffrey Epsteins sex trafficking operation are heading back to Capitol Hill on October 8th to demand that Congress force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. And honestly, the fact that they have to keep coming back and begging for this should tell you everything you need to know about how broken the system is.
The’se women – many of whom were abused as teenagers – stood in front of the Capitol in September sharing gut-wrenching stories about what happened to them. One survivor, Marina Lacerda, spoke publicly for the first time about being Minor Victim 1 in Epsteins 2019 federal indictment. She was 14 when she first met him. Another woman, Jena-Lisa Jones, described meeting Epstein when she was 14 and said through tears I had never been more scared in my life than I was that first time that he hurt me.
The press conference was organized by Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna – two congressmen actually trying to do something useful for once. They introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the Justice Department to release all its records within 30 days. Theyre collecting signatures for whats called a discharge petition – a procedural tool that lets them bypass House leadership and force a floor vote if they can get 218 members to sign on.
So far theyve got four Republicans – Massie, Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Lauren Boebert. If all 212 Democrats sign, they only need two more Republicans to hit the magic number. Youd think this would be a slam dunk, right? Transparency, justice for victims, accountability for powerful predators. Who could possibly be against that?
Turns out pretty much everyone in power.
House Speaker Mike Johnson claims the discharge petition is poorly written and doesn’t adequately protect victims. Which is rich coming from someone who met with survivors for over two hours, called them some of the bravest women I have ever met, left the meeting saying there were tears in the room and outrage – and then immediately went back to blocking the very transparency those survivors are begging for.
The Trump administration isn’t helping either. When survivors held their September press conference, Trump had a fighter jet fly overhead to drown them out. Later that day he called the whole thing a Democrat hoax that never ends. One survivor, Haley Robson, had to directly address him: 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 had promised during his campaign that hed release the Epstein files. It was part of his whole drain the swamp shtick about exposing powerful people hiding the truth from the public. Now he’s the powerful person hiding the truth from the public.
The House Oversight Committee did release over 33,000 pages of documents in September. Sounds impressive until you learn that Democrats on the committee say 97 percent of those documents were already public. The only new disclosure was fewer than 1,000 pages from Customs and Border Protection showing flight logs of Epsteins plane from 2000 to 2014.
The Justice Department released a memo in July saying they found no evidence Epstein kept a client list – which is convenient timing considering Attorney General Pam Bondi had said in February that such a document was sitting on her desk. So either Bondi was lying, or the DOJ is lying, or were all supposed to believe a professional blackmailer who trafficked underage girls to powerful men somehow didn’t keep any records of who those men were.
The survivors arent buying it. At the September press conference, they announced they’re working on compiling their own list. Lisa Phillips said survivors are confidentially compiling the names we all know, who were regularly in the Epstein world. Massie and Greene said they’re willing to use their constitutional immunity to name names on the House floor if necessary.
Think about how insane that is. Victims of sex trafficking have to threaten to out their own abusers because the government won’t do it. They have documents with their names on them that were confiscated from Epsteins house – documents that could help them put the pieces of their own life back together according to one survivor – and they can’t get access to their own files.
Multiple surveys show the majority of Americans – including Trump supporters – believe the administration is hiding details about the Epstein case. A Reuters/Ipsos poll from July found that most Americans think theres more to the story than what were being told.
And of course there is. Epstein was connected to presidents, princes, tech billionaires, and Hollywood moguls. His Palm Beach mansion and Manhattan townhouse were essentially honey traps where he collected blackmail material on the rich and powerful. The idea that all those powerful people are just going to let their dirty laundry get aired out is laughable.
What makes this particularly disgusting is how both parties are using the’se womens trauma for political theater. Republicans released documents they knew were already public so they could claim they’re being transparent. Democrats are pushing the discharge petition partly because its good politics to embarrass Trump. Meanwhile the survivors keep having to show up and relive their worst memories in public just to beg for basic accountability.
The discharge petition is still two signatures short. That means two Republicans somewhere are deciding whether standing with rape victims is worth potentially pissing off their leadership. Two people hold the power to force this vote and give the’se women some semblance of justice.
This isn’t complicated. Release the files with redactions to protect victim identities and ongoing investigations. Let the American people see what their government knew and when they knew it. Stop protecting powerful predators and their enablers.
The fact that this is controversial tells you everything about where our priorities are as a country. Well move heaven and earth to protect the reputations of wealthy men but we can’t be bothered to give trafficking survivors access to their own case files.
The’se women are planning to return to the Capitol this week. Theyll stand there again and tell their stories again and plead for transparency again. And Congress will probably find another excuse not to act. Again.