A bipartisan event drew many eyes on Capitol Hill on Wednesday as sexual abuse survivors of the since-deceased Jeffrey Epstein spoke about their experiences while calling for Congress to act.
Here are six takeaways from Wednesday’s press conference on Capitol Hill that drew large crowds, as survivors called for a release of the full files related to Epstein.
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EPSTEIN VICTIMS DRAW A HUGE CROWD AT CAPITOL AS THEY DEMAND TRANSPARENCY
- Marina Lacerda breaks her silence
Epstein survivor Marina Lacerda broke her silence Wednesday in an interview with ABC ahead of the press conference, where she revealed details of her working for Epstein from the age of 14 to 17. She was identified as “Minor Victim 1” in Epstein’s 2019 indictment.
“I never thought that I would find myself here; the only reason I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say,” Lacerda said.
Lacerda recalled it as her “worst nightmare,” saying she dropped out of school before ninth grade because she was “needed at the house so often.” She does not remember many of the memories from this time period, explaining this causes her “so much fear and so much confusion,” as her therapist has said her “brain is trying to protect itself.”
“They have documents with my name on them that were confiscated from Jeffrey Epstein’s house and could help me put the pieces of my own life back together,” Lacerda later said.
- The survivors were not notified of Ghislaine Maxwell’s move from Florida to Texas
Ghislaine Maxwell, one of Epstein’s associates, was interviewed earlier this year by senior Department of Justice official Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, where she was being held in prison. She was later moved to a prison in Texas last month that is also deemed “low-security,” but only houses women.
The victims said they were not notified of Maxwell’s move ahead of time, with some of them finding out through social media, while also pushing back on the interview the DOJ conducted.
“Her voice that day was the same voice that sent me off to a monster,” survivor Theresa Helm said of Maxwell’s interview with DOJ Attorney Todd Blanche.
“Nothing can be believed from what she says, because she’s been charged with perjury. I myself could sit there and listen, and as I did, I sat there and listened to this woman’s voice lie, and there was no pushback from Todd Blanche, because does he even have the facts to be able to push back on her? We could sit there and push back. Why didn’t we get to attend that? Why … Why wasn’t even one of us consulted prior to that day in that meeting? And why on earth has she been moved from Florida, to her, it basically is prison spa. … Let’s be real. None of us were consulted,” Helm continued.
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in recruiting and sex trafficking minors. Her confidant, Epstein, killed himself in a New York prison in 2019, where he was facing charges for sex trafficking.
- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) pledges to read a possible list compiled by survivors on House floor
Survivor Lisa Phillips suggested Wednesday that a group of survivors has debated publishing a list of people involved in their case if the DOJ does not release more of the files. Other survivors expressed that they back this effort but shared the sentiment that the duty falls to the DOJ to release information like this, as many of them remain fearful of their safety.
Greene, one of four Republicans who have signed the discharge petition, said she would read the women’s names.
“In Jeffrey Epstein’s home and the places they went with him, they saw the most powerful people in the world in his pictures, and they saw him with those people,” Greene said. “Can you imagine how terrifying it would be to name names like that?”
Greene expressed her understanding of the fear of sharing names, saying the people on the potential list could “sue these women into poverty and homelessness.”
“It’s a scary thing to name names, but I will tell you, I’m not afraid to name names, and so if they want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women,” she continued. “I can do that for them.”
- The demonstrators brought large crowd sizes
Where the survivors spoke outside the Capitol, Greene said it was the biggest crowd size of her time in Congress.
A large crowd of people gathered around holding signs in support of the victims and pushing for the release of the files as the press conference began. Shortly after, Capitol Police moved the protesters over to the side as the victims began speaking to avoid crowding the driveway of the Capitol.
The Epstein files have been a heated nationwide issue this year, gaining a lot of traction in the last few months when the department announced after the July 4 weekend that it had no plans to make any further documents available and affirming that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges related to sex trafficking of minors.
Demonstrators held signs that read “justice for survivors,” “unlock the Epstein files,” “victims’ voices matter,” and many more.
- The survivors want more files to be released and the transparency bill to pass
The survivors repeatedly asked that Congress pass Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) bill, which would require a full release of the files while also providing victim protection as needed. Massie introduced a discharge petition on Tuesday to force a vote on their legislation to release the criminal files on deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“To be clear, the only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing,” survivor Anouska De Georgiou said at the press conference. “You have a choice. Stand with the truth or with the lies that have protected predators for decades.”
At the conference’s closing, Massie made a call to action and urged people to call their members of Congress and urged them to get this bill passed.
“My main call to action is to the people watching these live feeds that are going through these cameras right now: congressmen listen to you, light up their phones, burn down the phone lines here in Washington, DC,” Massie said in closing.
The so-called “discharge petition” must reach 218 signatures for it to force the speaker to call a vote on it. After the petition reaches that threshold, the member can call a vote after seven legislative days. Most, if not all, Democrats are expected to sign the petition, meaning only six Republicans would need to cross party lines to add their names.
Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Greene signed on to the discharge petition after Mace left a House Oversight Committee meeting with the victims in tears. Along with Massie, they are the only Republicans on the petition as of Wednesday. Massie and Khanna would need two more Republicans and all Democrats to reach the necessary signatures.
- Trump clapped back as the press conference took place
While Massie and Khanna held the press conference for their transparency bill and discharge petition, President Donald Trump held his own press conference, repeating his previous comments calling the situation a “hoax.”
“This is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more, and nobody’s ever satisfied,” Trump told reporters Wednesday at White House, referring to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Trump and the Justice Department have sought to move past the Epstein files since it became a major point of contingency for the administration in July.
“From what I understand, I could check, but from what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given,” Trump said. “But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”
One victim addressed the president’s comments when asked by a reporter.
“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,” she said.
These comments come as factions of the GOP have fought to dampen the heat from this issue since July.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) added a new bill to the floor that passed just hours after the press conference on Wednesday, which would direct the House Oversight Committee to “continue its ongoing investigation” into Epstein, in leadership’s latest effort to appease the members of the GOP caucus on the issue. The Oversight Committee released 33,000 pages on Epstein, just hours after the discharge petition opened. Throughout the week, the White House has sent a political warning to Republicans who tried to join Massie’s effort.
Even as the GOP works to dampen the issue, Democrats are not letting up. The top Senate Finance Democrat released a list of 58 individuals and entities with Epstein ties on Wednesday.
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“The Treasury records shine a light on how high-profile individuals paid Epstein staggering sums of money, which was then used to move women around the world or engage in dubious transactions indicative of money laundering,” Senate Finance ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) wrote.
“They also show how U.S. financial institutions turned a blind eye to the financing of Epstein’s criminal network, simply waiving the payments through without properly reporting them to U.S. authorities in a timely fashion, as required by law. Financial institutions, attorneys, and agents actively participated in Epstein’s illegal operations or were grossly negligent,” he continued.