A handful of women who were victimized in disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking say they plan to list the wealthy and powerful men who were involved. But they might keep that list to themselves.
The women, speaking in front of the Capitol on Wednesday, urged lawmakers to pass a measure to force the Justice Department to release all of the government files associated with their investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting prosecution.
In the meantime, one of the women said, some of the victims plan to compile their own list of names, although it was not clear who would be included.
“Us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list,” Lisa Philips said. “We know the names. And many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. No one else is involved.”
Epstein victims and House lawmakers spoke for 90 minutes about the need for the government to release every document connected to Epstein. None of the women, however, revealed a single name of a wealthy and powerful Epstein friend who engaged in sex with them while they were part of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.
Ms. Phillips said she’s reaching out to other victims who have been fearful to come forward to find out the names of Epstein’s alleged clients.
She and other women at the press conference said they were “scared” to name the men who were involved, Ms. Phillips said, and the private list she’s making may never be made public.
“Why do we have to say the names when the government knows the names?” Ms. Phillips said.
Bradley Edwards, a lawyer representing some of the victims, said he talked to them about “the various people that they were farmed out to,” and his law firm “created somewhat of a list” of Epstein clients.
But he said that while all of the women were abused by Epstein, only “a section of them” were provided to some of his friends.
“That does not mean all of his friends,” Mr. Edwards said.
Mr. Edwards said he’d be “happy to assist” in creating a list “behind the scenes and see what we do with it.”
The same group of Epstein victims appeared Tuesday on NBC News, where they also remained mum about the men, other than Epstein. All of them said they had never encountered President Trump or former President Bill Clinton, both former Epstein pals, at any of the Epstein properties where the alleged sex crimes took place.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.