Politics
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September 3, 2025
The victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell’s sex-trafficking scheme are more and more banding collectively—and will wind up outing extra well-known Epstein prospects on their very own.
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Consultant Ro Khanna speaks throughout a information convention with alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein outdoors the Capitol on September 3. Khanna and Consultant Thomas Massie have launched the Epstein Listing Transparency Act to pressure the federal authorities to launch all unclassified data from the instances of Epstein and his affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
(Andrew Harnik / Getty Photos)
I tuned into Wednesday’s Capitol Hill press convention that includes survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s a long time of intercourse trafficking, out of a way of solidarity however with no expectation of breaking information. I found what was information to me anyway.
Greater than 100 victims had been anticipated to prove and I simply counted dozens; eight spoke. “Minor primary” in federal complaints in opposition to Jeffrey Epstein got here ahead publicly, and movingly, for the primary time. Brazilian immigrant Marina Lascera dropped out of highschool at 14 to offer Epstein with “massages” for $300, so as to assist her mom and sister. It was common sexual abuse.
“Daily I hoped he would provide me an actual job…an assistant? That day by no means got here. I had no means out…till he lastly instructed me I used to be too outdated for him,” Lascera stated immediately. She was 17. When women like her received too outdated, the survivors’ attorneys defined, that’s when Epstein and Maxwell started to site visitors them to males who had been tremendous abusing the older however nonetheless barely authorized women. I didn’t know that. A minimum of 4 of the witnesses who spoke stated they had been recruited at 14.
The ladies and their attorneys got here to Washington to assist an effort by GOP Consultant Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna to pressure a Home vote on releasing the Justice Division’s Epstein recordsdata. You’ll recall that Donald Trump ran on making the recordsdata public, again when his minions insisted they’d implicate highly effective Democrats. When he received into workplace, and Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi discovered the recordsdata contained many mentions of Trump—they could have been completely harmless mentions—all of a sudden the recordsdata weren’t necessary. Bondi launched a stringently redacted model and even right-wingers cried cover-up. The White Home has been digging out of this gap ever since.
Massie has three Republican cosponsors—Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert. He solely wants two extra to pressure the vote. (All 212 Democrats have signed on.) However Trump instantly known as immediately’s Epstein allegations “a Democrat hoax,” and the White Home stated that signing on to Massie’s invoice could be considered as a “very hostile act to the administration.” One other means of claiming it: Republicans who accomplish that may properly face main challenges.
Hours later, they’d no new supporters. However that’s to not say it’s over.
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I used to be struck by survivor Lisa Phillips, an mannequin Epstein recruited with guarantees of profession assist, saying that, within the absence of presidency motion, the more and more bonded group of survivors “will confidentially compile the names everyone knows had been often within the Epstein world. Keep tuned for extra particulars.” I stay up for that.
Survivors’ legal professional Brad Edwards supplied an odd piece of stories that at the very least I didn’t know earlier than: Actual property mogul Donald Trump, not but a politician, supplied to assist him, again in about 2009, along with his case representing survivors. That was complicated; Epstein had simply obtained a sweetheart deal from then–US Lawyer Alex Acosta, pleading responsible to solely two counts of procuring an underage prostitute, although Edwards in addition to state and native legislation enforcement had put collectively a wider case, with many extra victims, involving way more severe crimes. (Epstein served simply over a yr at a minimum-security jail the place he had the day by day proper to come back and go.) Why would Trump attempt to assist in 2009? What might he do? Edwards wouldn’t say.
Edwards additionally refused to reply a query about whether or not there have been any public figures among the many Epstein buddies and associates within the authorities recordsdata (or in his shoppers’ calendars). Understandably. He gave a extra intriguing reply when somebody requested if there may be any cause to imagine Epstein had intelligence ties (which is why Acosta was rumored to have let him off simply). “I’d say have a look at the CIA, FinCen (monetary providers crimes), the SEC, the FBI. Do your jobs,” he stated on the press convention immediately.
A few of Epstein’s victims additionally suffered for his crimes. Haley Robson, recruited at 16, admitted that Epstein made her a deal—she might give him common $300 massages, or she might recruit her highschool buddies to offer them. Tearfully, she stated she selected to recruit others. When the stepmother of a classmate instructed police about Epstein’s predations, Robson, then 18, was handled like his collaborator, not his sufferer: “The police handled me like a legal. I used to be portrayed by the press as a predator.”
Lascera spoke movingly about why releasing the recordsdata was so necessary to her, personally. Like different victims, she doesn’t bear in mind plenty of particulars of her trauma. “The federal government continues to be in possession of the paperwork,” that she stated might assist “put the items of my very own life again collectively.” She went on: “There are individuals on the market who know extra about my abuse than I do. I do know the identical is true for a lot of of those girls.”
Outraged by the suppression of the Epstein recordsdata, these girls appeared much more offended about one thing else: Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche (Trump’s former private legal professional) sitting down with Maxwell for 2 days of softball interviews, after which assigning her (with a Bureau of Prisons waiver, as she’s a sex-offender) to a minimum-security jail close to household in Texas.
A number of described Maxwell’s despicable sucking as much as Trump in her dialog with Blanche. In case you haven’t learn or listened to it, it is best to. The New Yorker’s Ruth Marcus described it this fashion: “To learn the three-hundred-and-thirty-seven-page transcript—much more, to hearken to the audio of Maxwell’s tender voice, her British accent sanded down by a long time in america—is to be horrified, even enraged, by Maxwell’s brazen airbrushing of her conduct, and by Blanche’s placid acceptance of her rendition of occasions.”
Maxwell instructed Blanche that Trump “was at all times very cordial and really sort to me,” praised “his extraordinary achievement in changing into the President,” and lamented that “the President received swept into a few of this unnecessarily.”
And he or she tried to dismiss the rumors, a few of them fueled by Trump’s personal feedback and playboy-photo historical past, that he was a part of Epstein’s sexual/social entourage: “I truly by no means noticed the President in any sort of therapeutic massage setting. I by no means witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any means. The President was by no means inappropriate with anyone. Within the instances that I used to be with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
However in response to Maxwell’s victims on Wednesday, it wasn’t simply what she stated but in addition how she stated it. Listening to “Maxwell’s tender voice, her British accent sanded down by a long time in america,” in Marcus’s phrases, was additionally “triggering” to a few of his victims. “She received this airtime and platform. Her voice was elevated means earlier than our voices had been elevated right here immediately,” stated survivor Teresa Helm, who was recruited by Maxwell. “And the identical calm, manipulative voice that she had—so well mannered, there, that day with Todd Blanche, was the identical well mannered, coercive, manipulative voice that I heard as she was grooming me to then ship me off to the house of Jeffrey Epstein, the place he would assault me.”
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There have been odd disruptions of the occasion. Eight warplanes flew overhead to honor a deceased Polish troopers. Capitol Police loudly warned individuals away from the press convention when the gang received too loud. Some ringer requested a disparaging query concerning the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose brother represented her Wednesday, and the survivors shouted him down.
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“Virginia Roberts Giuffre is an American hero,” Edwards stated. “Most of those girls are right here due to Virginia Roberts Giuffre,” stated one other survivors’ legal professional, Brittany Henderson.
Because the group took questions, many reporters targeted on the notion that the survivors might create their very own “Epstein listing” or consumer e-book, as Lisa Phillips advised. (I’d have requested that too.) Their solutions highlighted the burden borne by survivors of sexual abuse. Some survivors, their attorneys stated, don’t actually need their abusers’ names to turn into public, out of worry. The legal professionals additionally stated that primarily based on their discovery in these many instances, they’ve an Epstein-Maxwell listing too. “Why do we’ve got to say the names when the federal government is aware of the names?” Lisa Phillips requested. “They will launch the names in the event that they need to. We’re scared to say the names.”
Henderson jumped in: “If somebody desires to see the listing to prosecute individuals, positive.”
Somebody requested Marina Lasceda if she’d wish to ship a message to Trump. She had an ideal reply. “Pay attention, I don’t need to ship a direct message to him. I’m already scared sufficient. Simply go the vote. Take heed to us. This isn’t a hoax. It’s not going to go away.”
Joan Walsh
Joan Walsh, a nationwide affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Present and the writer of What’s the Matter With White Folks? Discovering Our Manner within the Subsequent America. Her new e-book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Company Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Defend Revenue, Energy and Wealth In America.
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