| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
Requesting More Information
00:15:02
|
||
| It goes further than the discharge petition. | ||
| It requests more information than the discharge even encompasses. | ||
| For example, the Epstein estate documents, which is a treasure trove of information, not referenced in the discharge. | ||
| I think it goes further, and it has the force of law because we have subpoena authorities that's already being complied with. | ||
| So it makes the discharge irrelevant and unnecessary. | ||
| And what it does is it makes the rule vote really, really important because everybody who wants disclosure, full and maximum transparency and disclosure of Epstein, has a vote today to be able to affirm this. | ||
| And that's a good question. | ||
| Now you're able to move on to other issues. | ||
| Well, in terms of the full Congress, but what we're going to do is effectively deputize the Oversight Committee, which is the Committee of Appropriate Jurisdiction, to go do a deep dive on this. | ||
| And I think they're going to uncover things that have never been uncovered before. | ||
| One of the things that came out of the meeting that we had yesterday with the six victims that told the most horrific stories, we also had four of their lawyers there. | ||
| Two of these lawyers have been working on this for 20 years. | ||
| That's when the civilization began. | ||
| They know where everything is, right? | ||
| And so they can inform us and we can utilize them as a resource to go deeper and get the full disclosure on everything. | ||
| And I think you're going to find a full commitment of the whole Congress on that. | ||
| But the Oversight Committee will be leading, and Jamie Commerce is going to do a great job on it. | ||
| Thanks, guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
See you later. | |
| Representatives Roe Conna, Thomas Massey, and Marjorie Taylor Green held a press conference calling on lawmakers to sign a discharge petition that would compel the release of all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. | ||
| They were joined by multiple survivors of Epstein's abuse, as well as their attorneys who spoke to their experience and asked the public to support the release of the files. | ||
| From Capitol Hill, this is about. | ||
| Please, if we could just out of respect for particularly the survivors who are going to speak, if we could have some silence. | ||
| And if folks could just please calm down, you can people can speak when members of Congress are speaking. | ||
| I just want to make sure that the victims and survivors are going to be heard today. | ||
| I want to begin by thanking Brittany Henderson and Brad Edwards for their tireless work in the pursuit of justice. | ||
| And I want to thank Sarah Drury on my team for working with them. | ||
| Above all, I want to thank the survivors who are here today, whose courage and strength have brought us to this moment. | ||
| I want to thank my co-lead, Congressman Thomas Massey, and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green for standing with survivors here today. | ||
| Today, as you can see, we're united in restoring trust in government. | ||
| We're here not as partisans, we're here as patriots. | ||
| We begin the work of bringing this country together: progressives, independents, moderates, and yes, mega supporters, to demand truth and justice. | ||
| A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core. | ||
| Americans are asking a very simple question: How is it possible that in the richest, most powerful country in the world, there are corrupt special interest forces, both foreign or domestic, that are preventing the release, that have a stranglehold on our government and are preventing the release of the full Epstein files. | ||
| There is something that is rotten in Washington. | ||
| Less than 1% of these files have been released. | ||
| We are demanding today on the discharge petition that all of the files be released. | ||
| We know we have 212 Democrats and we have four Republicans, courageous Republicans like Thomas Massey, Nancy Mace, who was so emotional yesterday after talking to the survivors, Congresswoman Boebert and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| We need just two more signatures to force the release. | ||
| So we gather here on the steps of the Capitol to confront these corrupt forces. | ||
| Today we stand with survivors. | ||
| We stand against big money. | ||
| We stand to protect America's children. | ||
| That is really what this is about. | ||
| I now want to bring up my Republican colleague, Thomas Massey. | ||
| He has shown so much courage, so much leadership. | ||
| And I saw some people, I say the same thing about Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| She has shown so much courage on this issue. | ||
| I saw some people when I was coming here calling her names. | ||
| We've got to stop that. | ||
| We've got to stop the partisanship on this issue. | ||
| This is an issue where they both have shown real courage and leadership, and I appreciate them joining us today. | ||
| Congressman Massey. | ||
| I want to thank my colleague Ro Conna for co-leading this effort to bring transparency and justice for these victims. | ||
| I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference. | ||
| I want them to think: what if this was your sister? | ||
| What if this was your daughter? | ||
| When these survivors speak, the Washington establishment is asking the American public to believe something that is not believable. | ||
| They're asking you to believe that two individuals created hundreds of victims and they acted alone, and that the DOJ has no idea of who else might have been involved, that nobody else did anything that rose to a criminal enterprise. | ||
| The American people know that's not true. | ||
| Now, the Speaker of the House just offered a fig leaf to my colleagues. | ||
| They're going to vote on a non-binding resolution today that does absolutely nothing. | ||
| I appreciate the efforts of my colleague James Comer, who's leading the Oversight Committee. | ||
| They may find some information, but they're allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them. | ||
| If you've looked at the pages they've released so far, they're heavily redacted. | ||
| Some pages are entirely redacted. | ||
| And 97% of this is already in the public domain. | ||
| So I'm calling on my colleagues, be one of the next two who sponsors this discharge petition. | ||
| I think it's shameful that this has been called a hoax. | ||
| Hopefully today, we can clear that up. | ||
| This is not a hoax. | ||
| This is real. | ||
| There are real survivors. | ||
| There are real victims to this criminal enterprise. | ||
| And the perpetrators are being protected because they're rich and powerful and political donors to the establishment here in Washington, D.C. | ||
| So today we're standing with these survivors and we're giving them a voice. | ||
| And I want to close by thanking them. | ||
| They are brave. | ||
| I hope they encourage other survivors to come forward and to tell their stories, not just of Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell, but anywhere in the country. | ||
| This is a message that we are sending. | ||
| This is a litmus test. | ||
| Can we drain the swamp? | ||
| Are there people who are outside of the reach of the law? | ||
| I don't think there should be. | ||
| So hopefully today we'll get two more signatures on the discharge petition. | ||
| That's all we need. | ||
| And with that, I want to introduce the bravest woman in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| I find it interesting that the three Republican co-sponsors are women. | ||
| These are women standing up for women. | ||
| And Marjorie was the first to do it. | ||
| And I think she deserves all of our gratitude for breaking that barrier and leading the way for the other Republicans. | ||
| Hopefully, they can find their spines as well. | ||
| And with that, I give you Marjorie Taylor Greene. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| This is my fifth year in Congress, and this is the largest press conference that I've seen since I've been here. | ||
| And this is because this is an issue that matters so much to Americans. | ||
| This is an issue that doesn't have political boundaries. | ||
| It's an issue that Republicans and Democrats should never fight about. | ||
| As a matter of fact, it's such an important issue that it should bring us all together. | ||
| It's grieved me to watch the arguments and debates take place among my colleagues and even the administration. | ||
| I think this is something that is worth fighting for. | ||
| You see, the women behind me are going to tell you stories that you've never heard before. | ||
| These are unimaginable horrors that they've lived with for their entire lives since they were very, very young. | ||
| But these are also similar stories that many children, teenagers, women, and even men are enduring nightmares right now as we speak. | ||
| You see, these women have been fighting since the 1990s. | ||
| I heard one woman tell us yesterday since 1996, and they have carried with them shame. | ||
| But I want to tell you something. | ||
| The shame does not fall on these brave, courageous women. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that coldly turned a blind eye to their abuse. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that enabled it. | ||
| The shame falls on every single person that to continue it. | ||
| And the shame falls on the people in power over the past several decades that protected the monster, Jeffrey Epstein, and his cabal that continued a nightmare. | ||
| Those people deserve the shame. | ||
| And today, we are coming forward and we are going to fight like hell for these women because we have to fight like hell for those that are enduring sexual abuse and are living in a prison of shame. | ||
| Anyone that is being abused, it is not your fault. | ||
| You should live with no guilt or fear or shame. | ||
| All of the fault belongs to the evil people that do these things to the innocent. | ||
| This is the most important fight we can wage here in Congress is fighting for innocent people that never received justice. | ||
| And the women behind me have never received justice. | ||
| And do you want to know why? | ||
| It's because Jeffrey Epstein somehow was able to walk among the most rich, powerful people, not only in America, but foreign countries. | ||
| Yesterday, I heard countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, and even Israel and other countries. | ||
| The truth needs to come out. | ||
| And the government holds the truth. | ||
| The cases that are sealed hold the truth. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein's estate holds the truth. | ||
| The FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA holds the truth. | ||
| And the truth we are demanding come out on behalf of these women, but also as a strong message to every innocent child, teenager, woman, and man that is being held captive in abuse. | ||
| This should never happen in America, and it should never be a political issue that divides us. | ||
| And I want to thank Roe Conna and Thomas Massey for doing something brave, crossing political boundaries for a very important fight. | ||
| And I'm honored to join both of them. | ||
| And I'm honored that Nancy Mace and Lauren Bobert signed the discharge petition along with myself. | ||
| And I asked my Republican colleagues not to choose just one path for justice and transparency and accountability, but I asked my Republican colleagues to choose every path for justice and accountability and transparency. | ||
| And with that, I'd like to bring back Congressman Rocana to start this important press conference. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Congresswoman Green, for your courage and for being here. | ||
| And thank you again to Congressman Massey for co-leading it. | ||
| I now would like to introduce two people who have been fighting this for decades. | ||
| They haven't had their voice heard. | ||
| The victims haven't been heard. | ||
| They haven't just been on this in the last few months. | ||
| They've been doing this in the wilderness for years. | ||
| And they are really models of courage. | ||
| Bradley Edwards and Brittany Henderson, who are the attorneys for the victims. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you, Roe and Thomas Massey. | ||
| I really appreciate you putting forth this discharge petition. | ||
| It's tough to understand that we have to be here because this doesn't seem like a partisan issue. | ||
| This is an issue. | ||
| Sex trafficking and sexual abuse transcends politics. | ||
| We as Americans expect equal protection under the law and there can be no doubt that Jeffrey Epstein received far greater protection than any of the victims that he abused for years. | ||
| In 2008, Courtney Wilde walked into my office because she was a part of a federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein where all she wanted was the government to talk to her. | ||
| Little did she know the government had worked out a secret immunity deal for Jeffrey Epstein and we had to file Jane Does versus United States of America to prove that Jeffrey Epstein worked out an illegal non-prosecution agreement with the government. | ||
| That was 2008. | ||
| It took us 10 years battling the government pro bono for the judge to ultimately determine that the victims' rights were violated. | ||
| The government has mistreated them after Jeffrey Epstein mistreated them. | ||
| We then filed civil lawsuits against Gillen Maxwell, which has resulted in her being in prison. | ||
| Our civil lawsuits led to her prosecution. | ||
| We filed lawsuits against Jeffrey Epstein, against his estate, and against two financial institutions, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank, that proved that they provided, knowingly provided the financial infrastructure for a sex trafficking operation. | ||
|
Protecting Survivors' Rights
00:12:16
|
||
| Unfortunately, all of the documents and evidence that we have worked so hard to gather hide behind protective orders, confidentiality agreements, and bank secrecy laws. | ||
| That is why this discharge petition is so important. | ||
| While we have seen the documents, you haven't. | ||
| And when you see the documents, you're going to be appalled. | ||
| And the American people deserve to see everything. | ||
| When you sign this discharge petition, it should mean nothing is off limits. | ||
| That means the documents in the possession of the CIA should be made available. | ||
| Those in the possession of the FBI going back decades should be made available. | ||
| SEC, financial records in the possession of FinCEN should be made available. | ||
| Everybody knows that evil, evil flourishes in the darkness. | ||
| Corruption flourishes in secrecy. | ||
| It is time right now to make a difference for the women that are behind me right now. | ||
| They have been courageous and fought through this whole thing. | ||
| Whether you're a Republican or you're a Democrat, this one is an easy call. | ||
| You're an American who cares about equal rights and equal protection under the law. | ||
| If you care about these women, if you care about our country and you care about this issue, this should pass with flying colours. | ||
| I really appreciate everybody being here. | ||
| Hi, good morning. | ||
| My name is Brittany Henderson, and I think in addition to thanking the wonderful congressmen and women who are here today, we need to thank the women and not just the women who are going to speak, but the other women who are standing behind them, along with other lawyers, Sigrid McCauley, and people who have been fighting for a very, very long time for the world to give this kind of attention to an issue that it should have had forever. | ||
| This administration has the opportunity to do what the past administrations did not do. | ||
| This administration can either stand with the victims and stand for the victims, or it can continue to hurt the victims like has happened in the past. | ||
| We aren't here just to ask for transparency though. | ||
| We're here to ask for protection. | ||
| The women here represent hundreds of other women who we have spoken to, many of whom were trafficked from other countries, from Eastern European countries where women don't have the rights that we have here. | ||
| Women don't have the protections that we have here. | ||
| And those women are terrified that their names will be released in these files. | ||
| The government won't know that they're victims to redact and protect them. | ||
| So we ask that you please, whoever is going to be in charge of redacting these files and in charge of this transparency, do it in a way that protects the women brave enough to be here, but also protects the women who are terrified that every day when they turn the TV on, something bad is going to happen to them in Ukraine, in Russia, in whatever country they live in, because no one is listening to them there. | ||
| So thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you for listening and please protect these women while we seek transparency. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| My name is Zanushka DiGiorgio and I stand before you today as a survivor of both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghillenne Maxwell. | ||
| I want to thank Congressman Massey and Cana for their role in putting together this very, very important bill. | ||
| Every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health. | ||
| But I am here. | ||
| I chose to come because this bill really matters. | ||
| I speak today not only in service of my own recovery from trauma inflicted by Maxwell and Epstein, but to honour the lives, the courage and sacrifices of Virginia Duffray, Caroline Andreano and others who could not continue. | ||
| Their voices mattered. | ||
| Their stories must not be forgotten. | ||
| Accountability is what makes a society civilized. | ||
| Equal opportunity and equal consequence for all. | ||
| Consequences are not about punishment alone. | ||
| They exist to deter future harm, to protect vulnerable and to set a standard of justice. | ||
| If Guillenne Maxwell were pardoned, it would undermine all the sacrifices I made to testify and make mockery of mine and all survivors suffering. | ||
| That is why the Epstein Files Transparency Act is so essential. | ||
| It requires the Department of Justice release all the records related to Epstein and Maxwell investigations, flight logs, immunity deals, internal communications and even the records surrounding Epstein's detention and death. | ||
| And crucially, it forbids withholding documents simply because of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity. | ||
| This is about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root. | ||
| But transparency alone is not enough. | ||
| Survivors need protection, resources, and legal support. | ||
| If this Congress is serious about justice, then let this moment also affirm your commitment to provide victims with the legal aid they need to confront abusers, to navigate complex systems and to reclaim their power. | ||
| Transparency must be matched by support, or else too many victims will remain silent out of fear and lack of access. | ||
| The statistics demand action. | ||
| Nearly one in five women in America will experience rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. | ||
| Every 74 seconds, someone is sexually assaulted. | ||
| Every nine minutes, that person is a child. | ||
| These are not numbers. | ||
| They are people. | ||
| They are your daughters, your sons, your constituents, your friends. | ||
| Statistically, one in five of your families will face this nightmare. | ||
| The days of sweeping this under the rug are over. | ||
| We, the survivors, say no more. | ||
| I want to help create where survivors of sexual abuse and abuse of power can come forward safely. | ||
| And I ask Congress to join me in that effort, not only by passing this bill, but by ensuring that those who step forward have legal support to face their abusers and see justice done. | ||
| When Judge Berman gave Epstein survivors the chance to finally speak, the world listened. | ||
| After so many years, survivors were heard. | ||
| That moment was historic. | ||
| And so is this moment. | ||
| For me, the turning point was when I had my daughter. | ||
| And on the day she was born, I knew I had a responsibility to protect her and to protect all children. | ||
| I have to use my voice, the voice that had been silenced by fear and shame for so many years. | ||
| Make no mistake, my polished exterior is a shield hiding a wound that still bleeds. | ||
| But through this wound, I have found purpose to be part of lasting change in how we confront exploitation and abuse. | ||
| And to be clear, the only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing. | ||
| You have a choice. | ||
| Stand with the truth or with the lies that have protected predators for decades. | ||
| I am no longer weak. | ||
| I am no longer powerless. | ||
| And I'm no longer alone. | ||
| And with your vote, neither will the next generation be. | ||
| President Trump, you have so much influence and power in this situation. | ||
| Please use that influence and power to help us because we need it now and this country needs it now. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| My name is Annie Farmer and I was 16 years old when I was blown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and Maxwell. | ||
| That same year, 1996, my sister, Maria Farmer, reported what happened to me there, along with reporting her own assault at their hands and their theft of sensitive photos of herself, of me, and our younger sister that she had taken for her work as a figurative painter. | ||
| I am now 46 years old. | ||
| 30 years later, we still do not know why that report wasn't properly investigated or why Epstein and his associates were allowed to harm hundreds, if not thousands, of other girls and young women. | ||
| We have never been told whether those images were found when they discovered a large amount of child sexual abuse material on his property. | ||
| As a psychologist, I understand that when the systems meant to protect us recreate the abuse cycle, the betrayal that occurs can be just as damaging as the original trauma. | ||
| This happens when survivors of these crimes are not believed, when our well-being is not weighed as heavily as those who have more resources or more privilege, and when perpetrators of these crimes are given a platform rather than the survivors of them. | ||
| For so many years, it felt like Epstein's criminal behavior was an open secret. | ||
| Not only did many others participate in the abuse, it is clear that many were aware of his interest in girls and very young women and chose to look the other way because it benefited them to do so. | ||
| They wanted access to his circle and his money. | ||
| Their choice to align with his power left those of us who had been harmed by this man and his associates feeling very isolated. | ||
| I could never have imagined being here today and this chorus of support that we have all received. | ||
| I have been sent so many notes and messages from people with no direct connection to this case who have expressed their solidarity with us. | ||
| And I believe that is because in part, as Anoushka So explained so well, this is an extremely widespread issue of child sexual abuse, of sexual exploitation, of sexual violence. | ||
| This affects almost every family in some way. | ||
| From my conversations with women in these last few days and from all of the support that we've received, it's very clear to me that we are not going away, we are not going to be quiet, and we are not going to give up. | ||
| And I ask the American public to stand with us and not give up. | ||
| At a time with record high levels of distrust in our institutions and a perception that there are two Americas, one for those with power and privilege and one for everyone else, passing this Epstein Transparency Bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side with sexual perpetrators. | ||
| A thorough public review of this information is an important step in preventing the type of systemic failures that have occurred in this case and harmed all of us. | ||
| An important step towards healing for those involved. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Hello, everyone. | ||
| I'd like to say thank you everyone for being here today on this very powerful and special day for all of us here. | ||
| My name is Marina Lacerda. | ||
| I was minor victim one in federal indictment of Jeffrey Epstein in New York in 2019. | ||
| I was one of dozen of girls that I personally know who were forced into Jeffrey's mansion on 9 East 71st Street in New York City when we were just kids. | ||
|
Why We Saved Many
00:10:12
|
||
| Today is the first time that I ever speak publicly about what happened to me. | ||
| I never thought that I would find myself here. | ||
| The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say. | ||
| As an immigrant from Brazil, I feel empowered knowing that the little girl struggling to get by at 14 and 15 years old finally has a voice. | ||
| For the first time, I feel like I matter as an American. | ||
| I was only 14 years old when I met Jeffrey. | ||
| It was the summer of high school. | ||
| I was working three jobs to try to support my mom and my sister when a friend of mine in the neighborhood told me that I could make $300 to give an older guy a massage. | ||
| It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare. | ||
| Jeffrey assistant Leslie Groff would call me and tell me that I needed to be at the house so often that I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade. | ||
| And I never went back. | ||
| From 14 to 17 years old, I went and worked for Jeffrey instead of receiving an education. | ||
| Every day I hoped that he would offer me a real job as one of his assistants or something, something important. | ||
| I would finally have made it big, as like we say, the American dream. | ||
| That day never came. | ||
| I had no way. | ||
| I had no way out. | ||
| I was until he finally told me that I was too old. | ||
| There are many pieces of my story that I can't remember no matter how hard I try. | ||
| The constant state of wonder causes me so much fear and so much confusion. | ||
| My therapist says that my brain is just trying to protect itself, but it's so hard to begin to heal knowing that there are people out there who know more about my abuse than I do. | ||
| The worst part is that the government is still in possession right now of the documents and information about that con that could help me remember and get over all of this maybe and help me heal. | ||
| 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. | ||
| But I don't have any of it. | ||
| And I know the same is true for many of these women. | ||
| We are here to support this bill today, not only for transparency, but for the American people. | ||
| But if the government is going to release these documents to the public describing the crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein and others, the least that they can do is give me my documents that they have about me. | ||
| The other survivors deserve the same respect from our government. | ||
| While our identifying information must be redacted to the public, it is equally important to provide the victims themselves with unredacted information. | ||
| I will never forget when the FBI agents showed up in my door in 2008. | ||
| Jeffrey Epstein hired a lawyer to represent me, or more like to represent him, I'd like to say. | ||
| I couldn't ask any questions, and I had no idea what was going on. | ||
| I was terrified. | ||
| Until today, I think most of us are still terrified. | ||
| I thought somebody was going to kill me. | ||
| I thought something was going to happen to my sister or my mother. | ||
| It went further out to even maybe thinking something would happen in Brazil with my family. | ||
| And then one day, the lawyer said that everything was just going to go away. | ||
| Like nothing happened. | ||
| I didn't need to testify. | ||
| When I asked him why, he gave no explanation. | ||
| That was it. | ||
| So why? | ||
| Why was I never called to testify then? | ||
| We could have saved so many women. | ||
| We could have saved so many lives from being abused. | ||
| Why did he get away with it in 2008? | ||
| Why was he able to go on in the abuse with hundreds of girls after the Florida investigation? | ||
| Why didn't they let me testify to help stop him? | ||
| Our government could have saved so many women, but Jeffrey Epstein was too important and those women didn't matter. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Well, we matter now. | ||
| We are here today and we are speaking and we are not going to stop speaking. | ||
| Today, I stand here with the women who have really helped me to find the strength to come out and come forward to share my story for the very first time. | ||
| Together, we are stronger than ever. | ||
| While she may not be with us, Virginia Roberts, we will continue to use our voices to strengthen yours always. | ||
| thank you. | ||
| Hi, my name is Courtney Wild. | ||
| I just wanted to take a second and just have a moment of silence for all the women survivors that aren't here with us today that passed away due to anxiety, depression, trying to keep up with this case. | ||
| A moment of silence, please. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My name is Courtney Wilde. | ||
| I was only 14 years old when I was introduced to Jeffrey Epstein by a 13-year-old friend of mine. | ||
| The details of the abuse that he inflicted on me for years is not important today. | ||
| In 2028, I was cooperating with the federal government and the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| They sent me a letter telling me to be patient because this was going to be a lengthy investigation, but at the same time, they refused to talk to me and tell me what was going on. | ||
| So I hired an attorney, Brad Edwards, because I was hopeful to get some answers. | ||
| When I walked into his office at 19 years old, Brad sued the government for refusing to tell me what was going on under the Crime Victims Rights Act. | ||
| The only reason anyone ever found out that the government had already given Jeffrey Epstein immunity through the non-prosecution agreement was because our lawsuit forced the government to tell us. | ||
| Otherwise, nobody would even know that today. | ||
| Sometimes it's hard to believe that I had to sue the United States just to learn that my abuser was given immunity. | ||
| I started as Jane Doe, but I decided to I was proud enough to take on our country and I was on the right side of history. | ||
| We fought the government for 10 years to prove that the government violated our rights as crime victims and the crime victims' rights in order to protect a pedophile. | ||
| We had to win the 11th Circuit Court appeals to force the government to turn over thousands of pages of emails between Jeffrey Epstein and the government. | ||
| Those emails provided the proof that the government worked very hard with Jeffrey Epstein to violate our rights. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Why did the government work so hard to protect Jeffrey and not so hard to protect me and my other innocent friends? | ||
| Why was Jeffrey so important to the government and why was I so insignificant? | ||
| Why did nobody but our lawyers care before now? | ||
| It seems people have only started to care because of Twitter and politics. | ||
| But I would like to say this has nothing to do with politics. | ||
| This is not a blue thing or a red thing. | ||
| This is an everyone thing. | ||
| We can all agree on this. | ||
| The injustice that has happened here, multiple, over and over. | ||
| Everybody that talks about this just seems to make it worse. | ||
| We need transparency. | ||
| It's time for us to see beyond the curtain. | ||
| Why was Jeffrey Epstein so protected? | ||
| Who is still being protected? | ||
| And who protected them all so the world can understand how Jeffrey was able to abuse so many of us for so long. | ||
| I was lucky to have Brad Edwards, Brittany Henderson, and Paul Cassell take on my case pro bono and fight fearlessly over 20 years time. | ||
| I would like to thank them and I'd also like to ask the Trump administration to please sign off on the Crime Victims Rights Reformed Act, the Courtney Wilde Crime Victims Rights Reformed Act that we're trying to get passed here so we can close the loopholes in the CVRA case that Epstein's attorney used to their benefit to get away with this. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| First and foremost, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to Brad and Brittany Edwards, Congressman Massey and Conna, and above all, the brave survivors who have entrusted us with the privilege of speaking today on behalf of Virginia. | ||
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Survivors' Freedom
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unidentified
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Robert Stuffre as her family. | |
| We are here today because we support H.Res.581, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, in its entirety. | ||
| But as much as this bill is about shining a light on truth, it's not just about the bill. | ||
| This is about justice. | ||
| This is about survivors. | ||
| This is about justice against the rich and powerful who have stolen something from these women and many children at the time. | ||
| Their freedom. | ||
| The freedom to live their life without mental and physical scars that have been inflicted upon them by those who thought they were untouchable. | ||
| The same freedom that these monsters took from these survivors, they should never be afforded. | ||
| They should never be allowed to continue their lives with impunity. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| This is not a political issue. | ||
| This is not about left or right. | ||
| This is about humanity. | ||
| This is about doing what's right. | ||
| And this is about ensuring that the future we leave behind isn't one where the powerful can hide behind their wealth, their influence, and their money to evade justice. | ||
| Our plea to you, whether you're a dad, a mom, a brother, or a sister, look your young ones in the face. | ||
| Look them in the eye and tell them you didn't stand against the very people who raped, molested, and preyed upon children and young women. | ||
| Tell them you were willing to negotiate a deal. | ||
| Money should never be what makes something right or wrong. | ||
| If you vote no, your stance will be clear. | ||
| You will be choosing to stand on the side of the rich and powerful, allowing money to buy your way out of the consequence. | ||
| But here's my one ask. | ||
| Look these survivors in the eye and tell them why. | ||
| Then look the people of the United States in the eye and tell them why. | ||
| And then, when you're alone, look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself why. | ||
| Virginia said it best, and I quote: I have physical and mental scars that will never heal. | ||
| I have memories that will never go away. | ||
| They say time can heal, but this won't. | ||
| Not until the justice system makes an example out of these people with so-called privileges. | ||
| I just call it money. | ||
| The only time I can begin to heal is when their freedom is taken from them, just like they did to me and literally thousands of other victims. | ||
| The survivors of this horrific abuse are watching. | ||
| The American people are watching. | ||
| And history is watching. | ||
| Which side will you be on? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My name is Jenalisa Jones, and I was only 14 years old when my friend brought me over to Jeffrey Epstein's house in Palm Beach in 2003. | ||
| I had a terrible home life, but I was such an innocent kid then. | ||
| I always did my best in school, and I had such a positive outlook on life. | ||
| Until that day that I met Jeffrey, I have never been more scared in my life than I was that first time that he hurt me. | ||
| I remember crying the entire way home, thinking about how I couldn't ever tell anyone about what actually happened in that house. | ||
| This guy was so rich and had so many pictures with so many famous people, and no one would have ever believed me if I told them. | ||
| I want to thank Congressman Roe and Congressman Thomas Massey for having me here today. | ||
| It was really hard for me to find my voice and to become strong enough to speak about my abuse. | ||
| I didn't come forward until 2019, and even when, and even then, it was like I was afraid of a ghost. | ||
| I know that I was just a little kid, but sometimes I still feel like it is my fault that this happened. | ||
| Being given the opportunity to speak at the United States Capitol building about something that is so important, not just to me and the women before you, but to the entire country. | ||
| Together, we can finally make a change, and that is thanks to the people like these two congressmen and their teams who actually care about the victims. | ||
| If you are a member of Congress and you are listening to all of us speak here today, please really listen to us. | ||
| Please vote for this bill to be passed. | ||
| Please recognize how important it is for transparency relating to Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this does not matter. | ||
| This is not about sides. | ||
| You are an American and you are a person who has chosen to serve in an elected position to stand up for those you represent who cannot always stand up for themselves. | ||
| We are those people. | ||
| We are the Americans that you promised to protect. | ||
| And we need your help. | ||
| Please, President Trump, pass this bill and help us. | ||
| Make us feel like our voices are finally being heard. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good afternoon. | |
| My name is Haley Robson. | ||
| I was a 16-year-old high school student athlete who made good grades and had high aspirations for college when I was recruited and asked by a classmate of mine alongside with a 20-year-old male if I wanted to give an old rich guy a massage. | ||
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Predator's Demand
00:15:43
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| But what high school girl would not want to do that? | ||
| That day changed my life forever. | ||
| And when I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him. | ||
| My eyes welled up with tears and I have never been more scared in my life. | ||
| When it was over, he paid me $200 and requested in exchange that I bring a girl each time to make another $200. | ||
| I told him I did not want to do that and then he gave me an ultimatum. | ||
| Either you come here and massage me when I call you or you bring me friends of yours to massage and I will give you $200 per girl for each time she comes. | ||
| I felt and hoped to never hear from him again, but he called me every day. | ||
| He was so wealthy and powerful and he would not let me go. | ||
| I felt I had no choice. | ||
| If I disobeyed him, I knew something bad would happen. | ||
| So knowing I did not want to be sexually abused, I'm sorry, I started to bring him other girls from my high school and he paid me $200, $200 for bringing them. | ||
| I just hoped each time it would be the last time. | ||
| One day, the stepmom of one of the girls brought him and called the police on Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| The police then called me, called me in for questioning. | ||
| I had told them the truth despite the fact that I was a teenager and a minor and I was able to tell the police the names of all the other victims. | ||
| The police treated me like a criminal. | ||
| I had by this time had turned 18. | ||
| I had been with Jeffrey since I was 16 and for two years. | ||
| So they had told me I distribute to the so they told me I was going to be arrested. | ||
| My name was then distributed to the press as a co-conspirator of my abuser who I detested. | ||
| My entire world was crashing in around me and I started being threatened and bullied till this day still receiving death threats. | ||
| I was singled out and for many years had to suffer a smear campaign of lies about me because of the way that I was portrayed by the press. | ||
| The press made me out to be a predator when I was just a 16 year old little girl who was sexually abused by a powerful man and an evil man. | ||
| For years I had no friends. | ||
| My boyfriend was murdered and there was nowhere to turn. | ||
| The government after investigating more learned that I was true a victim, but the damage was done and it was too late. | ||
| There was no way to undo the harm the press had caused me. | ||
| In 2019 I met Brad and Brittany, I met Brad Edwards and Brittany Henderson. | ||
| They changed my life and they believed in me and have helped me to finally heal. | ||
| Healing is a process and I may never get there. | ||
| But the passage of this bill requiring the government to produce all the evidence that it has gathered on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghelaine Maxwell is a huge component of healing for me and for the many other women who have suffered for so long. | ||
| For many reasons. | ||
| First, we and the rest of the world need answers. | ||
| Why was he so protected and why didn't anyone ever care to stop him? | ||
| It doesn't take a brain surgeon to know that if he is spending thousands of dollars a day paying high school girls he abuses and other access to and had a lot of access to cash. | ||
| I learned through my attorneys in the JPM JP Morgan class action case that there were years when his staff withdrew over a million dollars in cash a year. | ||
| Was that not a big enough red flag? | ||
| There were riot transfers to other victims and the government did not protect us. | ||
| The banks did not protect us. | ||
| So lift the curtain on these files and be transparent. | ||
| Every single time a new conspiracy gets circulated in the media, whether he is still alive, what powerful person had him murdered, who was on the Epstein client list, and there are names going around on TikTok and Instagram. | ||
| We, the survivors, are suffering severely. | ||
| We take our kids to school and everyone is talking about it. | ||
| We can't read the news or do anything without hearing crazy stories that are only able to live on because the government continues to hide the evidence and the truth. | ||
| So people just make up stories. | ||
| Those stories hurt. | ||
| They hurt real people, real people who have already been hurt. | ||
| And we have lost so many Epstein victims to suicide and maintaining the real truth and secrecy only allows for conspiracy theorists to tell lies that drives up our anxiety and fears and will continue to lead to more pain, more suffering, and honestly more deaths of innocent victims. | ||
| It's time you do what is right by us. | ||
| Unseal all the documents. | ||
| We are requesting transparency. | ||
| And I am requesting every Congressman and woman that goes against this bill be outed. | ||
| I want to know. | ||
| Thank y'all. | ||
| Tear into the press and tear into Congress. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Full respect. | |
| Hi there, my name is Lisa Phillips, and I'm the host of a ward-nominated podcast called From Now On, a platform supporting survivors. | ||
| I want to thank all of my survivor sisters who came before me today. | ||
| I'll be very short. | ||
| In the year 2000, I was taken to Jeffrey Epstein's Island while on a photo shoot on a nearby island. | ||
| Who I saw and what I experienced there was a glimpse into a very dark and disturbing world. | ||
| For years after, I tried to avoid Jeffrey, but he had introduced me to Katie Ford, the owner of the Ford Modeling Agency. | ||
| Epstein's reach went to the very top of fashion, arts, and entertainment. | ||
| This did not just happen to underage girls in Florida. | ||
| In New York City, hundreds of young, ambitious women were abused by him. | ||
| Epstein was not just a serial predator. | ||
| He was an international human trafficker. | ||
| And many around him knew, many participated, and many profited. | ||
| And yet, he was protected. | ||
| So I stand here today for every woman who has been silenced, exploited, and dismissed. | ||
| We are not asking for pity. | ||
| We are here demanding accountability, and I'm demanding justice. | ||
| Congress must choose. | ||
| Will you continue to protect predators or will you finally protect survivors? | ||
| And also, I would like to announce here today, us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list. | ||
| We know the names. | ||
| Many of us were abused by them. | ||
| Now together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who regularly and who are regularly in the Epstein world. | ||
| And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. | ||
| No one else is involved. | ||
| Stay tuned for more details. | ||
| Hello, my name is Shantae Davies, and I'm here before you today as a survivor, a survivor of decades of pain, trauma, and betrayal at the hands of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, and the people who enabled them, and a government that for far too long refused to help. | ||
| In 2002, I was living in California, a young woman with high aspirations of becoming an actress. | ||
| I was already beginning to make a name for myself in the industry. | ||
| A person I trusted, someone I thought was a friend, invited me to meet a powerful woman who could help advance my career. | ||
| That woman happened to be Gillen Maxwell. | ||
| I was asked to give her a massage, though I had almost no experience. | ||
| And when I did, she praised me and promised introductions to someone enormously powerful, someone who could change the course of my life, and that man was Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| At first, I was an excited young woman on top of the world. | ||
| Epstein flew me to his private island. | ||
| He listened to my dreams, promised to help, but his promises came with a catch. | ||
| The abuse began. | ||
| He told me to keep it secret. | ||
| He manipulated me with quid pro quo I did not consent to, but I felt I had no one to turn to. | ||
| He was too powerful. | ||
| I was just one of the many young women trapped in his orbit. | ||
| I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. | ||
| In those moments, I realized how powerless I was. | ||
| If I spoke out, who would believe me? | ||
| Who would protect me? | ||
| Epstein himself was the most powerful leader of our country. | ||
| Epstein surrounded himself, I'm sorry, with the most powerful leaders of our country and the world. | ||
| He abused not only me, but countless others, and everyone seemed to look away. | ||
| The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. | ||
| He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. | ||
| It was his biggest brag, actually. | ||
| And while what I endured will haunt me forever, I live every day with PTSD. | ||
| I live as a mother trying to raise my child while distrusting a world that has betrayed me. | ||
| This kind of trauma never leaves you. | ||
| It breaks families apart. | ||
| It shapes the way we see everyone around us. | ||
| But one thing is certain: unless we learn from this history, monsters like Epstein will rise again. | ||
| There are files, government files, that hold the truth about Epstein, who he knew, who owed him, who protected him, and why he was allowed to operate for so long without consequence. | ||
| Why was Maxwell the only one held accountable when so many others played a role? | ||
| Why does the government hide this information from the public? | ||
| This secrecy is not protection. | ||
| It's complicity. | ||
| And as long as the truth is buried, justice will remain out of reach. | ||
| That is why this bill matters. | ||
| Passing it will bless you. | ||
| Endure, ensure that the suffering of survivors is not in vain. | ||
| Passing it will bring accountability, transparency, and prevention. | ||
| It will help protect the next generation of predators who seek to place themselves above the law through wealth, influence, and connections. | ||
| This is not just my story. | ||
| It is about every survivor who carries invisible scars. | ||
| It's about the weight we live with daily. | ||
| It is about the families broken and the future stolen. | ||
| So I ask you, President Trump and members of Congress, why do we continue to cover up sexual abuse and assault? | ||
| Who are we covering for? | ||
| Let the public know the truth. | ||
| We cannot heal without justice. | ||
| We cannot protect the future if we refuse to confront the past. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let's just give a round of applause for all the courage and strength that the survivors have shown. | ||
| We now will take a few questions. | ||
| You can always get Congressman Massey, May or Congresswoman Green in the hallways and other places. | ||
| If you have questions for us, that's fine. | ||
| But I wanted to see first if you have questions for the lawyers and the survivors, and Brad will facilitate any of the questions to the survivors. | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
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This question would be for the survivors, Australians. | |
| The president has said that this Epstein issue is a hoax, is the words that he used. | ||
| Can we get your reactions to what you think when you hear him say that? | ||
| I'll answer that. | ||
| 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. | ||
| This is real trauma. | ||
|
unidentified
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What does it feel like emotionally to hear that? | |
| Devastating. | ||
| It's being gutted from the inside out. | ||
| Not that I would know what that feels like, but I imagine it's the anxiety buildup with the depression and the survival mode, and then your nervous system goes limp and ironically is shot. | ||
| And it feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is understanding that this is a real situation. | ||
| These women are real. | ||
| We're here in person. | ||
| To say that it's a hoax is just not. | ||
| Please humanize us. | ||
| I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us, to see us for who we are and to hear us for what we have to say. | ||
| There is no hoax. | ||
| The abuse was real. | ||
| Now, what goes on behind closed doors, I can't speak for that. | ||
| What happens around the world politically, I cannot speak for that. | ||
| But I am here with all of these women, including our attorneys, and I would be more than happy to meet with him and I will meet him halfway. | ||
|
unidentified
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I wonder if any of the victims could respond to the news from recently about Glene Maxwell being transferred to a lower security prison. | |
| Can you tell that one? | ||
| About her transfer to a NBA. | ||
| I'm happy to speak to that. | ||
| We were horrified to learn that she had been transferred to a prison camp. | ||
| She is someone who was found guilty by a jury of sex trafficking. | ||
| She not only, we often hear that she procured women for Jeffrey, which I think is a very sort of polite and minimizing term, she also participated in abuse. | ||
| She was a major architect of the scheme. | ||
| And the fact that she has painted herself as a victim, I think, is disgusting. | ||
| And it was horrifying, I think, to us that we were not told about her prison transfer. | ||
| We found out about it in the news. | ||
| One minute, I think Anusha maybe has restricted. | ||
| So, Anushka DiGiorgio, I testified alongside Annie at the trial of Ghillenne Maxwell. | ||
| I was horrified when I found out not only had Ghilene Maxwell been transferred to what's called a low security, it really is like a holiday camp. | ||
| And then afterwards, I got a notification from the Department of Justice telling me that this was going to happen when it had already happened. | ||
|
unidentified
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This woman abused children. | |
| I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell for over 10 years. | ||
| Guillenne Maxwell was present for some of my abuse at the hand of Jeffrey Epstein. | ||
| She was present, she was complicit, she was enabling, and it is appalling and disgusting. | ||
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Last Survivor's Revelations
00:00:42
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| And it's one of my worst nightmares that she not only be transferred, but the possibility that's very much going around that she might be pardoned. | ||
| This is not okay, guys. | ||
| This is not okay. | ||
| And I just want to add that I think it sends a very dangerous message to our country, to the young people in our country, that someone that we all know is aware of these crimes could be given a pass. | ||
|
unidentified
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Just for the last little time, the last survivor who just spoke people who just spoke, she said that Epstein would brag about her relationship with Donald Trump. | |
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Go Ahead
00:14:46
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unidentified
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Could she please elaborate about that? | |
| Can anybody shut it? | ||
| Get close. | ||
| Yeah, I did say that. | ||
| My first trip to the Palm Beach residence, I drove there from the airport with Guylaine Maxwell. | ||
| And Jeffrey and Guylaine were always very boastful about their friends, their famous or powerful friends. | ||
| And his biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump. | ||
| He had an 8x10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them. | ||
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unidentified
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Like, they were very close. | |
| Go ahead. | ||
| One second, one second. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hold on. | |
| You said it would be confidential, but will the public... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Could you clarify? | |
| Will the public interest do not come? | ||
| So, Lisa, what's your envision here? | ||
| Is it going to go to the public or just amongst the survivors? | ||
| No, we're reaching out to survivors that are scared. | ||
| So, come on up. | ||
| We're reaching out to survivors that are scared to come forward and that also know who they were trafficked to. | ||
| So, that's the list that we're compiling. | ||
| We're not quite sure how we're going to release that or even if we're going to. | ||
| The Department of Justice needs to release the list. | ||
| For folks at home, they might be confused. | ||
| You know, survivors know the names. | ||
|
unidentified
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You've seen these powerful people. | |
| Why can't you say the names? | ||
|
unidentified
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Could you just explain that? | |
| Why do we have to say the names when the government knows the names? | ||
| And we're also scared to do so. | ||
| Look what's happened to so many of the survivors that have revealed names. | ||
| I think it's also worth saying that having represented, I think, between our firm and Boyce Chiller, hundreds of victims, and we've talked to them about the various people that they were farmed out to. | ||
| So, we've created somewhat of a list. | ||
| Most of these individuals, the victims, are very scared to say these names because they could get sued, they're going to get attacked, and nobody protected them the first time. | ||
| And that was against one person. | ||
| So, is there a list? | ||
| There is a list, but just to dispel kind of the common theme here, every one of these women was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, and his scheme was to personally abuse women. | ||
| When they reached a certain age, he did farm a section of them, some of them, out to some of his friends. | ||
| That doesn't mean all of his friends. | ||
| With that said, I'm more than happy to assist in helping create the list behind the scenes and see what we do with it. | ||
| But if someone's interested, hold on, hold on. | ||
| I think if someone's interested in prosecuting, they may have something different to say about sharing a list, but they're not sharing a list for nothing to happen. | ||
| And that's the experience that they've had for all of these years. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Alpha. | |
| We're waiting to see the fate of this discharge petition right now as we're here. | ||
| The speaker and others have said that the people he met with yesterday had concerns about your names being released if this bill were passed. | ||
| And some people I talked to today are not signing the discharge petition because they say you don't want them to. | ||
| Can you clarify if that is? | ||
| Do any of the survivors here not want the bill to pass? | ||
| Yeah, I'm going to go to the next one. | ||
| First of all, our legislation, Roe, Conna, and I went through this, we talked about this, and we were very careful to make sure that there is an exception so that personally identifiable information, not just their names, but anything they could be identified by, would not be disclosed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And can you speak to that as survivors yourself? | |
| I think all of them are on the same page. | ||
| That they want everything released. | ||
| Yes, unequivocally redact personally identifying information and release everything else. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Edwards, Mr. Edward, Mr. Edwards, thank you. | |
| I know it's your first time speaking. | ||
| I'll go to Marina if we can. | ||
| Yeah, sure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Marina, you have stayed silent for so many years. | |
| Today, this is the first time, if you understand correctly, you have never before gone public with your story and to share this. | ||
| Can you help us understand why today, why now, and why here? | ||
| Well, it is not okay for us to be silenced. | ||
| And it's not okay for Jeffrey Epstein and everybody else to be put on a pedestal. | ||
| I think everybody needs to hear from us because we know what went on, right? | ||
| And there is not only me who has been silenced, there are hundreds of women that are silenced. | ||
| My hope is to stop this abuse for the future, right? | ||
| For people that are coming up for women. | ||
| My daughter, for example, these people have, these women have daughters. | ||
| They most definitely don't want that anymore. | ||
| And I think mainly it is, this is therapy for all of us too. | ||
| You know, we want to be heard. | ||
| Nobody also has never asked me to speak. | ||
| That's also another thing. | ||
| So I can say for all of us here, we are here. | ||
| We want this bill to pass. | ||
| It is very important. | ||
| Okay, and we need transparency. | ||
| We are tired of looking at the news and seeing Jeffrey Epstein's name and saying that this is a hoax. | ||
| We are tired of it. | ||
| We are done. | ||
| We are not going to be silenced. | ||
| And I hope that my voice will bring other survivors and other victims to come along and speak up so that we can be more of a stronger voice and louder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So what is your message to President Trump on this? | |
| Listen, I don't like to, I don't want to send a direct message to him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm already scared enough. | |
| Just pass the vote, listen to us. | ||
| This is not a hoax. | ||
| Like, it's not going to go away. | ||
| And like I said on my speech earlier, we are not going to be, we're not going to be silenced anymore. | ||
| We will be speaking moving forward wherever we need to be. | ||
| We will be and we need to pass this. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, sir. | |
| Jordan Congress Gateway Club in. | ||
| You know, for years we've heard that there's an Epstein client list or some kind of list. | ||
| And now we hear from DOJ that there's no list. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What about victims? | |
| What do you guys think? | ||
| I know you're working on your own list, but you believe that Jeffrey Epstein had a list. | ||
| So there's not a list. | ||
| So here's what it was. | ||
| Just like you heard everybody today, Jeffrey Epstein created through an organization of enablers, of people that were on his payroll. | ||
| It was a complicated scheme where others should still be investigated because they helped to enable him and operate the scheme. | ||
| Without those people, he could not have done this. | ||
| But the purpose was for him to personally abuse people. | ||
| With that being said, certain of his friends, he farmed out certain of the women that he was exploiting too. | ||
| But that wasn't the primary purpose of that scheme. | ||
| And I don't think he wrote the names of those people down. | ||
| There's not a list of, hey, here's all of the people that I sent females to. | ||
| That's just not how that organization works. | ||
| Mr. Edwards, is there any evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was involved with or tied to the CIA or a foreign intelligence operation? | ||
| I think that the safest thing for me to say is all files should come out, whether it is with the CIA, FinCEN, SEC, FBI. | ||
| I'm not just making these up haphazardly. | ||
| I'm giving you a road map where to look. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| I'll go first, and then I'll let them. | ||
| They're much more important than me, but I don't understand why it's a hostile act. | ||
| I can tell you that I talked to President Clinton, I'm sorry, President Trump back in 2009, and several times after that, he didn't think that it was a hoax then. | ||
| In fact, he helped me. | ||
| He got on the phone. | ||
| He told me things that were helping our investigation. | ||
| Now, our investigation wasn't looking into him, but he was helping us then. | ||
| He didn't treat this as a hoax. | ||
| So at this point in time, I would hope that he would revert back to what he was saying to get elected, which is, I want transparency. | ||
| This about face that occurred, none of us understand it. | ||
| In fact, I don't understand how this is an issue that's even up for debate. | ||
| How do you not stand behind these women after you've heard their stories and know that hundreds of them were abused and it was only because files are being kept in secrecy? | ||
| The world should know who he is, who protected him, and the other people that are out there to be investigated need to be investigated. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are there any people who are currently serving in government who are named, who you know of, are in these files, who you had relations with, anything of that sort, who Jeffrey Epstein connected you with? | |
| I don't think I can answer it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think she's referring to my speech. | |
| Hi, Anushka DiGiorgio. | ||
| I have been threatened. | ||
| I was threatened by phone. | ||
| My daughter was threatened when I was volunteering to participate by means of being a witness in a civil lawsuit that Virginia Dufrey was bringing against Guillene Maxwell. | ||
| I have been followed. | ||
| I have been stalked. | ||
| I have been followed not only by journalists, but by people who do not get out of the car and do not try and talk to me and just drive behind me as I drive my daughter to school. | ||
| So the fear is very real for us. | ||
| I have also been in multiple situations with both Jeffrey Epstein and Guillene Maxwell where they have been direct and indirect about implying and saying that if I was to talk, if I was to bring any kind of trouble, then there would be severe consequence, including death. | ||
| Just to add to that, you know, Maxwell also threatened my sister Maria Farmer. | ||
| You know, when the FBI did nothing about her initial report, you know, we did, she reported individually at that time. | ||
| And then in 2002, we spoke to a reporter at Vanity Fair telling our stories, fearful that perhaps other people were being harmed. | ||
| You know, we were not, we believed that was going to make a difference. | ||
| We believed that would be put in print. | ||
| And that story was crushed. | ||
| And it was because of their power. | ||
| And the message that we got from that was direct threats from Maxwell to my sister about her well-being and her safety and that of our family. | ||
| So I think many people have similar stories of threats. | ||
| That has been a very real part of this case. | ||
| Go ahead over here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do any of today's survivors ever have any connection or interaction with Epstein's alleged financier, Leslie Wexler? | |
| No. | ||
| No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nope. | |
| I just want to say one thing that's very clear, when people say, you know, please share names, there are names that are very well known, like that of Les Wexner, who everyone knows supplied an enormous amount of Epstein's financial wealth and allowed this operation to happen. | ||
| So it's, I think, confusing to many of us why there have not been more ramifications for him. | ||
| And he's been seen as a victim when clearly I believe there's more to it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So you represented Virginia Roberts for three years. | |
| She eventually had to recant the allegations that she made against Alan Dershowitz. | ||
| She alleged that she was a little bit more than that. | ||
| All right, next question. | ||
| Next question. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Who's next? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why is it that she should be on the table? | |
| Yeah, no, we're not answering the question. | ||
| Anybody else? | ||
|
unidentified
|
How did the victims feel about the interview that was given to Glenn Matthews? | |
| Well, that's better. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, ma'am, I think that you had a question. | |
| When you talk in the past, I'm a question about SNBC about the existence of the Epstein birthday book. | ||
| Have you yourself in the police litigation seen it? | ||
| I don't know that we're able to reveal what we've seen and what we have not seen by way of protective order. | ||
| But my point being in that circumstance was: if anybody wants answers, there's an easy place to get it. | ||
| I told you where to get it. | ||
| I said the estate of Jeffrey Epstein has it. | ||
| Serve a subpoena on them. | ||
| They'll turn it over. | ||
| And if we had served a subpoena on them in the past, they would have turned it over and we would have seen it. | ||
| Which I don't usually miss subpoenas like that. | ||
| So there we go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Edward, can you elaborate on me? | |
| Just say one thing on there. | ||
| You know, to your question about the allegations, there's a simple answer: release the files. | ||
| Let the American public decide. | ||
| Instead of harassing, instead of, if I gave you your say, you're hired by Dershowitz. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then how do you defend that? | |
| You know, even if I'm talking about a huge week, you've been heard. | ||
| You've been heard. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Couldn't you tell the public about this? | |
| You've been heard. | ||
| And even Alan Dershowitz, even Alan Dershowitz has released the files. | ||
| Release the files. | ||
| That is the answer. | ||
| And that's what we're here for. | ||
| And that is it. | ||
| We're going to go. | ||
| We've got to go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you elaborate now? | |
| Sorry. | ||
| Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. | ||
| One second. | ||
| ...in 2009. | ||
| Can you elaborate on your interactions with Donald Trump back in 2009? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And for any of the victims, they didn't ever see the president, or then not president yet, but never see Trump with Epstein in any way. | |
| I don't know who's. | ||
| I don't think that we can answer that question. | ||
| Did anybody see Trump with Epstein back then? | ||
| This is really not a political thing. | ||
| We want the passage of the bill, and this is not to call out President Trump. | ||
| My interaction is my point was that he was friendly back then, did not think that it was a hoax, and was trying to help. | ||
| And now it seems like all of the sudden somebody's in his ear and he's not. | ||
| So I'm hoping he'll come back to where he was back in 2009, be on the side of the victims and stand with us. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On the passage of the bill, Todd Land with the Dean. | |
| Didn't you answer that? | ||
| Do you want to answer it? | ||
| I would step up. | ||
| I would Teresa J. Holm. | ||
|
Why Her Voice Was Elevated
00:10:44
|
||
| Happy to speak on that because what I will say is she got this airtime and platform. | ||
| Her voice was elevated way before our voices were elevated here today. | ||
| And that same calm, manipulative voice that she had so polite there that day with Todd Blanche was the same polite, coercive, manipulative voice that I heard as she was grooming me to then send me off to the home of Jeffrey Epstein where he would assault me. | ||
| So that's what she was doing for hours, speaking with me, building a relationship with me, building trust with me, allowing me to believe that I was going to get this job, a dream job that I had been recruited from my college, flown across the country from Los Angeles to New York City to interview, so I thought. | ||
| So her voice that day was the same voice that sent me off to a monster. | ||
| So believe, 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 weren't we there that day? | ||
| Or 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. | ||
| I mean, you know, let's be real. | ||
| None of us were consulted. | ||
| I found out just like everyone here found out through the media, through all of you. | ||
| We found out about Geelen's transfer. | ||
| So we are all, I'm very angry to sit there and listen. | ||
| The feelings that come up listening to this woman's voice is repulsive. | ||
| Yes, I would say it's triggering. | ||
| We all work very hard on healing and it still gets to us after two decades. | ||
| It's a very long answer, but it's repulsive to sit there and listen to her voice in her interview. | ||
| Can we take two more questions? | ||
| One over here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm recording in the bearish directly led to a $100 million payment from JP Morgan to the Virgin Islands. | |
| Can you go after the DOJ, FBI? | ||
| Because they're sitting on evidence. | ||
| I've held the evidence in my hands. | ||
| You know, see what's happening. | ||
| I think that there's nobody that's immune from us going after them if there's a legitimate action to take. | ||
| So to the extent that that evidence exists, then show it to us and we'll help in every way we can. | ||
| We stand with the victims. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| One more. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can the survivors speak to speaking of being threatened and being afraid to come forward with his story to the case of Katie Johnson who alleged that Donald Trump and Jeffrey Esmond? | |
| I don't think we can talk about that case. | ||
| I do think it's worth saying though, despite the comments that he made, Virginia Roberts Dufrey is an American hero. | ||
| She is somebody, she is somebody without whom we would not be able to have this voice. | ||
| She was the one who had courage to name names, speak out against people, and she was standing up against everybody at one time with an enormous amount of pressure. | ||
| And most of these women are here because of Virginia Roberts. | ||
| All right, last one. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Dr. Johnson says he's protecting the innocent. | |
| One of the victims says they think innocent people are that he's protecting the injury. | ||
| Clearly not us. | ||
| I don't think that anybody knows, but I can tell you that in the oversight committee meeting yesterday, they indicated that they were all for transparency, releasing the files, and asked us to hold them accountable. | ||
| Isn't that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| They said, hold them accountable. | ||
| So we intend to hold them accountable. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's up to them. | |
| We're going to show them where to go with it. | ||
| And as long as they're doing their job, they should. | ||
| I'm going to turn it back over to Bro Connor. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let me just say this. | ||
| Let me say this. | ||
| I think the people back who are testifying here today or speaking up today, they are American heroes. | ||
| Let's give them another round of applause. | ||
| And you say, look, Thomas, Marjorie, and I, we're huge believers in the First Amendment and we believe in free speech and we take abuse all the time. | ||
| But you see, you see why it's so hard to do what they have done. | ||
| Because they come forward and you subject yourself to national scrutiny and national questioning. | ||
| And I just want to say from the bottom of my heart how appreciative I am and how proud I am of what you've done today. | ||
| You've made a big difference. | ||
| Before I bring on Marjorie and then Thomas, I'll have the last word. | ||
| I want to summarize three basic things that I heard from the survivors. | ||
| First, they want to know why our government covered up for someone rich and powerful. | ||
| Why is it that we have two Americas? | ||
| People say, why do you need to release the Epstein files if Epstein is dead and Maxwell is in jail? | ||
| Because we don't know who all was involved in the cover-up. | ||
| Why are there rich and powerful people who didn't have justice? | ||
| They want to know that. | ||
| Second, many said it's important for their own closure. | ||
| They don't know their own abuse. | ||
| They want to understand what's in these files for themselves. | ||
| And third, we heard that there are many others who obviously were involved. | ||
| And they want to know, and the American people deserve to know what was there in those files. | ||
| I actually think they're helping us come together as a country. | ||
| I've never done a press conference with Marjorie Taylor Green before. | ||
| You know, I've done some with Tus, but look, this is such a, this country is divided and exhausted. | ||
| This is one thing, one thing that we can come together on. | ||
| And I was very clear with Thomas. | ||
| This is not against President Trump. | ||
| I would like nothing more than a truth social post for him after this press conference saying just release the files. | ||
| Be with Massey Khanna. | ||
| This is about something much deeper. | ||
| It is about bringing this country together to stand for America's kids, to restore trust, and to move this country forward. | ||
| So thank you to the survivors for helping us do that. | ||
| Now I want to introduce Marjorie Taylor Green. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| For everyone watching at home, I think it's important to put yourself in these women's shoes as you're questioning why can't they just name the names? | ||
| What you don't realize is they just told their stories of being raped and being abused, being victimized, being manipulated, being coerced, and basically held in a prison of captivity, of sexual abuse, while they were young, young teenagers and extremely young, vulnerable women. | ||
| And 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. | ||
| Can you imagine how terrifying it would be to name names like that? | ||
| These are some of the richest, most powerful people in the world that could sue these women into poverty and homelessness. | ||
| Yeah, 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. | ||
| I can do that for them and I'd be proud to do it. | ||
| Now another thing, this is not about politics. | ||
| And this is a boiling point in American history where the American people, just like Roe just said, there's become two Americas. | ||
| There's the America for the rich and the powerful and the elite where they never face any struggles or problems and never experience what real America goes through. | ||
| And then there's Forgotten America that faces all the problems and deals with all the issues and never gets justice for being sexually assaulted and raped by a monster. | ||
| It shouldn't exist anymore and people are sick of it. | ||
| So let's recognize the fact that the administration before and the one before it and the one before it and the one before it and before it never did anything about this. | ||
| So this isn't one political party or the other. | ||
| It's a culmination of everyone work together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal. | ||
| And this is not just rich, powerful people. | ||
| Think his drivers, his maids, his chefs, all the people that worked in his home, security guards. | ||
| I heard one story from a young woman that was being raped by Jeffrey Epstein when he was out on work release while he was serving time in prison and had an ankle monitor on his leg. | ||
| Guess what? | ||
| There was a police officer outside that door. | ||
| So this list of names is quite a list of names and it doesn't extend just in the rich, powerful circles. | ||
| It extends down to the very bottom where people were paid. | ||
| And again, I will say this. | ||
| There's victims suffering today in similar circumstances and they're terrified to name the names of the people that are currently abusing them. | ||
| And so with these brave, courageous women fighting this fight, this is a fight for women and children and any person that is facing sexual abuse and rape and captivity and human trafficking right now. | ||
|
Call to Action: Real Accountability
00:03:37
|
||
| And so here's what I ask you in the press. | ||
| Don't go for salacious headlines. | ||
| Go for the truth and defend these women and help those of us in Congress that are crossing our political party lines and doing the right thing and trying to do it together. | ||
| And thank you, Roe, and thank you, Thomas. | ||
| And now I recognize Thomas Massey from Kentucky. | ||
| Well, there's three branches of government, and we're supposed to keep each other accountable. | ||
| And that's what we're doing here today in the People's House. | ||
| We're standing in front of the People's House with real people, not a hoax. | ||
| And they've told their story. | ||
| We wanted to give them a platform to speak and they've had it. | ||
| They stepped up and they were brave. | ||
| But I also today hoped that they would persuade my colleagues to join this effort. | ||
| But I found out something today that happened that I wasn't expecting. | ||
| They persuaded me to fight even harder. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not going to give up. | |
| And I want to end with this call to action. | ||
| First, a call to action to my colleagues who, just an hour before this press conference, were prepared. | ||
| They were given a fig leaf. | ||
| We'll put a resolution on the floor so that you can say that you voted to protect the survivors. | ||
| Their resolution doesn't really do anything. | ||
| And that's the oldest trick in the swamp. | ||
| When you want to kill the momentum, when you want to kill initiative, you introduce a placebo, a different bill that does nothing, and then try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. | ||
| That's not going to happen this time. | ||
| We demand real accountability. | ||
| I encourage my colleagues, please, there's over 200 Republicans who have not signed this discharge petition. | ||
| We only need two of them to sign it. | ||
| And every Democrat will sign it. | ||
| And that will get us the number we need to force this vote, to pass a law, not a polite request to the DOJ to police themselves. | ||
| No, we need legally binding legislation to force that to happen. | ||
| And 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, D.C. Ask them the questions that these survivors wanted you to ask them. | ||
| Why won't you be for transparency? | ||
| Don't accept their answer that the bill has a flaw or that the survivors don't want it. | ||
| We know that's not true. | ||
| They wouldn't be fighting it so hard in this town if it wasn't the real bill. | ||
| So with that, please call your congressman. | ||
| Tell him or her to get on this bill and to stand up for these survivors. | ||
| Thank you and God bless. | ||
| That's the end. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is unbelievable. | |
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