Epstein victims urge Congress to force DOJ to release files in dramatic Capitol appearance

A host of victims of Jeffrey Epstein appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to deliver a simple message to Congress: Force the Trump administration to release all the federal files on the late financier and convicted sex offender.

In a dramatic press conference just steps from the Capitol, the survivors of Epstein’s decades-long abuse offered emotional testimony about their experiences, hammered the government for keeping the files under wraps, and accused those lawmakers opposing the release of shielding a group of rich and powerful people from accountability. 

“We are not asking for pity. We are here demanding accountability, and I’m demanding justice,” said Lisa Phillips, who said she was taken to Epstein’s private island in 2000. “Congress must choose: Will you continue to protect predators, or will you finally protect survivors?” 

One of the victims also highlighted the ties between Epstein and President Trump, who had associated in the same social circles in Florida and New York years ago, saying Epstein frequently bragged about the intimacy of that relationship.

“Jeffrey and Ghislaine 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,” said Chauntae Davies. “He had an 8×10 picture of him on his desk, with the two of them. 

“They were very close.” 

The victims are pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution, sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), requiring the administration to release virtually all the federal files related to the federal investigation of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors.

That legislation is opposed by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has offered an alternative proposal designed to bolster an Epstein investigation already underway in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Supporters of the Massie-Khanna approach, including the victims who appeared at the Capitol on Wednesday, have rejected Johnson’s alternative bill, saying it lacks the teeth to compel the Justice Department to release documents the administration doesn’t want revealed. 

“Their resolution doesn’t really do anything, and that’s the oldest trick in the swamp,” Massie said. “When you want to kill the momentum, … you release 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.”  

Even as they spoke, Trump dismissed the outcry over the Epstein files as “a hoax,” concocted by Democrats, to harm him politically. 

“It’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The Epstein victims pushed back hard against Trump’s characterization. One of them, Haley Robson, said she’s a registered Republican and challenged Trump to meet with her during her visit to Washington. 

“These women are real. We’re here in person,” she said. “There is no hoax. The abuse was real.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a close Trump ally, has broken sharply with the president on the Epstein case. She appeared alongside the victims on Wednesday and praised them for coming forward. She also acknowledged the difficulty of naming the names of powerful figures — “These are some of the richest, most powerful people in the world that can sue these women into poverty and homelessness,” she said — but offered to read the names of their abusers herself from the House floor. 

“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,” Greene said. 

Separately, Phillips said the group of survivors is in the process of compiling a list of abusers based on their own experiences, which they may or not make public in the future. 

“We know the names. Many of us were abused by them,” she said. “Stay tuned for more details.” 

The appearance of the victims on Capitol Hill puts new pressure on House Republicans to bring the Massie-Khanna bill to the floor, or at least to endorse a procedural tool, known as a discharge petition, requiring a vote on the bill if 218 lawmakers sign on. 

Because all 212 House Democrats are expected to endorse the petition, supporters will need six Republicans to force that vote. Four have already joined the effort — GOP Reps. Massie, Greene, Nancy Mace (S.C.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.) — leaving them two shy of their goal. 

“There’s 200 Republicans who could do something to get justice for the victims and survivors, and I only need two,” Massie said. “Eighty percent of Republicans support releasing these files, so they’re at odds with our base right now.” 

Johnson and the members of the Oversight Committee had huddled with some of the Epstein victims a day earlier in the Capitol. But there appeared to be different interpretations about the message the survivors sent in that meeting. Mace left the gathering appearing visibly upset and quickly endorsed the discharge petition. But Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who has co-sponsored the underlying transparency legislation, said the victims “made very clear” that they did not want more files released. 

The survivors who appeared with Massie and Khanna on Wednesday disputed that claim. To the person, they said they want all the files released, as long as personal information is redacted. 

“In the Oversight meeting yesterday, they indicated they were all for transparency, releasing the files and asked us to hold them accountable,” said Bradley Edwards, a lawyer representing many of the victims. “So we intend to hold them accountable.” 

The Epstein case has emerged as an enormous problem for Trump, who had campaigned on suggestions that he would release all the files on the case, then appointed top figures in the DOJ who had also fueled the theories about the government protecting a global cabal of “elites” with ties to Epstein’s crimes. They vowed to get to the bottom of the scandal. 

In July, however, the DOJ issued an unsigned memo declaring that the case was closed and there were no more files to release — a move that infuriated many Trump’s  most loyal supporters and sparked accusations that Trump was trying to bury his own connections to Epstein. 

Massie said he doesn’t think Trump is featured in a trove of redacted DOJ documents that were released by the Oversight Committee on Tuesday. But predicted that some of Trump’s close associates likely are. 

“I don’t think he’s implicated in these files,” he said. “But I think his donors are. I think his friends are.”

Updated at 2:42 p.m.

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