Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein are renewing their calls for the government to release all the files related to the late sex offender’s case as the House moves toward a key vote on the issue after bombshell correspondence from Epstein’s estate was made public this week.
Shortly after newly sworn-in Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona provided the final necessary signature on a bipartisan petition to force a House vote on releasing the files, two women who have alleged they were sexually assaulted by Epstein urged the American public to continue to support the push.
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“We can’t stop putting the pressure, because it’s only one tiny victory,” Jess Michaels told NBC News.
“What I would say to people is, even if your political values don’t align, to really dial this back and look at it as the crime of human trafficking,” Liz Stein told the outlet, praising the select number of Republicans lawmakers who have backed efforts to make the files public.
Tensions surrounding the files exploded on Wednesday when Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails from Epstein’s estate in which the disgraced financier alleged President Donald Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” with one of Epstein’s victims. Not long afterward, Republicans on the panel released a trove of 20,000 documents connected with the Epstein case.
Trump, who has faced scrutiny over his years-long relationship with Epstein, has vehemently denied that he knew anything about Epstein’s crimes. The President has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.
“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt previously told TIME. “The ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever and ‘couldn’t have been friendlier’ to her in their limited interactions.”
TIME has not independently verified that Giuffre’s name is what is blacked out and marked “victim” in two of the emails released by House Democrats. Giuffre, a prominent Epstein victim who died by suicide in April, previously stated that she was working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort when she was initially approached by Epstein’s long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Read More: White House Says Virginia Giuffre Is the Unnamed ‘Victim’ in Epstein Emails About Trump
In a posthumous memoir, Giuffre said the President “couldn’t have been friendlier.” Giuffre’s family told MSNBC on Thursday that she had never shared information about an interaction with Trump with them, but criticized Republicans’ decision to name Giuffre as the victim referenced in two of the emails.
Amanda Roberts, Giuffre’s sister-in-law, called the act a “slap in the face” and said that the emails further proved the need to look further into the Epstein case. “This is why those files need to be released. This is why the paper trails need to be followed. We have to look into this deeper. And we have to look into accountability here,” Roberts said.
The Epstein case has been the subject of heightened scrutiny and calls for transparency for months. Members of the President’s inner circle long claimed that the contents of the so-called Epstein files would reveal serious crimes committed by powerful people. But since Trump returned to the White House, he and his Administration have faced criticism, including from many in his MAGA base, for their failure to release more documents connected with the case—particularly after a memo from the FBI and Department of Justice over the summer sought to put to bed several long-running conspiracy theories surrounding Epstein.
Epstein victim Danielle Bensky, who spoke to CNN following the release of the emails, said the push for more information regarding the late sex offender has to do with “accountability.”
“I think that survivors are holding strong to that sentiment and I think that the only way that we’re ever going to be able to do that is by releasing all the files from the government,” Bensky said Wednesday.
For months, many of Epstein’s victims have been outspoken in their calls for politicians to take action. In September, a group of women who identified themselves as victims of Epstein and Maxwell shared their stories and made an emotional appeal for lawmakers to back the push to release files related to the case in a press conference on Capitol Hill led by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California.
“I would like for them to give all the victims transparency to what happened and release the files,” said Marina Lacerda, one of the victims, at the time. “It’s not okay for us to be silenced.”
Massie and Khanna spearheaded the discharge petition that will soon force a House vote on a measure to compel the Department of Justice to release all the government files related to Epstein, after it secured the signatures of a majority of lawmakers in the chamber—including four Republicans.
Grijalva gave the petition the decisive 218th signature after being sworn in on Wednesday following a record seven-week delay. House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to seat her during the government shutdown, saying he would only do so after a deal had been reached to reopen the government. Grijalva and several other Democrats have claimed that Johnson delayed her swearing in to avoid a vote on releasing the Epstein files. He has denied that his decision was related to Epstein.
Johnson said Wednesday night that the House will vote on the bill to release the Epstein files next week.
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