‘This is not a hoax’: Epstein survivors describe sexual abuse as they call for justice and transparency

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Wednesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring U.S. lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back against President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.”

In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

They demanded that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.

“This is not partisan,” said Ashley Rubright, “but this is very political.”

The self-described survivor of Epstein and Maxwell said for too long, adult enablers actively turned a blind eye to the abuse going on behind closed doors. 

“You know who you are,” Rubright said. “As do we.”

‘Not a hoax’

It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called Epstein files reached a pivotal moment in Washington.

Lawmakers are battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the Republican president, after initially signalling support for transparency on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”

“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”

But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for Trump to support their cause.

“This is not a hoax. We are real human beings. This is real trauma,” said Haley Robson, one of the survivors who said she is a registered Republican. She invited Trump to meet with her in person.  

‘No way out’

Epstein died in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

“The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people that matter in this country finally care what we have to say,” said Marina Lacerda, an immigrant from Brazil who met Epstein when she was 14 after a friend told her she could make hundreds of dollars for massaging an older man. She said she was forced to work for Epstein until she was 17.

“I had no way out,” she said, “until he finally told me I was too old.”

WATCH | Trying to heal from the trauma: 

‘So hard to begin to heal,’ says Epstein survivor

Marina Lacerda spoke at a Wednesday news conference about the abuse she says she suffered from Jeffrey Epstein starting when she was just 14. She said she struggles to remember parts of the traumatic experience and the release of files related to the disgraced financier could help her ‘put the pieces of my own life back together.’

Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring teenage girls for him to abuse. Four women testified at her trial that they were abused by Epstein as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at his homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. The allegations have also spawned dozens of lawsuits.

Some Republicans defy party leadership

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is usually closely aligned with Trump, described her support for a bill that would force the U.S. Justice Department to release the information it has compiled on Epstein as a moral fight against sexual predation.

“This isn’t one political party or the other. It’s a culmination of everyone work[ing] together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal,” Greene said at the news conference.

She is one of four Republicans — three of them women — who have defied House Republican leadership and the White House in an effort to force a vote on their bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency.

WATCH | Speaking out for his sister: 

Brother of Epstein accuser calls for transparency in emotional speech

At a Wednesday news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, the late Jeffrey Epstein accuser, urged lawmakers to back a bill that would release all files related to the convicted sex offender. ‘This is about justice against the rich and powerful who have stolen something from these women, and many children at the time — their freedom,’ said Sky Roberts.

That committee on Tuesday night released what it said was the first tranche of documents and files it has received from the Justice Department on the Epstein case. The folders — posted on Google Drive — contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein, but contained practically nothing new.

Meanwhile, the White House was warning House members that support for the bill to require the Justice Department to release the files would be seen as a hostile act. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is pressing for the bill, said that the White House was sending that message because “they’ve dug in.”

“They decided they don’t want it released,” he said. “It’s a political threat.”

But with Trump sending a strong message and Republican leadership moving forward with an alternative resolution, Massie was left looking for support from at least two more Republicans willing to cross political lines. It would take six Republican members, as well as all House Democrats, to force a vote on their bill. And even if that passes the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by Trump.

Still, the survivors saw this moment as their best chance in years to gain some justice for what had been done by Epstein.

“Justice and accountability are not favours from the powerful. They are obligations decades overdue,” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, told the rally on the Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability.”