This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The 19th.
For months, President Donald Trump’s base and congressional Republicans have fought over the release of files and documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
But Wednesday, Epstein’s survivors took the floor.
Over a dozen survivors of Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell gathered at the U.S. Capitol, first for a nonpartisan rally hosted by the organization World Without Exploitation and then at a news conference hosted by a trio of lawmakers uniting across the political spectrum to push for more transparency.
“What once kept us silent now fuels that fire and the power of our voice,” said Epstein survivor Jess Michaels. “We are not the footnotes in some infamous predator’s tabloid article. We are the experts and the subjects of this story. We are the proof that fear did not break us.”
Survivors, their lawyers and advocates came to the Capitol asking for three main things: a full release of the Epstein files, justice for survivors and no presidential pardons or concessions for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence after pleading guilty to sex trafficking charges.
