By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s a scandal that won’t go away. Some lawmakers and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex abuse say too many secrets are still being kept.
Now, they’re demanding President Donald Trump and Congress finally shine a light on the truth.
Many of the stories shared were gut-wrenching, the emotion was palpable and the political firestorm is now intensifying over a scandal that has captivated the nation and all sides of the political spectrum.
“My name is Anoushka De Georgiou, and I stand before you today as a survivor of both Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
“My name is Jess Michaels and I’m a 1991 Jeffrey Epstein survivor.”
Wednesday on Capitol Hill, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse demanded action from Congress and from President Donald Trump.
“It felt like someone shut off the lights to my soul,” said Liz Stein, another Epstein survivor. “This is not a partisan issue. This is a crime, the crime of sex trafficking. And the criminals must be held accountable.”
“Consequences are not about punishment alone. They exist to deter future harm, to protect the vulnerable and to set a standard of justice,” De Georgiou said.
Their plea came just hours after the House Oversight Committee released more than 30,000 pages of Epstein-related documents. But critics, including a handful of Republicans, call the document release a smokescreen.
“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,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky).
Republicans including Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), are teaming up with Democrats, urging colleagues to support a procedural tool known as a discharge petition. It would bypass House leadership and force a floor vote on a bill requiring the Justice Department to publicly release all Epstein files.
“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, MAGA supporters — to demand truth and justice,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).
However, the vast majority of House Republicans are not on board with Massie’s effort.
“The fact that this has been so politicized in the last six weeks is asinine. No one in this Congress is trying to cover up the Epstein files,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R-NY.).
Langworthy, a member of the Oversight Committee, insisted more is coming.
“There’s much more to come. The administration has been very cooperative with the Oversight Committee during the month of August,” Langworthy said. “We’re going to facilitate, through the Oversight Committee, an opportunity for the American people to have the facts, for them to make their own decisions. And then if there’s additional prosecutions that are necessary, that’ll happen too.”
Survivors said they won’t stop until every secret is out.
“What once kept us silent now fuels that fire and the power of our voices,” Stein said.
On Wednesday afternoon, the House approved a separate measure authorizing the Oversight Committee’s probe into Epstein. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), said it allows the committee to release all unclassified records received from the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury and the Epstein estate.
“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. 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,” Johnson said.
But many Democrats and the four Republicans who are pushing for the discharge petition say the symbolic measure doesn’t go far enough.
“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,” said Massie.
As of Wednesday afternoon, four House Republicans and 202 Democrats had signed on to the discharge petition. For it to succeed, two additional Republican signatures are needed, as well as all remaining House Democrats.
Trump was asked about Epstein and the survivors speaking on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
“Thousands of pages of documents have been given, but it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump said.
