After experiencing what they call years of legal setbacks, limited accountability, and delayed justice, several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse say they see an opportunity for Congress to provide desperately needed transparency about the disgraced financier’s crimes.
In an interview Wednesday with ABC News’ Linsey Davis, seven women who say Jeffrey Epstein sexually exploited them pleaded with Congress and the Trump administration to release the hundreds of thousands of remaining files related to the sex offender — a step they hope will show the public the scope of Epstein’s actions and allow his victims to heal.
“Now it is the responsibility of Congress to pass a bill so that we don’t have to carry the baton of being the ones to enforce this,” said Anouska De Georgiou. “This is not our job. We have done our job. We’ve been responsible in reporting, so I want transparency.”
The Justice Department and FBI announced in July that no additional Epstein files would be released, sparking blowback from MAGA supporters who for years had accused the government of shielding information regarding Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released tens of thousands of Justice Department records related to Epstein, accounting for just a portion of what the committee has subpoenaed from the DOJ. An analysis by ABC News determined that most of the documents released Monday had already been made public.
The seven women said the continued attention on Epstein and his associate, convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, brings them closer to accountability — while at the time forcing some of them to relive years of trauma inflicted by the disgraced financier.
Exhausted by decades of delayed justice, they urged lawmakers to unite behind the survivors of his abuse, rather than let conspiracy theories and speculation thrive in the vacuum created by the Trump administration’s refusal to release any additional documents.
Jeffrey Epstein survivors, front row L-R: Jena Lisa Jones, Chauntae Davies, Courtney Wild, Anouska De Georgiou, Lisa Phillips, back row L-R: Brittany Henderson, attorney for Epstein/Maxwell survivors, Marina Lacerda, Haley Robson and Brad Edwards, attorney for Epstein/Maxwell survivors are interviewed by Linsey Davis of ABC News.
ABC News
“As soon as I see this stuff in the news, it takes me out of my healing journey and just, you know, pushes me back into a survival mode,” said Courtney Wild. “It’s just the back and forth, the mental exhaustion is just — I’m just ready for it to be done.”
Even as the survivors of Epstein’s abuse come to Washington, D.C. to encourage lawmakers to act, some of the women said the politicization and weaponization of their abuse continues. Hours before they sat for a group interview with ABC News, President Donald Trump dismissed the push for transparency as a “Democrat hoax that never ends.”
Haley Robson, who identified herself as a Republican, responded to Trump’s statements by calling for the president to meet with survivors to understand the personal cost they have paid after years of delayed accountability.
“This is about young women that were molested and abused and then lied to, gaslit, and had their trauma weaponized on them for political gain,” Robson said. ” I will be more than happy to meet him halfway. I will come to him if he needs me to. I would love to sit down so he can look me in my face and tell me that I’m a hoax.”
According to some of the women, the Trump administration’s refusal to release any additional documents came as a surprise, given that Trump, on the campaign trail, had promised more transparency from the government. Brad Edwards, an attorney representing Epstein survivors, added that the materials are unlikely to contain incriminating information about the president based on his clients’ experiences.
“Not a single victim has ever said he abused,” Edwards said. “We’ve seen a lot of the information in the files, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t just be transparent and allow it to come out.”
Jeffrey Epstein survivors, front row L-R: Courtney Wild, Anouska De Georgiou, Lisa Phillips, back row L-R: Haley Robson and Brad Edwards, attorney for Epstein/Maxwell survivors, are interviewed by Linsey Davis of ABC News.
ABC News
De Georgiou said that Maxwell introduced her to Trump in the 1990s when she was twenty. She said she believed Maxwell presented her “as an offering of me to perhaps date [Trump]” but that “there was no impropriety on the part of President Trump.”
Offering to sit down with Trump to share her experiences, De Georgiou said she hopes the president will follow through on his vow to release more information about Epstein.
“There should be no concern on the part of President Trump to unseal these files because there have been no accusations made,” she said. “I’m happy to sit down and give reassurance that only truth will be spoken and that this is not some kind of a witch hunt.”
“This is about championing this cause, not just for us, but for all the young women and children who are waiting to see what choices Congress will make now, what choices this administration will make, and if they’re going to be on the right side of history,” De Georgiou said.
While the Trump administration has made a limited effort to meet with victims and understand their concerns, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche traveled to Florida last month for a two-day interview with Maxwell. Some of the women criticized the Trump administration’s decision to hear Maxwell out despite her having previously made false statements to authorities.
Shortly after the interview, Maxwell was transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a federal prison camp in Texas, contributing to their concerns she might escape accountability despite her conviction.
“I still feel fearful of her,” said Chauntae Davies. “She’s probably going to get out somehow. I just feel like it’s kind of like a slow transition to her being released her going from prison to basically like a summer camp.”
Rather than show Maxwell leniency or continue withholding records from the public, the women urged the Trump administration to do right by Epstein’s victims by releasing the documents.
“You have the power to be transparent. You have the power to unite both parties in America,” Robson said of Trump. “For the first time in my life, I am seeing opportunity here, opportunity that can not only benefit the women sitting on the stage and our attorneys, I’m seeing an opportunity for you, nonpartisan, to unite the Democrat and Republican parties and get this going.”
“How wonderful would that be?” Robson said. “How great would that be to get on the same page and have the same agenda for once?”
