Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse are demanding Congress release all files related to the convicted sex offender in a new PSA, declaring, “It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows.”
The PSA aired just days before the House is set to vote on a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all records related to the convicted child sex offender.
Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna forced the vote, expected to be held on Tuesday, by sidestepping Speaker Mike Johnson with a discharge petition, much to President Donald Trump’s dismay.
President Donald Trump, whose name has repeatedly appeared in files related to Jeffrey Epstein, had tried to stop more documents from going public, before reversing course Sunday evening and ordering House Republicans to vote to release all files. / Roberto Schmidt / Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
In the video, produced by World Without Exploitation, several survivors hold up photos of themselves as teenagers—all between the ages of 14 and 17—and explain, “This is me when I met Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Five Administrations and we’re still in the dark,” a message reads, before the video concludes by urging people to call their congress members and demand the release of the files.
Trump, whose name has repeatedly appeared in already-released documents—has previously tried to stop more documents from going public, describing them as a Democratic “hoax.”
But Annie Farmer, one of the women who appeared in the PSA, told NBC News’ Hallie Jackson on Sunday that the push to unseal the documents is “not a political issue.”
“Please remember that these are crimes that were committed against real humans, real individuals,” said Farmer, whose sister Maria was the first woman to file a criminal complaint against Epstein in 1996, according to NBC News.
Danielle Bensky, another survivor who appeared in the PSA, noted calls for Trump to meet Epstein’s victims, saying, “Just to have that moment with him where he can see the truth in our faces, it would be really helpful.”
Farmer said she hopes that “if it’s really clear that this is what the American people want and this is what our government is pushing for, that he will follow through with that.”
Trump’s name surfaced repeatedly in the trove of emails Democrats on the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed from Epstein’s estate and released on Wednesday.
In three emails highlighted by the Democrats, Epstein said Trump “knew about the girls,” and “spent hours” in Epstein’s home with a “victim,” said by House Republicans to be Virginia Giuffre.
Responding to the emails, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt branded the controversy a “hoax.”
“The Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump. 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,” Leavitt previously said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre. These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments, and any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
Trump and Epstein were friends until the early 2000s. / Davidoff Studios/Getty Images
The 79-year-old president, who was a friend of Epstein’s from the 1980s into the 2000s, has repeatedly said he did not know anything about the late financier’s crimes.
But he has refused to directly address his presence in the files, instead ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s links to Bill Clinton and other perceived enemies—while keeping his own name off the target list.
“I don’t care about it, released or not,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One Friday night. “If you’re going to do it, then you’re going then you have to go into Epstein’s friends.”
On Sunday evening, just hours after the PSA aired, he said in a Truth Social post that “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files” and insisted, “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.”
Donald Trump/Truth Social
The White House referred the Daily Beast to the president’s Truth Social post when reached for comment on the survivors’ PSA.
Senior Republicans privately expect dozens within their conference to vote for Massie and Khanna’s Epstein Files Transparency Act, Politico reports.
