WASHINGTON — A group of Jeffrey Epstein accusers on Wednesday told emotional, gut-wrenching stories of sexual abuse at the hands of the late convicted sex offender and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, raising pressure on lawmakers to back the release of all of the files in the Justice Department’s years-long Epstein investigation.
One of the accusers, Marina Lacerda, identified herself as "Minor Victim 1" in Epstein's 2019 federal indictment in New York. "I was one of dozens of girls that I personally know who were forced into Jeffrey’s mansion on 9 East 71st St. in New York City when we were just kids," she said. "Today is the first time that I ever speak publicly about what happened to me.”
“I was only 14 years old when I met Jeffrey," said Lacerda, one of nine female Epstein accusers who appeared at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
"It was the summer of high school. I was working three jobs to try to support my mom and my sister when a friend of mine in the neighborhood told me that I could make $300 to give another guy a massage," she said, choking up at times. "It went from a dream job to the worst nightmare.”
Another Epstein accuser, Annie Farmer, alleged she was 16 when, in 1996, she was flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and Maxwell and was assaulted. Her sister, Maria, was also assaulted there, Farmer said, and sensitive photos of the sisters were stolen by Epstein. The incident was reported to authorities, Farmer said.
“I am now 46 years old; 30 years later, we still do not know why that report wasn’t properly investigated, or why Epstein and his associates were allowed to harm hundreds, if not thousands, of other girls and young women,” Farmer said.
"Not only did many others participate in the abuse, it is clear that many were aware of his interest in girls and very young women and chose to look the other way because it benefited them to do so," Farmer continued. "They wanted access to his circle and his money. Their choice to align with his power left those of us who had been harmed by this man and his associates feeling very isolated."
Behind the women stood dozens of abuse victims and victims-rights advocates holding signs like, "Release the Files" and "He is on the List." Five women held giant letters that spelled S-H-A-M-E.
The bombshell news conference was organized by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and comes as the bipartisan duo push to collect 218 signatures — half of the members of the House of Representatives — to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files in the Epstein case.
The accusers at the conference said that if Congress isn’t willing to release all of the investigative documents pertaining to Epstein, they would compile their own list of names to hold those in Epstein’s orbit accountable. "Together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know, who were regularly in the Epstein world,” said Lisa Phillips, who said she was brought to Epstein’s island.
“We are the keys,” added Haley Robson, who alleges she was trafficked by Epstein starting when she was 16. “We know the games. We know the players.”
Accuser Chauntae Davies said that Epstein and Maxwell were "boastful about their famous or powerful friends."
"And his biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump," Davies said. "He had an 8-x-10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them, like they were very close."
Trump had socialized with Epstein and Maxwell in the 1990s but said he had a "falling out" with Epstein after the financier "stole" young female employees from his Mar-a-Lago resort. On Wednesday, Trump dismissed calls for the release of Epstein files as "a Democrat hoax."
As of Wednesday morning, 134 lawmakers had signed onto the Massie-Khanna discharge petition — 130 Democrats and four Republicans: Massie and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Both authors of the measure have expressed confidence they can reach their goal of 218; they will need just two more Republicans to sign the petition to force a vote, if all Democrats join the effort, which they are expected to do.
But the Trump White House and Republican congressional leaders are opposed to the release of all of the files, saying that doing so could inadvertently expose the identities of victims who don’t want to go public.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has blasted the discharge push as misguided because the House Oversight Committee is already investigating the Epstein matter. On Tuesday night, the GOP-led panel released what it described as the first batch of documents from the Justice Department — more than 33,000 pages of records. But many files had already been made public through court filings and other releases.
And on Wednesday afternoon, the House passed a measure from leadership that directs the Oversight Committee to continue its Epstein investigation, offering an alternative to the discharge petition for Republicans wanting to get themselves on the record on the issue.
