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Sexual assault is one of the most under reported crimes. Why? Because survivors are often wary of reporting such abuse because they fear no one will believe them.
The fury over the so-called Epstein files, records related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is the most recent example that reinforces that fear.
Much attention has focused on President Donald Trump’s involvement with Epstein (they were longtime friends). Epstein was found dead in New York City jail while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges; his death was ruled a suicide. Many have called for the release of additional information in hopes that it will incriminate Trump. Trump has called the whole situation a hoax.
Lost in this noise are the dozens of women who say they were abused by Epstein, his partner, and his friends and clients. These are the voices that need to be heard. Their testimony alone should prompt greater urgency to release all the information. Their voices should rise above the political grandstanding that has intensified debate about Epstein but done nothing to help the women who have shared their experiences of being abused, some as children.
“It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re here in person,” Haley Robson, one of the survivors, said during a Sept. 3 press conference at the U.S. Capitol.
“Justice and accountability are not favors from the powerful. They are obligations decades overdue,” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, said at the news conference on the Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability.”
The issue of accountability goes far beyond whether Trump is on the so-called Epstein list. This looks like a case of powerful, and often rich men, getting away with abhorrent behavior. If that behavior was criminal, it is far past time for federal law enforcement officials to take action and to lay out the case for the public.
Otherwise, this will be another case of brave women sharing horrifying and intimate details of abuse only to have their voices be ignored or dismissed. They deserve much better.
The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate last week blocked a Democrat-led effort to require release of files related to Epstein that are held by the Department of Justice. Democrats tried to include language to force the release of the files in a defense authorization bill.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, along with all but two other Republicans, voted against the measure. She said that the defense bill was the wrong vehicle for such a measure, especially because a Democrat-backed amendment to release additional information had already been added to a previous funding bill. That bill, which included funding for the Department of Justice, was blocked in July, by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, over a disagreement about moving the FBI headquarters to Maryland. Van Hollen was also the sponsor of the amendment to release additional information in the Epstein case. Collins voted for that amendment earlier this summer.
“I support the release of the Epstein files with the appropriate redactions needed to ensure survivors are protected,” Collins said in a statement to the BDN editorial board on Tuesday.
“In July, I supported a similar provision to compile and report the Epstein files as part of the Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) funding bill during a markup held by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The provision was approved unanimously,” the senator said. “When I tried to move that bill to the Senate floor twice as part of an appropriations package, the Democratic senator who authored that provision in committee blocked it.”
“If Democrats hadn’t blocked it from going to the floor, this amendment could have already been passed by the Senate as part of a bill that funds the Department of Justice,” Collins added.
“Last week’s vote was an attempt by [Senate] Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to derail consideration of the Defense Authorization Bill,” Collins said. “The Epstein issue has nothing to do with the defense bill.”
Certainly, there has been too much grandstanding and not enough transparency in the Epstein case. However, if the information was important enough to release in July, it remains important enough to release now. No matter what the process is, the public needs to know what and who is in the case files in the DOJ sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
Republican U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is leading an effort in the U.S. House to push for the release of the Epstein files. U.S. Reps. Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree of Maine have signed on to the petition.
“It’s shameful this has been called a hoax. This is not a hoax,” Massie said earlier this month. “There are real victims to this criminal enterprise and the perpetrators are being protected because they are rich and powerful.”
If the measure again comes before Congress, the voices of these women should be louder and more persuasive than those of the rich and powerful.
