A group of women who allegedly survived abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell say they plan to release their own list of names of individuals who were known to be a part of Epstein’s social circle. Their decision to do so comes as Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash a bipartisan resolution that would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all Department of Justice documents related to Epstein. A Republican congressman, Thomas Massie, and a Democratic congressman, Ro Khanna, invited a group of survivors to speak at a press event outside of the Capitol on Wednesday morning. At the event, Mr. Massie accused Mr. Johnson of offering only a “fig leaf” to those who wanted to see the documents by introducing a non-binding resolution that simply offers verbal support to the ongoing House Oversight Committee inquiry into Epstein’s affairs. At a rally before their press event with Messrs. Massie and Khanna, a group of Epstein survivors shared their stories about allegedly being abused for years by Epstein. One victim, Lisa Phillips, who says she was abused by Epstein over the course of years more than two decades ago, says she and other survivors want to compile their own list of names and release it to the public. “We know the names,” Ms. Phillips told the rally crowd on Wednesday morning. “Together, as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know were regularly in the Epstein world, and it will be done by survivors and for survivors.”Ms. Phillips said that there was a level of insidiousness to the Epstein saga that was especially sickening because he went unpunished for so long. “Who was he to our government that he was allowed to operate openly for decades?” Ms. Phillips asked. “Epstein was not just a serial predator — he was an international human trafficker, and many around him knew this, many participated, and many profited.”“And yet, he was protected,” she declared. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene declared at a press conference alongside the victims that she would be willing to take their list of alleged abusers and read “every damn name” into the congressional record. If Ms. Greene were to read that list on the House floor, she would be immune from any civil lawsuits because House members are protected from criminal and civil penalties for anything said on the floor by the Speech and Debate Clause of the Constitution.Asked about the press conference in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump simply called the whole affair a “Democrat hoax.” “Thousands of pages of documents have been given,” he said. “I know that no matter what you do, it’s gonna keep going.”Mr. Johnson has been trying to beat back the resolution from Messrs. Massie and Khanna for weeks. On Tuesday, he met with several Epstein survivors in the Capitol to hear their stories, though he affirmed after the meeting that he was still not willing to put the Massie-Khanna bill on the floor. He called it a “moot point” given the Oversight Committee’s investigation. “I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference. I want them to think: ‘What if this is your sister? What if this was your daughter?’” Mr. Massie asked at the press conference with survivors on Wednesday. “The speaker of the House just offered a fig leaf to my colleagues. They’re going to vote on a non-binding resolution today that does absolutely nothing.”On Tuesday night, the Oversight Committee chairman, Congressman James Comer, released more than 33,000 documents that were turned over to him by the Department of Justice as part of his investigation. Mr. Massie and others have said that nearly everything in that collection of files was already in the public domain. “They’re allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them. If you’ve looked at the pages they’ve released so far, they’re heavily redacted,” Mr. Massie said. “I’m calling on my colleagues: be one of the next two who sponsors this discharge petition.”Messrs. Massie and Khanna need 218 signatures on their discharge petition in order to force a vote on their resolution in the full House. So far, Mr. Massie and Ms. Greene, as well as Congresswomen Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, are the only Republican lawmakers to sign it. If all 212 Democrats sign the petition, then Mr. Massie only needs five more GOP members to sign the measure for it to come to the floor. “Today, we are coming forward and we are going to fight like hell for these women,” Ms. Greene said at the press conference on Wednesday. “This is the most important fight we can wage here in Congress.”One of the alleged Epstein victims, Anouska de Georgiou, declared at the event that “accountability” is required in a “civilized society.” She also commented on President Trump’s refusal to rule out a pardon for Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. “If Ghislaine Maxwell were pardoned, it would undermine all the sacrifices I made to testify, and make mockery of mine and all survivors’ suffering,” Ms. de Georgiou said. One of Epstein’s most well-known victims, Annie Farmer, also spoke at the event on Wednesday and demanded Congress support the Massie-Khanna measure to force disclosure of the files. Ms. Farmer says she and her sister were abused by Epstein in the 1990s. “It’s very clear to me that we are not going away,” Ms. Farmer said. “At a time with record high levels of distrust in our institutions and a perception that there are two Americas — one for those with power and privilege and one for everyone else — passing this Epstein transparency bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side” with sexual predators.Another survivor, Chauntae Davies, first came out publicly to accuse Epstein after his suicide in 2019. She appeared at the event on Wednesday to say that Epstein surrounded himself with some of the world’s most powerful people and would often “brag” about it to his victims. One of those friends, Ms. Davies said, was President Trump. “Epstein surrounded himself with the most powerful leaders of our country and the world,” Ms. Davies told the assembled crowd. “He abused not only me, but countless others and everyone seemed to look away. The truth is: Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president, Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag, actually.”
