Ayanna Pressley demands unredacted Epstein files following survivors’ roundtable

This week on Capitol Hill, survivors of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein met privately with members of the House Oversight Committee.

Survivor Marina Lacerda spoke publicly for the first time at a press conference about her experience, saying: “The worst part is that the government is still in possession right now of the documents. They have documents with my name on them that were confiscated from Jeffrey Epstein’s house and could help me put the pieces of my own life back together. But I don’t have any of it.”

It was the first time many survivors had spoken directly to lawmakers, despite a long push for their voices to be heard in a public setting and for files related to Epstein’s crimes to be released.

Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley — who herself has spoken out as a survivor of sexual abuse — helped lead the push to subpoena Epstein’s files this summer. She’s still pushing for survivors’ testimony to be entered into the congressional record.

Pressley joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to share more about why she’s calling for a full public hearing in Congress. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.

Arun Rath: You were at this roundtable with survivors. Can you describe some of what you heard in that room?

Rep. Ayanna Pressley: First, let me just say that if we are really to hold powerful abusers to account, it is essential that we center the voices of survivors. And [Tuesday’s] roundtable with the six brave and courageous survivors who told their stories — many of them for the first time — I think was a critical step toward their healing and accountability, transparency, some semblance of justice. They’ll never truly have justice, because justice would mean they would never have been violated in this way.

It was deeply upsetting, and that’s really an understatement. Let me just speak for a moment as a survivor. You have grown women in front of you that are in their 30s, in their 40s, who, as they start to tell their stories, you can see a regression in real time — they’re right back, in many ways, to being that 13-year-old, that 14-year-old because it’s always right there, just beneath the surface.

This is a common experience for many survivors. One survivor spoke of entering an elevator on her way to the roundtable, and when she entered the elevator, it was just she and a man in the elevator. And she questioned, would she be safe? Another survivor spoke of fears of leaving her child unattended — her daughter, specifically — because she feels every day she has to stay close to her to defend her from the world.

When you are a child and your innocence — your trust, your belief in people, in humanity — is corrupted, and your government is complicit in that, it is an institutional betrayal.

When you are a child — and we’re talking about as young as 13 years old — and you have hopes and dreams and aspirations, and someone violates your body, manipulates your mind, denies you your future. They [abuse survivors] have spent decades consumed with trying to heal and trying to get some semblance of justice.

And they’ve been burdened by shame, which is the story for so many survivors when, of course, this is not their shame to carry. This is the shame of Jeffrey Epstein. Of Ms. [Ghislaine] Maxwell. Of very powerful, wealthy, well-connected people who could have done anything with their privilege — and chose to use that privilege to prey upon, to groom, to exploit, to rape and to traffic girls.

So, the roundtable was powerful, it was devastating, it is a step in the right direction. But I continue to demand a congressional hearing so that this is a part of an official congressional record. Any survivor that does want to come forward — we can’t platform the lies of Ms. Maxwell and not platform the lived experiences of these survivors.

Jeffrey Epstein is dead, but his harm, the trauma he caused, is alive and well in the experiences of these survivors every single day. And Ms. Maxwell may be incarcerated, but these survivors are incarcerated. It’s a lifetime sentence.

So there has to be a congressional hearing. The public deserves that full transparency. The victims deserve — the survivors deserve to be heard. And we have to leverage every tool available to us.

Rath: You said this is a step in the right direction — that a proper, congressional hearing would be another step in the right direction. What are the rest of the steps? What does accountability look like?

Pressley: Well, I’ll tell you, the survivors spoke of, you know, decades of sharing their stories. Again, the Farmer sisters were speaking as early as the late ’80s, early ’90s. And if authorities had taken them seriously, there are dozens — hundreds — of survivors who would have been kept safe and never had these experiences, these harrowing experiences.

So, what does justice look like? It looks like us leveraging every level of government. What the survivors said is, “We’ve been telling our stories for decades. Today, at this roundtable, is the first time we feel heard. We don’t know if — you seem sincere, or maybe you’re just good actors.” And they apologize for their cynicism, but they have been disappointed so many times, and they appealed to us: “Please don’t disappoint us again.”

There have been so many enablers. So many who have been complicit. This has been an institutional betrayal. And so the roundtable was a step in the right direction.

Again, just to remind you, anything that’s happened up until this point is because of the commitment of Oversight Democrats centering survivors, instead of shielding powerful predators. So, we forced a vote for that subpoena to the DOJ.

I then started demanding, leading calls for, a congressional hearing. My Democratic colleagues joined me, shoulder-to-shoulder, and that appeal created pressure for the roundtable, which was the first time that many survivors felt heard.

We continue to call for that congressional hearing. We have a live discharge petition to force a vote.

Rath: House Majority Leader Mike Johnson said that the only delays here are about protecting survivors. Is that the case?

Pressley: We continue to call for the full release of the Epstein files — unredacted, except for shielding the names of the victims, of the survivors. There are laws already on the books in place to ensure that.

And the survivors all said: the investigation is not over. The only way to have a thorough and comprehensive investigation is that we need the full Epstein files — unredacted, except for protecting the names of the victims.

And, adding insult to injury here, many of the victims have blocked out their own experiences, and the government has access to information about them that they have not even been able to see. So, we have to have the full, unredacted Epstein files with the names of the survivors protected. And of course, we’re all committed to that.

I would just say, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, this is bigger than just Epstein. This is about all survivors — survivors of campus sexual assault, childhood sexual abuse, military sexual assault and more. We’ll see how serious my Republican colleagues are about protecting children and about justice for survivors.

Rath: We only have a moment left, and I hate to end with asking you to respond to a charge, but it’s been a criticism — people have made the accusation — that this is really just about damaging President Trump, about getting some political traction against him, and this is what the Democrats are doing here. Would you respond to that?

Pressley: Look… I’ve been doing the work of survivors’ justice my entire life. I did that before Epstein. I will do it now for the victims of Epstein’s abuse, and I will do it after.

What I would say is: If the Republicans are serious about that work, then they wouldn’t have cut the Violence Against Women Act; they would restore funding for the Office of Violence Against Women. If Republicans are serious about stopping rape, then they should stop trying to gut the Violence Against Women Act.

If they’re serious about holding abusers accountable, then they should join us. And I urge them to sign the discharge petition.

But this is a matter of life and death. Virginia Giuffre took her life after decades of advocating for justice and for a full release of the Epstein file. And for the powerful abusers, enablers and people who have been complicit — from maids, and drivers, and hairstylists, and doctors, and the wealthy, the powerful and the well-connected who created a culture of intimidation and fear for these victims who felt they had no other choice but to remain ensnared in this predator Ponzi scheme, feeding the perversions of Jeffrey Epstein and his friends.

This is not about politics. This is about justice. And it has been delayed, and it has been denied. Again, in this moment, it’s about the survivors of Epstein and Maxwell and all those that were complicit and were enablers. It is about their abuse, and them getting justice, transparency, accountability and healing.

But this sends a message to all survivors — and I will note this, because I was talking with people earlier today who’ve come from all over the country in solidarity. And I asked every single one of them, “Why are you here?” They came from Colorado, Maine, California, Vermont, all over the country. And they were allies, some of whom had people in their families who were survivors of abuse, or they themselves had been abused. And said, “I never got justice, and I’m here today to demand this. That these women be believed, and they get the justice they deserve.”

This is a huge community, and survivors vote. So survivors and people of conscience are paying attention to what will happen in this moment.