The co-sponsors of a bill that would force the government to release all available Jeffrey Epstein documents held an hour-long press conference Wednesday that included statements from Epstein’s victims. One said that she and others were considering releasing their own list.
“[We] Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list,” Lisa Phillips said. “We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know, who are regularly in the Epstein world. It will be done by survivors, and for survivors. No one else is involved. Stay tuned for more details.”
Phillips spoke near the end of the conference. She was one of eight victims (nine if you count deceased victim Virginia Giuffre’s family) to make statements in support of the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA), which would force the House of Representatives to vote on the complete release of everything the government has related to Jeffrey Epstein (with the exception of victim-related redactions).
The Discharge Petition
Since Republican leadership has been unwilling to bring the bill up for a vote, EFTA co-sponsors Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are circulating a discharge petition to circumvent the House speaker. If they get 218 signatures, they can force a vote. Right now, they are just two shy. The petition has signatures from 212 Democrats, but only four Republicans. In addition to Massie, the other Republicans are Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Massie argued that despite various Epstein files being released by the government, “that does absolutely nothing.” He said the public receives some information, but it’s information curated by the government. On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released more than 33,000 pages of documents related to the Epstein investigation. Massie pointed out that everything the DOJ has released so far is either heavily redacted or information that’s already been made available to the public, which, he says, accounts for 70 percent. The White House is calling Massie’s attempt to have all the Epstein information released a “hostile act,” an indication that it opposes full transparency.
One of the victims’ lawyers, Bradley Edwards, elaborated on why it’s so important that EFTA go through. He said all the documents and evidence they’ve worked so hard to gather “hide behind protective orders, confidentiality agreements, and bank secrecy laws,” adding:
That is why this discharge petition is so important. While we have seen the documents, you haven’t. And when you see the documents, you’re going to be appalled.
The discharge petition, Edwards added, means that “nothing is off-limits” — from CIA documents, to FBI documents, to financial records. “Everybody knows that … corruption flourishes in secrecy.” He also said that he had filed lawsuits against JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank proving that they “knowingly provided the financial infrastructure for a sex trafficking operation.”
A Nonpartisan Issue
Both the politicians and the victims — or survivors, as they prefer to be called — stressed that this was a nonpartisan issue. Greene said this was something that “Republicans and Democrats should never fight about,” but that it instead “should bring us all together.”
“The only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing,” one of the victims observed.
Massie, who is being targeted by President Donald Trump in the 2026 primary, took issue with the president calling the Epstein saga a hoax. “This is not a hoax,” he said. “This is real. There are real survivors. There are real victims to this criminal enterprise. And the perpetrators are being protected because they’re rich and powerful and political donors to the Establishment here in Washington, D.C.”
Everyone at the press conference agreed that Epstein was a monster who played a role in the assault of hundreds, if not thousands, of underage girls, and that the only reason there is not more known about him is because he was rich and well connected. Khanna put it this way:
Americans are asking a very simple question: How is it possible that in the richest, most powerful country in the world there are corrupt special-interest forces, both foreign [and] domestic, that are preventing the release — that have a stranglehold on our government and are preventing the release of the full Epstein files. There is something that is rotten in Washington…. Today we stand with survivors, we stand against Big Money, we stand to protect America’s children. That is really what this is about.
Greene said that she had recently heard that Epstein had ties to other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Israel.
Victim Testimonies
The victims’ testimonies were similar. They were approached when they were between 14 and 16 years old. Someone they knew asked if they wanted to make $200 to massage “an old rich guy.” However, they soon found out that they were obligated to give more than a massage. Plus, they were asked to recruit other girls as they had been recruited. Another similarity is that none of those who went to the authorities had success — until attorneys like Edwards took on their case.
Perhaps alleged victim Courtney Wild summed it up best as to what this is about:
We need transparency. It’s time for us to see beyond the curtain — Why was Jeffrey Epstein so protected? Who is still being protected? And who protected them all? — so the world can understand how Jeffrey was able to abuse so many of us for so long.
