In September, dozens of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell stood shoulder to shoulder at a news conference on Capitol Hill. There was a sense of gravity in the air – part exhaustion, part resolve – as they recounted the abuse that had long been dismissed, buried or ignored. They asked for full transparency, public accountability and recognition of the harm done by their infamous abusers and traffickers. All of them demanded the release of the Epstein files.
For the first time in years, major media outlets including NBC and ABC carried the survivors’ voices live, broadcasting not just fragments but the full weight of their testimony. While the Epstein files – the trove of documents that detail the criminal activity and social web surrounding the convicted sex offender – have made headlines for years, much of the coverage centered on the powerful men who could be found in them, including Donald Trump. The conference felt like a breakthrough: the country finally seemed willing to listen to the women most affected by Epstein’s violence, advocates said.
