Epstein survivors demand justice in Washington as Trump calls case ‘a Democrat hoax’

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Lawmakers on Capitol Hill today faced renewed pressure to release more information about the federal investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Women who were sexually abused and trafficked by Epstein spoke publicly, some for the first time, demanding that federal authorities make the federal case files public.

• Amna Nawaz:

  President Trump also responded to the demands for more documents. While the women called the push critical, Mr. Trump called it political.

  Donald Trump, President of the United States: But it's really a Democrat hoax, because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we have had as a nation since I have been president.

• Haley Robson, Jeffrey Epstein Survivor:

  Mr. President Donald J. Trump, I am a registered Republican, not that matters because this is not political. However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax. We are real human beings. This is real trauma.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins has been covering all this and joins me now.

  So, Lisa, bring us up to speed. Where do the efforts to release these files stand?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  This was an extraordinary news conference. These survivors, you could see it was meaningful to them to bring their story to the Capitol to lawmakers.

  They're angry. They want the files released. There are two tracks about the file release. One is the Department of Justice is sending files to a House Republican committee. They are going through it. It's under subpoena. Those are the 34,000 pages that we got last night.

  But the thing about that, Amna, is, as we first surmised, most of those documents really are not relevant to any new information. Some of them are repeat documents. So there are skeptics who say either the Department of Justice may slow-roll this or they're not going to give us what we need.

  So that's the second track, which is a bill from Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna. They would force the Department of Justice to release all of the information they have from the Epstein files. That's what these survivors said they want.

  Now, the trick is, there are two more Republicans needed to sign on to that bill in order to force a vote. Speaker Johnson told Republicans this morning that actually the survivors don't want that bill.

  Wait a minute. I asked the survivors in person. I said, what — is that true? Are you worried about your protections? And they said, no, that's not right. We do want this bill.

  So momentum right now seems to me there could be very well a vote on that bill.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We heard a little bit of what the survivors there had to say, but you were there. What else did they have to say that stood out to you?

• Lisa Desjardins:

  Right.

  There was some news here. One of the survivors said that she and others are gathering to write up their own list of the high-powered individuals who were part of the abuse. They haven't decided if they will release that list yet or not. But Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said, if she gets that list and they say it's OK, she will read it on the House floor, where some speech is protected.

  This is something we have to watch closely. We know President Trump has called all of this, the bill that the survivors want, a hostile act. So there's a lot going on here. Some of it is political. But right now, today, the survivors really were the ones pushing the momentum.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We know you're going to continue to cover this story.

  Lisa Desjardins, thank you so much.

• Lisa Desjardins:

  You're welcome.

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