By Nolan D. McCaskill and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein demanded on Wednesday that the U.S. Congress pass legislation forcing the release of all unclassified records related to the disgraced financier held by President Donald Trump’s administration.
“This is about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root,” said Anouska De Georgiou, a former model and actress who was one of about 10 self-described Epstein victims who spoke about her experience at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol.
“The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people that matter in this country finally care what we have to say,” said Marina Lacerda, an immigrant from Brazil who met Epstein when she was 14 after a friend told her she could make hundreds of dollars for massaging an older man.
The women said they supported legislation in the House of Representatives called the Epstein Files Transparency Bill requiring the release of records, including those held by the FBI and U.S. attorneys’ offices.
“Survivors need protection, resources and legal support. If this Congress is serious about justice, then let this moment also affirm your commitment to provide victims with the legal aid they need,” De Georgiou said at a press conference organized by Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California, who are trying to force a vote on that bill.
House Republican leaders are trying to head off a potentially difficult debate for their rank-and-file members on that legislation, which Trump says would provide no significant, new revelations on the long-running criminal case.
“Thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax,” Trump said in a White House Oval Office appearance on Wednesday.
Survivors stressed that their stories are real.
The controversy over the Department of Justice withholding Epstein files has dogged Trump throughout much of this summer, with some of his core supporters demanding their release.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has sought a different route that simply offers a vote on a resolution backing an Epstein investigation already underway by a House panel.
Massie called that “the oldest trick in the swamp.”
“When you want to kill an issue, you introduce a placebo – a different bill that does nothing – and then you try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people,” he said. “That’s not going to happen this time.”
Late Tuesday, a Republican-controlled House panel released more than 33,000 pages of files on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who committed suicide in 2019 while being held in jail.
Massie and Khanna are seeking far broader information.
They are attempting to force House votes on their legislation by employing a complicated and often unsuccessful House procedure known as a “discharge petition.”
At least 218 House members’ signatures would be needed to force the vote, so if all 212 House Democrats backed the measure, Massie would need to persuade five fellow Republicans to join him. As of Wednesday he had the backing of three: Representatives Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.
House Republican leadership has argued that the discharge petition effort is moot, given the large number of documents that were made public.
If the Massie-Khanna effort were to succeed in getting at least 218 backers, it would be a test of Johnson’s leadership – and Trump’s sway – over whether enough Republicans would actually break ranks and vote to pass the legislation in the deeply split House.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Nolan D. McCaskill, Katharine Jackson and Doina Chiacu; editing by Scott Malone and Richard Chang)
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