By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Tuesday, several Democrats spoke out after the House Oversight Committee meet with several survivors of serial rapist and pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The victims also held a press conference outside Congress on Wednesday, in Washington D.C.
California Rep. Robert Garcia spoke about the need for “justice, accountability, and transparency.”
“I’m Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the Oversight Committee, and we’re here with, of course, the other Democrats that, of course, are on this committee. But most importantly, for the last couple of hours we’ve been hearing directly from the victims who have suffered incredible, horrific abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, by Ghislaine Maxwell, and many others who have been involved in these horrific crimes…I will say, and I know I speak on behalf of all of us, that the courage that these women showed today has motivated us so much more to seek justice, accountability, and transparency. And we do not care how powerful, how connected, or what political party those that have victimized and caused horrific pain and sexual abuse of these women are, we will seek justice.”
Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley spoke about not shielding “powerful abusers.”
“What we heard here today was harrowing and it is proof of what has been an institutional, systemic betrayal for decades. These women now who were preyed upon, groomed, exploited, violated from as young as 13 years old. Their bodies violated, their minds manipulated, and their dreams denied. Aspiring artists, lawyers, actors, people who had big dreams, and those dreams have been dashed and denied because of the shame they carry, because of the trauma they carry. It is a lifetime sentence. Jeffrey Epstein is dead, but his hurt and his harm is alive and well in the daily experiences of these survivors. Maxwell is incarcerated, but it is these survivors, these victims who are still very much in jail, and they are deserving of transparency, of accountability, and of healing.
“We are where we are today because of the leadership of Ranking Member Garcia and our ranking member on the Subcommittee for Law Enforcement, Summer Lee, enforcing that vote for a subpoena. Because in order for us to hold powerful abusers to account who participated actively in a predator, pedophile, Ponzi scheme meant to feed on the daily perversions of a rich and powerful man and his enablers and those who were his co-conspirators, we want to center the victims and the survivors, not shield the powerful, the wealthy, and the well-connected.
“So, we forced a vote for a subpoena in a hearing that was on child trafficking, to point out the hypocrisy. Then I led calls for a hearing in the Committee on Oversight, centering the victims, and my colleagues joined with me in that. We do believe that that did lead to pressure that resulted in today’s roundtable, where many of the victims said it was the first time that they had felt heard on the heels of the many years of abuse that they experienced to be re-victimized and traumatized by a government. They had abusers that told them they were trash. And because they’ve never gotten justice and been heard, it has contributed to the ways in which they have felt demoralized and invisible. The role of this committee is to be in efficient and effective pursuit of the truth, and we will be until these survivors get the justice that they deserve. Again, we will not shield powerful abusers. They must be taken to account, and that cannot happen if we are not centering and prioritizing the voices of survivors.”
California Congresswoman Lateefah Simon talked about Epstein’s survivors who have been denied justice.
“Today we had the honor of listening to extremely brave women who talked about the ongoing rape and sexual exploitation that they endured by the rich and the powerful, and for three decades their voices have been ignored. These are young women who have been on record telling their stories, and yet, justice has been denied. Justice has been denied to the young woman who talked about being groomed to go over to Jeffrey Epstein’s home where she was raped, raped. Children leaving high school to be raped and left to go home alone, to then go to school the next day.
“One of the things that I will tell you, the brave and courageous women today, what they did with both Republicans and Democrats, they sat before us at a roundtable and gave us their souls, believing that maybe this time they would get justice, maybe this time they would be seen as children, not adultified by men who ravaged their bodies. Maybe then, they thought, today if they testified in front of this hearing, that we as members of Congress would not only lift up their stories and seek justice, that we would hear the truth and the life of girls and young people all over this country who are continuously bought and sold, who never seek justice because they too, like these women, fear retribution.
“If we are worth our names on our letterhead, we will not only seek justice and get answers, we will work to protect these women. We will work to ensure that every individual, every adult that had anything to do with their trafficking, their rape, that they are held to account. For over 30 years I have worked with young women who have been moved through the trafficking channels of this country and we rarely see them getting justice. Today, hopefully, will be a new day.”
Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee said the government is failing to get justice for Epstein’s survivors.
“What we saw today in listening to these incredibly brave women who were once young girls, who were victimized repeatedly and have been repeatedly victimized since then because of profound levels of just injustice, profound levels of failure, systemic failure at every single level. They are here to remind us that the reason why we passed this motion, the reason why we had, even if it was just a little bipartisan support at the time, was because our reason for being here is to make sure that whether it is the government of the United States, or princes, or elected officials from other countries, or wealthy billionaires, that no one should be above the law. That if we are going to be a country of laws, that they must be equal applied to every single person, but that also we have a responsibility to restore these victims.
“It was the government itself that failed these women. It’s the government itself, right now, that is keeping them from the justice, from the healing, and from the peace that they need and that they deserve. We are here not to add on to the sensationalism of a case that has received global news and global attention, but to recenter that at the heart of this are human beings. At the heart of this are women, girls, and now generations of girls beneath them.
“Though we were able hear from a number of women today, we know that there were hundreds, hundreds of women who were involved in this case. Hundreds of women, some, many of whom are unnamed, but hundreds of women who were victimized, who were sexually abused and then re-victimized by the obstruction from the government. And behind them are millions of girls who have watched how our country, how society handles cases of sexual abuse. They have watched the rich and the powerful get off. They have watched, even in death, them be protected.”
Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett talked on “doing right for future generations.“
“First of all, let me just say that we are standing before you, we’re having this conversation because of the Oversight Democratic leadership. And so I want to reiterate that it’s the Democratic leadership on Oversight that has truly been able to move this forward. I’m sure many of you don’t recall, but we were sent home early to try to avoid being able to take a vote on something like getting these files. We are about doing real transparency. We don’t care who’s in the files, we are going after you.
“So, if I had to sum up what happened today, we heard the stories of victims and honestly, we heard the story of at least one person that has never come forward before today. This was the very first time that she was telling anyone in a semi-public way her story. And if I had to summarize the theme, I would say that their theme was to do something. It is probably the theme of the American people in general right now when it comes to government is that they want us to do something.
“We need to continue to push forward and make sure that we get all the files, because we know that we have not received them all. Because I am standing in front of the press, I’m also going to make a plea. One of the things that I realized was that there’s a lot of stuff that the DOJ may have. But honestly, if you don’t have a thorough investigation. And I can’t say if we had a thorough investigation or not, we have no idea. But the reality is that when you have investigators that go out, they go out and they collect information. I am not necessarily convinced that they even have gone out and done their due diligence to fully investigate this case in the first place.
“So, if there’s anyone in the public that believes that you have information that would be valuable. You’ve never been able to get through to federal agencies or no one would listen to you when you try to go forward and bring information forward, I am asking that you trust Oversight Dems and you bring that information to us. Or if you know where some information is contained, let us know so that we can then send subpoenas out that way. We want to do right, not only by those that have already suffered under Epstein, but we want to prevent other trafficking rings that we know are out there. We want to make sure that we are doing right for future generations.
To Support our independent investigative journalism contributions are welcome via Cashapp to: $BlackStarNews
Also support Black Star News by buying merch from our brand new Black Star Store!
