{"id":210532,"date":"2026-05-13T01:20:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:20:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/epstein-survivors-give-tearful-testimony-in-house-field-hearing-in-palm-beach-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T01:20:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T01:20:45","slug":"epstein-survivors-give-tearful-testimony-in-house-field-hearing-in-palm-beach-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/epstein-survivors-give-tearful-testimony-in-house-field-hearing-in-palm-beach-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Epstein survivors give tearful testimony in House field hearing in Palm Beach – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oversight panel Democrats hold event at \u2018the scene of the crime\u2019 in Florida and ask Trump to not pardon Maxwell
Democrats tore into government\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> abuse scandal on Tuesday \u2013 revealing new details of the scale of his international sex trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon to the late sex offender\u2019s sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.
Several survivors of Epstein\u2019s abuse also gave tearful testimony at a congressional field hearing in Florida<\/a> of their experiences as teenagers in s orbit. Some spoke of being retraumatized after they were \u201couted\u201d by the justice department\u2019s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.
Democratic members of the US House oversight committee said they held Tuesday\u2019s event in Palm Beach, where the president lives, and where Epstein had a residence, because it was \u201cthe scene of the crime\u201d.
\u201cWe\u2019re here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location,\u201d California Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, told a press conference after the hearing.
\u201cWe know that the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted.\u201d
Garcia began the hearing by unveiling a new report called \u201cThe Price of Non-Prosecution<\/a>\u201d that he said revealed how Epstein was able to build a substantial and lucrative international sex trafficking ring following his infamous \u201csweetheart deal<\/a>\u201d with Florida prosecutors in 2008.
After dodging serious charges and serving only 13 months in prison for a solicitation of prostitution conviction, he said, Epstein and his associates gamed the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.
\u201c[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta\u2019s sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse,\u201d Garcia said.
\u201cThis report is just the beginning of numerous reports and information that we intend to put out over the course of the months ahead.\u201d
One survivor, Dani Bensky, testified how she was groomed and recruited into Epstein\u2019s circle \u2013 and how victims were encouraged to recruit friends of their own.
\u201cI had two recruiters,\u201d she said. \u201cOne was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old, just trying to escape her own abuse.\u201d
Multiple others were recruited from Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago club, allegedly during the many years of friendship between the now-president and Epstein.
They included Virginia Giuffre, who worked as a spa attendant at the age of 16 in 2000, when she said she was recruited by Maxwell, Epstein\u2019s associate and \u201cfixer\u201d. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Giuffre was one of the most prominent voices in exposing Epstein, and appeared in an infamous March 2001 photograph<\/a> with Maxwell and the discredited British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose arm is around the then 17-year-old\u2019s waist.
Sky Roberts, Giuffre\u2019s brother, cried Tuesday as he spoke of his sister\u2019s determination to expose Epstein\u2019s crimes before she took her life<\/a> in April 2025.
\u201cShe was only 16 years old, a child who had just finished 10th grade, when she began being trafficked,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cBefore her passing, Virginia gave sworn testimony exposing this for what it truly was, a global sex trafficking operation, enabled, protected and funded by powerful people.
\u201cMany survivors stay silent because many of these individuals still hold power, wealth and influence in our society. No survivor should have to risk their own safety just to be believed. But Virginia, she did it anyway. She stood up when others were afraid, told the truth under oath, and faced people she knew were powerful.\u201d
Some panel members focused on the Trump administration\u2019s response to the scandal, which has dogged Trump\u2019s second presidency. One Epstein email<\/a> released in November stated \u201cof course [Trump] knew about the girls\u201d procured for his sex-trafficking ring, and another that said Trump \u201cspent hours\u201d with one victim at Epstein\u2019s house.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the activities of Epstein, who he said he dropped as a friend years earlier.
\u201cThe [justice department], this administration, the president, and the attorney general, made it clear that this investigation, in their opinion, was a hoax, was a lie, and there was nothing else to do or to move forward,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThey want to close it down.
\u201cIt is alive and well, and moving forward. And we have a lot of work ahead of us.\u201d
The Trump administration, he said, continued to \u201cbreak the law\u201d by withholding what he said was half of the documents required by the Epstein Transparency Act.
Conversely, one survivor, a model who identified herself as Roza, said she was retraumatized by finding her name unredacted hundreds of times in the documents the justice department had released.
\u201cMy name was exposed to the world,\u201d she said. \u201cNow reporters from across the globe contact me. I cannot live without looking over my shoulder. I can only imagine the long term impact this \u2018mistake\u2019 will have on my life.\u201d
Democrats said they looked forward to the testimony of Pam Bondi<\/a>, Trump\u2019s former attorney general, at a House oversight hearing on 29 May looking in to the government\u2019s handling of the files \u2013 and the wider scandal.
Minority members filed a civil contempt resolution<\/a> against Bondi in April after the administration argued she was not required to respond to a subpoena to appear because she had left her job.
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democratic congressman for Illinois, meanwhile, warned Trump against clemency for Maxwell, a move some Republicans support<\/a> arguing that it could free her to cooperate with the Epstein investigation.
\u201cMaxwell hasn\u2019t shown any guilt, hasn\u2019t shown any remorse, hasn\u2019t shown any ounce of accountability for what she did,\u201d he said, noting he introduced a House resolution in August condemning a push for clemency.
\u201cI hope everyone here will join me, because we have to do everything in our power to block a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oversight panel Democrats hold event at \u2018the scene of the crime\u2019 in Florida and ask Trump to not pardon MaxwellDemocrats tore into government\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal on Tuesday \u2013 revealing new details of the scale of his international sex trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":210533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-210532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}