Jeffrey Epstein's Abuse

Floor Speech

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Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, for decades, Jeffrey Epstein's abuse was an open secret powerful people knew. Agencies knew. Some in government knew. Yet, year after year, he continued to operate in trafficking, exploiting, and destroying the lives of children and young women.

This was not only sexual violence. There were financial crimes. Epstein's empire was built on money, blackmail, and connections, and those connections reached into the highest halls of power.

What makes this scandal unbearable is not just Epstein's evil but the way institutions, Republican and Democratic administrations alike, looked away. No administration, past or present, has fully stepped up to bring the truth to light. The very agencies charged with protecting the vulnerable, instead, protected the powerful.

Now, under Donald Trump, that coverup has gone from negligence to active obstruction. Trump promised to release the files. He promised the American people transparency. Instead, he and his handpicked lieutenants have buried the truth under a mountain of lies and contradictions.

Let's review the record. In June of 2024, Trump said he would declassify the Epstein files. His campaign even celebrated that promise online. On January 30, Trump's FBI Director, Kash Patel, vowed to release everything. On February 21, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the client list was literally on her desk. As of today, none of that has materialized.

However, when Bondi told Trump in May that his own name appeared in those files, everything changed. Suddenly, the files were too dangerous to release. Then the Department of Justice claimed there was no client list at all. Trump went from promising full transparency to calling the files boring, then a hoax, then a dead issue. This is not transparency. This is a coverup.

Madam Speaker, when leaders abuse their office to shield predators, that is corruption of the highest order. When hundreds of survivors are denied justice to protect one man's reputation, that is a crime against the very idea of democracy.

The majority often speaks about morality. We are told about protecting children, about being pro-life, and standing up against human trafficking. So I ask my colleagues on the other side: Where is the outrage now? Where is that moral clarity when the lives of trafficked and abused girls demand your courage?

This is not about partisanship. This is about whether the United States Congress will side with survivors or with abusers. Will we protect the powerful or will we protect the powerless?

Trump threatens Republican Members who demand justice in this matter. Like Epstein survivors, the majority are now terrorized by men in power to stay silent. I know that many aspects of this criminally corrupt scandal are horrible to look at and think about, but we don't have to be divided. Together, we can be the solution and send a message that we will not let this happen again.

Here is my demand: Release the files, every name, every deposition, every page, unredacted, except to protect the survivors. No more excuses. No more delays, and no more hiding.

Madam Speaker, sunlight is the oldest disinfectant. It is the only way to end the rot of corruption that let Epstein thrive, and it is the only way to give survivors the justice they deserve.

Right now, there is a bipartisan effort in this House to force a vote on releasing the files. We need only two more Republicans to join us, two Members who believe their oath to the truth is stronger than their loyalty to Donald Trump. We need two Members who are willing to live up to the words they so often speak about morality, family, and protecting children.

Let me say this: Americans are divided on so much today, but on this demand for justice, transparency, and accountability, we are united. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Americans across every community want this coverup to end. At a time when our country desperately needs something to unite around, this could be it.

The American people have waited long enough. The survivors have waited long enough. If our justice system means anything, it must mean justice for the vulnerable human beings that powerful men thought they could use and throw away. No more secrecy, no more corruption, no more protection for predators.

Madam Speaker, history will remember what we do in this moment. Here is the truth: If we in Congress cannot unify to defy the most well- connected predator of our time, what good are we?

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