Standing with Truth and Justice

Floor Speech

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Ms. STANSBURY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to stand with truth and justice, to stand with every survivor of sexual assault, and to demand the release of the Epstein files now. I say to the one man on planet Earth who has the power to do so, Mr. President, it is time to release the files.

Today, we vote on a resolution to release these files, but we have already subpoenaed them, and the President has refused to comply, engaged in a monthslong coverup right before our very eyes, threatening and pressuring Members of Congress, and even calling his own allies traitors, and this legislation a hostile act.

Well, Mr. President, the irony is not lost on us that such desperate attempts to evade accountability are at the heart of the matter itself, as the Epstein case is, at its core--its dirty, rotten core--about rich and powerful men who abuse the system to avoid accountability and who engaged in unspeakable crimes and believed that they could do anything to any woman or any little girl and get away with it because they knew their friends in powerful places would protect them or they could simply buy their way out of the justice system.

Well, we are here today to stand up with the survivors and say: Time is up. We demand accountability.

Now, it is also not lost on me that I am standing in this Chamber, in this seat of power from which wars have been launched and the fates of millions have hung, a Chamber where in the nearly 250 years of this great Nation, only 3 percent of the people who have ever stood here on this floor have been women. That is why we must stand up, why we must demand accountability, why we are not saying ``pretty please.'' We are engaged in a criminal investigation of criminal behavior in a justice system that has failed women and girls who were raped and who were abused and of the powerful people who never were held to account.

We are not, Mr. President, as you have asked us, just going to move on. We will continue to pursue justice to the end.

Let me tell you about this investigation, about the evidence that has come in just in the last week from documents produced by the Epstein estate, including over 1,600 mentions of you, Mr. President. There are emails, court documents, and statements about a lawsuit by a woman accusing Donald Trump of rape at Jeffrey Epstein's house, whether it happened or not. There is a sexual assault suit against Epstein in which Donald Trump appears to have been subpoenaed, served, and deposed. There are sworn statements and court documents from a 16-year- old who was recruited at Mar-a-Lago and then raped and groomed, not only by Jeffrey Epstein, but his rich and powerful friends.

There were statements from Epstein himself, who said Trump knew about the girls. In fact, Trump, by his own admission, knew that Epstein and Maxwell were recruiting young girls from Mar-a-Lago. There were also statements that Trump was at Epstein's house, including with girls, in which Epstein bragged about having pictures and passing a woman to Trump, and noted that Trump spent hours with one of the victims and was the ``dog that hasn't barked.''

These files also include financial transactions between Epstein and Trump. There are discussions of financial affairs, potential money laundering, including in real estate deals. There was also an admission by Jeffrey Epstein himself that he was facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years in Federal prison, yet the DOJ failed to prosecute him. There are statements by Epstein that he believes that Donald Trump was involved in the case.

I say to the American people: There is a mountain of evidence in front of your very eyes. Believe your eyes. It is right there in front of us.

Mr. President, let me say this to you: You can run, but you cannot hide because the survivors know what happened.

To every woman and little girl who has wept or felt shame or believed that you were alone or that the system had failed you, to every parent who has feared the absolute worst, and to every survivor who believed the system was rigged against them, know that you are not alone. We see you. We are fighting for you, and we will not stop.

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