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Victims who said they endured years of sexual abuse as children at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 3, calling on members of the House to finally provide transparency about those crimes.
Instead, they got pathetic political theater from House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Louisiana Republican doing everything in his power to protect President Donald Trump from whatever it is that frightens him in what has become known as the Epstein files.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, beseeched their colleagues from those steps to sign a bipartisan discharge petition that would force Johnson to hold a vote on a resolution that would require the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.
That petition needs 218 votes to force Johnson's hand. Massie, standing with the accusers against Epstein and Maxwell, noted that three of his Republican colleagues have already signed on. If just two more Republicans join in, and every Democrat in the House endorses the idea, that gets them to 218.
Epstein's victims need more Republicans to care
Johnson, who so fears a vote for Epstein files transparency that he adjourned the House early in July for summer recess to stifle momentum in that movement, borrowed a tactic from the Trump administration shortly after the victims' news conference concluded. The speaker offered the imitation of transparency, passing with only Republican votes a resolution calling on a House committee to keep investigating Epstein's crimes.
That came a day after that committee released more than 33,000 Epstein-related documents, which – no surprise here – consisted of mostly files that had already been made public.
If that sounds familiar, that's because Attorney General Pam Bondi tried and failed with the same sleight of hand in February, calling Trump allies to the White House to give them binders of Epstein documents that they could have just found on the internet.
Bondi's botched binders bombed in Trump World and then exploded again when she issued a nothing-more-to-see-here memo about Epstein documents in July.
A reminder: Trump ran for reelection in 2024 promising to release the Epstein files. And he loaded his second administration with conspiracy mongers who spent 2021 to 2024 pushing for the release of those files.
So you have to wonder why Trump officials have been calling House members this week, saying that signing on to the Massie-Khanna discharge petition would be seen as a "hostile act." Trump and Johnson want to appear transparent with the Epstein files while keeping them secret.
Massie, speaking after the news conference with the victims, called that "the oldest trick in the swamp," adding, "When you want to kill the momentum, when you want to kill initiative, you introduce a placebo, a different bill that does nothing, and then try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people."
You can tell Trump is scared.
We have to wonder why Trump wants this 'hoax' gone
Speaking in the Oval Office, he called the push for transparency "a Democrat hoax" to "talk about something that's totally irrelevant" just minutes after the accusers against Epstein and Maxwell stood outside the Capitol, insisting that they are not a hoax and that this is not political. Nobody smears crime victims like that unless they have something to fear.
Trump and Johnson might have most of the Republicans in the House running scared. But that's not working for the victims of Epstein and Maxwell.
Jena-Lisa Jones said she was 14 when a friend brought her to Epstein's mansion in West Palm Beach in 2003. It took her 16 years – in 2019, the year Epstein killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges – to go public about what happened to her there.
"Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, this does not matter," Jones said on the Capitol steps. "This is not about sides."
Anouska De Georgiou said she was a teenage model from London in the 1990s when she was recruited into Epstein's orbit, groomed and then repeatedly raped.
"The only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing," De Georgiou said while calling on Congress to support the discharge petition. "You have a choice: Stand with the truth, or with the lies that have protected predators for decades."
Annie Farmer said she was 16 when she was flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein and Maxwell. Thirty years later, she stood on the Capitol steps and spoke of the "perception that there are two Americas, one for those with power and privilege, and one for everyone else."
"Passing this Epstein transparency bill is one important step that can be taken to prove to Americans that the government does not side with sexual perpetrators," Farmer said.
Do the Republican members of the House helping Johnson and Trump hide the Epstein files from the American people side with sexual predators? Massie thinks you should ask them.
"Light up their phones," Massie said. "Burn down the phone lines here in Washington, DC. Ask them the questions that these survivors wanted you to ask them."
That's a good idea.
If you don't know who represents you in Congress, you can call the House main switchboard at 202-224-3121, and a helpful operator will ask for your ZIP code and then connect you with your representative. I tried it not long after Massie spoke. It worked, quick and easy. You can also use the "find your representative" function at House.gov.
Give your representative a call, and a piece of your mind about being transparent with the Epstein files.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump is running scared from the Epstein files and the victims who deserve answers | Opinion
Reporting by Chris Brennan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY
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