As King Charles III and Queen Camilla have been being greeted by the US president and first woman with pomp and circumstance designed for royalty on the White House on Tuesday morning, a bunch of people who had been denied an in-person assembly with the king and queen took their likelihood to be heard a pair of miles down Pennsylvania Avenue.
The group on Capitol Hill included survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, their members of the family and advocates, who additionally gathered over the weekend for a memorial for Virginia Giuffre. The late Epstein sufferer had accused Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the king’s brother, of sexual assault and died by suicide one yr in the past. The former prince has denied all accusations towards him and insisted he by no means witnessed or suspected any of the conduct of which the late Epstein is accused.
“Today, survivors are here, sitting with members of Congress, still fighting to be heard, still pushing for real accountability, while many of the powerful figures connected to these systems remain just out of reach, unable to acknowledge survivors face to face,” Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, mentioned Tuesday.
“You would expect this to be a moment for the king to give a message to the world that he stands with survivors. We still can’t get that from our own president of the US, who continues to say ‘hoax,’ ‘victims or whatever.’”
Roberts’ transient remarks calling out not simply the monarchy but additionally President Donald Trump (who has not been accused of any legal wrongdoing associated to Epstein), was a stark reminder of how a lot the scandal continues to rock the very best echelons of society, authorities and movie star in each nations. And some Epstein survivors and US lawmakers need the convicted intercourse offender to be part of the story of the royal visit, even because the king and queen have a unique agenda deliberate.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored the regulation that pressured the Justice Department to launch tens of millions of Epstein files in its possession, had tried to seize on the royal visit by writing a letter to the king final month requesting that he supply an in-person assembly with Epstein survivors.
But NCS reported that the king and queen don’t plan to settle for that request throughout their four-day visit marking the 250th anniversary of US independence, with Buckingham Palace aware that such a gathering might have an effect on the British legal probe into Mountbatten-Windsor. That choice is in preserving with the king and queen’s broader technique of avoiding public statements associated to Epstein — the late pedophile who has introduced a lot scandal, disgrace and ache to the royal household.
As a symbolic head of the British judiciary, the king may very well be accused of prejudicing the legal investigation into his brother if he speaks to the Epstein scandal straight.
(When the previous Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public workplace, King Charles expressed his “deepest concern” — whereas additionally stressing that “the law must take its course.”)
Instead, Queen Camilla can have a number of conferences with representatives of teams campaigning towards home violence whereas in the US, NCS understands.
Meanwhile, King Charles is ready to tackle a joint assembly of Congress on Tuesday afternoon. Khanna mentioned through the roundtable that includes Epstein survivors that the British ambassador informed him the king plans to acknowledge the Epstein survivors in his tackle.
“I hope his flunkies don’t take out the acknowledgement from his text,” Khanna mentioned. “I fully expect the king to be acknowledging … the Epstein survivors when he speaks to our nation and Congress this afternoon.”
The king and queen’s visit this week to Washington has additionally shined a highlight on the relative lack of accountability in the US towards those that could have aided Epstein and his sex-trafficking ring.
Even with the Justice Department’s launch of tens of millions of recordsdata associated to Epstein in the final a number of months, just one individual — Epstein’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell — has been prosecuted for his or her actions associated to Epstein. The DOJ has repeatedly mentioned it has no energetic investigations into different people in Epstein’s circle.
The story has been very completely different in the United Kingdom. In addition to the investigation into Mountbatten-Windsor, there’s a separate criminal probe into the previous British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson. He is being investigated over claims that he handed delicate data to Epstein that will have been priceless on Wall Street, was fired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and resigned his membership of the Labour Party. Starmer now faces intense political pressure and a few calls to resign over his dealing with of the Mandelson saga.
Lauren Hersh, co-founder of World Without Exploitation, an advocacy group that works on human trafficking and sexual exploitation and has been carefully aligned with many Epstein survivors, informed NCS: “King Charles’ visit to the US is an opportunity to do right by the survivors who so bravely confronted one of the world’s most powerful institutions and have requested to meet with him.”
“At the same time, as we honor Virginia and all other survivors of Epstein and Maxwell’s abuse, the US can learn lessons from the UK’s example of holding accountable everyone who participated and perpetuated their criminal network,” Hersh mentioned.
Still, some Epstein survivors have mentioned they’re much less targeted on the king’s visit — and what he could or could not say publicly in regards to the convicted intercourse offender. They mentioned their efforts are extra geared towards accountability in the US, together with the complete launch of the Epstein recordsdata and investigations into those that helped Epstein run his sex-trafficking ring.