When a cache of pictures seized from Jeffrey Epstein’s Gmail account and laptop computer was made public last week, one in explicit stopped Dani Bensky in her tracks. It was a photograph of Epstein in his workplace — a room that held many dark recollections for Bensky. She remembered the giant mahogany desk and an image body — although not the artwork that was in it. She additionally discovered herself wanting for indicators of a taxidermied tiger that Epstein had saved in that workplace.
Sharlene Rochard instantly acknowledged one of the rooms in another batch of photos launched earlier this month, taken on Jeffrey Epstein’s non-public island in the Caribbean. At the identical time that Rochard was transported again to the abuse she had suffered on Little Saint James years in the past, different extra seemingly trivial particulars stood out to her too, like a desk that wasn’t in the identical spot as she had remembered.
And for Jess Michaels, seeing Epstein’s notorious 50th birthday book had triggered a disturbing flashback. In it was a drawing of a number of girls massaging numerous components of Epstein’s physique. It prompted her to recollect Epstein telling her in the early Nineties that there are components of the world the place a person can get massaged by three girls at a time — one at his head, one at his ft, and one in the center.
“It brought me right back to that moment when he said that to me,” Michaels mentioned. Looking again, she says she now understands that sexual jokes like that have been all an element of Epstein’s technique of slowly grooming her.
Rochard, Bensky and Michaels are only a handful of the tons of of girls believed to have been abused by Epstein who’re bracing for the Justice Department’s anticipated release of the so-called Epstein files. A invoice that President Donald Trump signed into regulation final month mandates that the DOJ release the files by Friday — a second that numerous Epstein survivors have been advocating for for years.
But the anticipation alone has been immensely difficult for them.
The Epstein survivors who spoke with NCS mentioned that that they had gotten no outreach from the DOJ forward of the files’ release. For now, they’re totally unaware of its timing and the contents, in addition to efforts — if any — that the authorities could be making to make sure that delicate victims’ data will likely be dealt with with warning.
“We are kind of going at this in the dark right now,” Bensky mentioned in a joint interview with a number of different survivors — a format that the group requested as a result of they mentioned they take nice solace in the others’ presence when discussing their trauma. “It’s a little bit tricky because we won’t see the files before they come. We don’t know what time they’re dropping on the 19th. We don’t know.”
The DOJ has not commented publicly on any side of its plans to release the Epstein files, and it didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark for this story.
The upcoming disclosure is predicted to be way more complete and broader in scope than any partial details about Epstein that has been made public to this point. The intermittent disclosure of Epstein-related paperwork and photographs in current months — together with by congressional committees — has already taken a critical psychological toll, and the survivors are getting ready for the DOJ’s release to be uniquely robust to navigate.
“Anticipation itself can be triggering. Survivors are bracing for unknown exposure, and that uncertainty can mirror the loss of control central to abuse,” mentioned Dr. Suzan Song, a psychiatrist who advises the federal authorities on anti-trafficking applications. “Not knowing what might be revealed, how it will be framed publicly, or whether deeply personal details might resurface can keep the nervous system in a prolonged state of threat, even before anything is released.”
Epstein survivors describe flashbacks and triggers from Epstein pictures
‘There was a phone. I know I called somebody’
Some survivors additionally described feeling a way of hope that there could be new data that might assist to validate their very own recollections of abuse. It is widespread for victims of sexual trauma to have lapses in reminiscence; Epstein’s abuse additionally dates again a number of many years.
Rochard, who got here out publicly along with her story for the first time final month, mentioned she distinctly remembered that there had been a cellphone inside of Epstein’s dwelling on Little Saint James Island however that others who had been there advised her that they had no recollection of one. When the House Oversight Committee this month launched photos that have been taken in and round Epstein’s non-public island and dwelling, she noticed the cellphone she had remembered all these years later.
“There was a phone. I know I called somebody,” Rochard mentioned. “When I saw the phone, I was like, ‘No, my memory is correct. I am correct.’ So, some things are validating when you see them. And then other things are just actually completely traumatizing.”
According to Song, from a neurobiological perspective, traumatic experiences are encoded in a different way in the mind, significantly when an individual is beneath excessive stress. Rather than the typical “time-stamped memories,” she mentioned, trauma is usually saved as sensory and emotional fragments together with photographs, places, smells and bodily emotions.
“Because of this, when survivors later encounter cues that resemble aspects of the trauma, those cues can activate the same neural networks that were active during the original harm,” Song mentioned. “The body may respond as if the threat is happening in real time, even when the person knows intellectually that they are safe. This is particularly true in complex trauma, such as human trafficking, where repeated, chronic, interpersonal harm sensitizes the nervous system to detect danger quickly.”
All of the survivors that NCS interviewed mentioned that they help the entirety of the Epstein files being launched as soon as and for all, however that redactions have to be made to guard Epstein’s victims.
“What is most important to us is that the names of the survivors are handled with care and redacted and that nobody’s personal or identifying information is released, none of the survivors,” mentioned Liz Stein, one other Epstein survivor. “However, what we really, really want to see is the names of these perpetrators.”
Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer who represents a number of Epstein survivors, mentioned she has not heard from the DOJ forward of the anticipated release of the files. She mentioned the authorities have to be clear about any files that the authorities would possibly select to not make public: “There are a number of exceptions to the release, and the criteria for application for these instructions should be stated. For example, what constitutes national security?”
Gloria Allred, one other lawyer who works with Epstein survivors, advised NCS the DOJ reached out to ask which of her purchasers would love their names to be redacted. Attorney Arick Fudali mentioned he obtained an e-mail from the DOJ inside the previous few weeks to arrange a cellphone name to debate attainable redactions, however that the division by no means referred to as.
Epstein survivors on what they hope to see from DOJ’s Epstein files
The staggering scope of Epstein’s abuse and the immense net of people who aided him makes Epstein one of the most well-known intercourse offenders in current reminiscence. And his previous associations with many of the world’s strongest and rich individuals — together with Trump — coupled with the many years of failure by the justice system to carry him accountable have additionally made Epstein a first-rate instance of systemic corruption.
Epstein killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 whereas awaiting trial for federal intercourse trafficking fees. He had served simply 13 months in jail for state prostitution fees involving underaged women after he was given a extremely controversial non-prosecution settlement in 2007. Alex Acosta, the US lawyer in Florida who declined to carry federal fees in opposition to Epstein at the time, additionally did not notify the girls who alleged that they had been abused by Epstein about the settlement. (Acosta later served as labor secretary throughout Trump’s first time period.)
Freeman, the lawyer who represents Epstein survivor Maria Farmer and others, mentioned she will likely be significantly to see what data would possibly come out a few whistleblower report Farmer filed with the FBI in 1996. Farmer reached out to the FBI once more in 2006, Freeman mentioned, and has for years raised issues about the authorities’s mishandling of the Epstein case that resulted in the non-prosecution settlement.
The lack of transparency round the many years price of information that the federal authorities has amassed about Epstein’s wrongdoings has additionally prompted an infinite stream of conspiracy theories.
Michaels, whose work now focuses on early trauma intervention and educating the public about learn how to assist survivors, mentioned she and many different fellow Epstein survivors are dumbfounded by the DOJ’s continued lack of outreach.
“I hope at some point the DOJ says, ‘Sit down with us. Tell us why these photos matter.’ Because no one’s asking,” she mentioned. “This case shows what happens when warning signs are ignored and when power goes unchecked and when institutions prioritize reputation over protection. Predators don’t thrive because they’re these brilliant men — they thrive because the systems fail.”
Epstein’s survivors mentioned they’re sure that if the files are in reality launched by Friday, that second will solely be the starting of a protracted journey forward.
“It’s taken almost 30 years just to get to this point, just to get files of our own personal information. And we’ve been called a hoax. We were told that this wasn’t true,” mentioned Rochard. “But our hope is that when they do come out, we will see, the public will see, everything and that we were telling the truth all along.”