Lisa Phillips, who says she was in her early 20s when she first met Jeffrey Epstein and endured years of abuse from the late-financier and others in his huge community, stood in entrance of the steps of the US Capitol in early September. Flanked by different Epstein survivors, high-powered attorneys and a handful of members of Congress, Phillips ended her temporary remarks with an announcement.
“Us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list. We know the names. Many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who were regularly in the Epstein world,” she stated. “And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. No one else is involved. Stay tuned for more details.”
Her phrases had been met with applause and cheers of “You got it!” from the gang, capping off what had already been a dramatic day: A uncommon gathering of Epstein’s victims in Washington aimed toward shining a highlight on the federal authorities’s refusal to launch extra details about the convicted intercourse offender’s crimes, together with the identities of those that had enabled him.
But almost a month after that press convention, there doesn’t look like a coordinated effort by the survivors to compile such an inventory. NCS spoke with quite a few Epstein survivors, attorneys representing dozens of victims and congressional employees aware of Epstein-related investigations on Capitol Hill. All of them stated that they had not been contacted about — and had been unaware of — any organized effort by the survivors to create such an inventory.
Such an enterprise, some of them stated, would put Epstein’s already weak victims in better hazard. Publicly accusing Epstein’s highly effective buddies and accomplices of wrongdoing would open the victims as much as a stream of bodily and authorized threats, they warned. But the strain to supply such an inventory – whether or not by the victims or the federal government — has solely been rising, amid a bipartisan push for extra transparency.
Annie Farmer, an Epstein sufferer who has testified that she was recruited and sexually assaulted by his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell as a young person, instructed NCS that the announcement on the press convention final month triggered frustration amongst some of the survivors. Particularly on condition that Epstein survivors “have had to already risk so much individually to come and speak about this,” Farmer stated she doesn’t imagine it ought to be as much as them to now compile — not to mention publicly launch — the names of those that could have been concerned in Epstein’s abuse.
“That was a big headline grabber. It almost felt like immediately, then, people were like: ‘Okay, well, you guys just do it. You release the list.’ It’s like, wait. No, no, no. But that’s not it,” she stated. “In my mind, that’s not the most effective way of us moving forward as a group.”
The Justice Department introduced in July that investigators have discovered no proof of a so-called shopper listing, and that it could not launch any new paperwork associated to Epstein. The revelation prompted a criticism not solely from Epstein’s victims, but additionally from many of President Donald Trump’s MAGA supporters who had been relying on the Trump administration to launch a trove of new details about Epstein’s wrongdoings.
Those expectations had been fueled in no small half by Trump’s own attorney general, Pam Bondi, who stated in February that an Epstein shopper listing was “sitting on my desk.” The administration then clarified that she had been referring extra usually to investigative information.
While the House Oversight Committee has launched tens of hundreds of pages of Epstein paperwork that it has obtained from the Justice Department, it has not quelled the criticism. “There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims,” Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, the committee’s prime Democrat, stated final month after the panel’s release of further Epstein data, alleging that almost all of what was unveiled was already public. Much of the knowledge launched to this point has additionally been redacted to guard the privateness of the victims.
That backdrop has helped gas curiosity in – and help for – the thought of survivors compiling their own listing of Epstein accomplices, which critics argue the federal government has to this point didn’t do.
Liz Stein, another Epstein survivor, emphasised that she didn’t imagine Phillips supposed to hurt or mislead anybody by floating the thought of survivors creating their own listing. Still, she stated she equally worries that the notion has put the victims in a “precarious” place.
“We’re seeing a lot of pressure put on to us directly for things like, for us to release names, and for us to expose these people. But I don’t think that anyone understands the risks to us in doing that,” Stein stated.
“We’re being asked by every journalist about that question. It is not our job.”
Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer representing victims who’ve accused Maxwell of abuse, together with Farmer’s sister Maria, stated she was additionally unaware of any ongoing efforts by Epstein survivors to place collectively an inventory of their own, and that she believes doing so can be “dangerous.”
“It puts them at risk and puts the burden of action on them, when it should be the government and institutions that are sworn to protect us,” Freeman stated.
In an interview with NCS, Phillips stated that her intent on the press convention was to ship a message of help to any Epstein survivor who may be listening — significantly those that have been too fearful to talk out. She additionally stated she understands and shares within the concern expressed by different survivors and attorneys who say it could be harmful for the Epstein victims to compile and launch their own listing of names.
“Survivors making a list, and just putting a list out there, which is read by us, is very dangerous,” Phillips stated.
As for the standing of such an effort, Phillips stated she had heard from many survivors of numerous sorts of abuse because the press convention and is presently pondering by way of subsequent steps. “What is the right way to go about it? The legal way? The most protective way for all of us?” she stated. On whether or not any bodily listing already exists, she stated the attorneys who symbolize Epstein victims have a working listing of individuals who had been an element of the Epstein community.
Attorney Brad Edwards, who has represented quite a few Epstein victims over time, was one of the attorneys current on the Capitol Hill press convention final month. He stated on the time {that a} group of attorneys had beforehand “created somewhat of a list.” Edwards didn’t reply to a request for remark for this story.
Additional attorneys who’ve represented dozens of Epstein victims, together with Spencer Kuvin and Gloria Allred, instructed NCS that they haven’t been approached about their shoppers serving to to place collectively their own listing.
Some attorneys and survivors additionally fear the give attention to a “client list” dangers minimizing the function of others associates in Epstein’s huge community who could not have sexually or bodily abused the victims themselves however nonetheless helped to finance and allow Epstein’s legal enterprise.
On Capitol Hill, there may be presently an effort underway to pressure a House vote on a invoice to require the Justice Department to launch Epstein-related supplies. While the discharge petition to convey the laws to the House ground is generally backed by House Democrats, it additionally has the notable help of a number of Republicans, together with staunch Trump supporters like Reps. Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
The petition is brief of one signature to achieve the 218 that are required, and Democrat Adelita Grijalva, lately elected in Arizona in a particular election, is anticipated to supply that final signature when she is sworn into workplace.
Some lawmakers have additionally publicly supported the thought of Epstein survivors making their own listing.
Republican Rep. James Comer, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee which is probing the federal authorities’s dealing with of Epstein and Maxwell, said within the aftermath of the September press convention that his panel would “compile a list from the victims.” A spokesperson for Comer instructed NCS that the panel has remained in contact with survivors’ attorneys within the weeks since, and that the chairman remains to be able to obtain any details about Epstein’s crimes. But the aide added of the Epstein victims: “They have not provided names at this time.”
Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Rep. Garcia, the committee’s prime Democrat, individually instructed NCS: “We are continuing to speak to victims and their attorneys and have nothing new in terms of a formal list at this time.”
Kuvin, a Florida-based lawyer whose Epstein-related shoppers have all remained nameless, stated whereas he has not been requested whether or not his shoppers would contribute to a survivors-created Epstein listing, he’s ready to supply the next recommendation in such a situation: “Be careful.”
“Because these men that they may name have a lot of money and resources behind them to be able to potentially litigate against them and sue them and cause all kinds of problems and issues,” Kuvin stated. “This should not be something that the victims have to do. This should be something that the federal government does because it’s right and because it stands for justice for these victims.”