Epstein files live updates: Victims break silence as pressure mounts

At a gathering outside the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Ro Khanna says they still need two more votes to pass the discharge petition. There are 212 Democrats and 4 Republicans who have signed so far.

Khanna praised Rep. Thomas Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for their leadership on the issue.

Rep. Thomas Massie who brought the Epstein discharge petition to release the files, says: “We’re two short. We need two more signers from the Republican side to get this through.”

He adds: “And none of them are stepping up to the plate… They’re at odds with our base right now, and particularly the MAGA base.”

Epstein survivor Haley Robson spoke about the solidarity between the women who suffered abuse at the hands of the late sex offender.

“I came out in 2019 on the documentary Filthy Rich. I have been very focused on bringing more awareness to all of the survivors. I am so proud to stand with them.

“I am so proud to be up here to support them because they deserve all the love and support.

“And I just wanna say to the women who chose this moment to come out for the very first time about your abuse — I cannot think of a more important, greater purpose in life than to stand in solidarity when time is against us, when the politicians have made us an enemy, when the world is watching and everybody is hoping for some type of result.

“Thank you for choosing this moment to be so brave, to come out and stand in solidarity.”

Women abused by the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein are rallying on Capitol Hill and speaking out to pressure the Justice Department into releasing all of the criminal investigation files in the case.

The demands challenge President Donald Trump and some Republican congressional leaders who have asked for more information about Epstein for years but now say that releasing all documents could harm his victims.

The House Oversight Committee released over 33,000 pages of Epstein-related documents from the Justice Department late last night; however, lawmakers and other advocates who had been awaiting the records said there was little new.

Conspiracy theories have swirled ever since observers spotted the mysterious 61-second gap in the 11 hours of “full raw” footage from inside New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center that the Justice Department and FBI released in early July.

A digital clock visible on the bottom left corner of the footage jumps from 11:58:58 p.m. on August 9, 2019, to 12:00:00 a.m. on August 10, 2019.

Speaking at the rally on Capitol Hill this morning, Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein victim, demanded that Ghislaine Maxwell, the late sex offender’s accomplice, remain in jail.

He fought back tears as she stood with his wife, Amanda, and brother Daniel as he spoke about his sister, who died by suicide earlier this year.

“The Epstein documents must be unsealed. Every name, every name, every detail, every detail, no more secrets, no more protection for those who preyed on the vulnerable,” he told the crowd.

Marina Lacerda, previously only known as “minor victim one” in the 2019 indictment of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has broken her silence and revealed her identity in an interview with ABC News, broadcast today on Good Morning America.

“I would like for them to give all the victims transparency, right, to what happened and release these files. It’s also not only for the victims, but for the American people,” Lacerda told ABC News’ Linsey Davis regarding Epstein, the wealthy financier and pedophile who died while awaiting trial in a New York jail in 2019.

Lacerda first met Epstein in 2002 when she was 14 years old. She was recruited to provide a massage at his home, which began years of sexual abuse.

She was the central witness who provided crucial information that allowed federal prosecutors to build a case and charge Epstein with sex trafficking minors in New York.

Federal investigators had previously contacted Lacerda in 2008, when charges were first made against Epstein in Florida, but she was unable to testify before a grand jury due to a controversial non-prosecution agreement the financier had secured. A decade later, her testimony helped move the case against him forward.

Watch the interview below via ABC:

California Representative Robert Garcia said that “97 percent” of the more than 33,000 pages of documents related to Epstein published by the House Oversight Committee “were already public.”

Pennsylvania Representative Summer Lee echoed Garcia’s sentiments and noted the files comprised largely of “recycled” material.

Illinois Representative Raja Krishnamoorth told the Washington Post that “the first tranche appears to be largely in the public domain, so it doesn’t feel like it’s really the stuff that we should be putting out.”