[0:00]Rosa sharing her story in an emotional hearing
[0:02]in Palm Beach today.
[0:03]Now she was one of five victims
[0:05]appearing before Democrats
[0:06]on the House Oversight Committee.
[0:08]Rosa says she was 18 years old
[0:09]when she was recruited by one of Epstein's associates.
[0:12]She said Jean-Luc Brunel,
[0:14]who died in a Paris prison cell in 2022.
[0:17]Rosa said she met Brunel in her home country
[0:19]of Uzbekistan.
[0:20]She was an aspiring model.
[0:22]He owned a famous modeling agency.
[0:24]So he helped her obtain a visa,
[0:26]relocate to the United States,
[0:28]and then introduced her to Jeffrey Epstein.
[0:32]For the following three years,
[0:35]I was subject to ongoing rape.
[0:40]Jeffrey Epstein was under house arrest
[0:45]for the molestation of underage girls
[0:47]at the exact time he was abusing me.
[0:53]Horrific.
[0:54]Now after years of abuse,
[0:55]Rosa says she eventually reached out for help.
[0:57]She came forward anonymously as a Jane Doe.
[1:01]But then her real name appeared throughout
[1:05]supposedly redacted to protect victims Epstein files.
[1:10]I woke up one day with my name mentioned
[1:14]over 500 times.
[1:23]While the rich and powerful remain protected
[1:26]by reduction, my name was exposed to the world.
[1:29]Now reporters from across the globe contact me.
[1:31]I cannot live without looking over my shoulder.
[1:36]Democratic Congressman James Walkinshaw is out front now.
[1:39]He sits on the House Oversight Committee.
[1:40]So he attended today's hearing.
[1:42]Congressman, I appreciate your time.
[1:44]It's hard to hear her talk there
[1:46]that she said she woke up
[1:49]and her name was mentioned over 500 times.
[1:51]500 times after years of being a Jane Doe,
[1:53]after being anonymous,
[1:56]when we heard Todd Blanche say,
[1:58]we will do everything.
[1:59]We will protect every victim's name.
[2:01]This is about the victims.
[2:02]And her name appeared in there 500 times.
[2:08]What was it like to sit there
[2:09]and hear her tell her story today?
[2:13]It was very hard to hear Rosa's story today,
[2:16]but also inspiring to see her courage in sharing it.
[2:21]Her story brings together all of the terrible elements
[2:25]of the Epstein saga.
[2:27]She's recruited by Jean-Luc Brunel from Uzbekistan
[2:31]where she lived in poverty as she described it.
[2:34]Came to the United States with probably
[2:36]a fraudulent visa that Epstein,
[2:38]Brunel and Maxwell procured for her.
[2:40]They used that visa to control her.
[2:43]Epstein raped her repeatedly
[2:46]while he was serving his sentence
[2:49]from the sweetheart deal that Alex Acosta gave to him.
[2:53]That is what is so outraging about this.
[2:56]He should have been behind bars
[2:58]where he couldn't harm another child.
[3:01]Instead, he was raping Rosa and others.
[3:04]I think it's so crucial you say that, right?
[3:06]That she said this all happened
[3:07]while he was serving that,
[3:10]being able to spend the days where he wished.
[3:14]Congressman, not a single Republican
[3:15]attended today's hearing.
[3:16]And I say that in the context of obviously
[3:18]some Republicans who have stood up tirelessly
[3:21]for the release of the full files,
[3:22]including Thomas Massey and Nancy Mace
[3:24]and at the time, Marjorie Taylor Greene,
[3:26]Lauren Boebert, others.
[3:29]But why?
[3:31]Did anybody talk to you on your committee
[3:33]as to why they did not come at all to this?
[3:38]I know that Chairman Comer
[3:39]was aware of the hearing today.
[3:41]They certainly would have been welcome to attend.
[3:44]And you're right, as you point out,
[3:45]we have a handful of Republicans on the committee
[3:47]who have courageously been willing
[3:49]to take on even the Trump administration here.
[3:52]But most Republicans in Congress
[3:53]have not been willing to stand up for these survivors.
[3:57]And I hope that will change at some point,
[3:59]but I know that Democrats on the Oversight Committee
[4:01]and in Congress are gonna continue to push
[4:03]until we get the transparency and accountability
[4:06]Rosa and the other survivors deserve.
[4:08]So the former Attorney General, Pam Bondi,
[4:10]finally agreed to testify under oath
[4:12]and she's scheduled to appear before your committee,
[4:14]I understand later this month, May 29th, I believe.
[4:17]Generalisa Jones is another Epstein survivor.
[4:20]She talked today and she talked about questions
[4:23]that she wants Bondi specifically to answer.
[4:24]Here is what she said.
[4:28]Who are we covering for?
[4:29]Like, you were willing to lose your job
[4:36]to cover up for these people.
[4:38]What do they have on you?
[4:40]Cause I'd like to know.
[4:43]You're a woman.
[4:44]You're a mother.
[4:46]And you look at us,
[4:47]it couldn't even look at the survivors.
[4:50]So what's your part in this?
[4:56]Do you think that Bondi will provide these answers?
[5:01]Do you trust her to answer truthfully?
[5:02]And will Republicans be a part of that hearing?
[5:08]Republicans will be part of it.
[5:09]It will be a transcribed interview, unfortunately,
[5:13]not a deposition.
[5:14]So while she won't be under oath,
[5:16]it still will be a crime for her to lie to Congress.
[5:18]One of the things that we as Democrats are pushing for
[5:21]is for this interview with Pam Bondi to be on video.
[5:25]We feel very strongly that the American people,
[5:27]especially the survivors, like one we just heard from,
[5:31]deserve to see Pam Bondi's responses,
[5:33]at least on video.
[5:35]It should be public, open for the world to see,
[5:38]but at least there should be a video after the fact
[5:40]so the country can judge for itself
[5:43]whether they think she's been truthful or fulsome
[5:45]in the responses that she gives to our questions.
[5:47]And I promise you, we will ask the questions
[5:49]that the survivors today asked us to ask.
[5:52]Democrats on the House Oversight Committee
[5:53]are demanding that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick resign.
[5:57]Democrats say Lutnick lied and evaded questions
[6:00]when he testified about Jeffrey Epstein
[6:02]earlier this week.
[6:04]Before the files came out,
[6:05]Lutnick had said he interacted with Epstein
[6:08]only once in 2005.
[6:10]Lutnick claimed he noticed disturbing red flags
[6:12]and was immediately determined to never be in a room
[6:16]with Epstein again.
[6:18]But the released Epstein files show
[6:20]Lutnick had at least two other interactions
[6:22]with Epstein over the years.
[6:24]CNN's Annie Greer joining us now.
[6:26]What are you learning from lawmakers this morning?
[6:31]Well, Sarah, lawmakers were, on the Democratic side,
[6:33]were completely unsatisfied by Lutnick's testimony.
[6:37]And just to start, there was bipartisan interest
[6:39]in having Lutnick come in and explain the discrepancy
[6:42]between his initial statement where he said
[6:44]he cut ties with Epstein in 2005
[6:46]and to explain what the Epstein files revealed,
[6:49]which are those other interactions that you mentioned
[6:51]as well as emails and phone call correspondence.
[6:54]So Lutnick went through all of those interactions.
[6:57]He detailed that 2005 meeting where he and his wife
[7:01]went over to meet Epstein for coffee
[7:02]because the Lutnicks had just moved in
[7:04]next door to Epstein.
[7:06]And Lutnick said that he and his wife
[7:07]left that meeting pretty abruptly
[7:09]because they felt uncomfortable about a joke
[7:11]and remark that Epstein made about a massage table.
[7:15]And it was after that conversation
[7:17]that Lutnick and his wife decided that
[7:18]Lutnick would not have any personal
[7:20]or professional relationship with Epstein.
[7:23]But then there was a meeting in 2011, years later,
[7:27]where Lutnick came over to Epstein's house
[7:29]apparently to discuss scaffolding and construction
[7:31]about their neighboring properties.
[7:34]And the main interaction here
[7:36]that has drawn a lot of attention is the 2012 meeting
[7:39]where Lutnick took his family to Epstein's island
[7:42]and they had lunch outside on Epstein's island.
[7:46]And Lutnick claims that nothing happened here,
[7:48]totally tried to downplay this interaction,
[7:50]said it was a sort of meaningless interaction
[7:52]and a lunch that they didn't go inside,
[7:54]they didn't see any young women or girls on the island,
[7:56]they didn't see anything worrisome.
[7:58]Lutnick condemned all of Epstein's crimes,
[8:01]but Democrats walked away from that testimony saying
[8:05]both things can't be true,
[8:07]that you cut ties with Epstein in 2005
[8:09]and then proceeded to have these two other interactions
[8:12]and they didn't feel like Lutnick fully owned that
[8:15]and claimed what really happened here.
[8:18]So I'm gonna read for you a piece of their letter
[8:20]calling on Lutnick to resign
[8:22]that they sent directly to Lutnick.
[8:24]The Democrats write, quote,
[8:26]You attempted to evade responsibility for your actions
[8:29]and avoided being clear with the American people.
[8:31]The facts are clear.
[8:32]You lied to the American people
[8:33]and attempted to conceal your relationship
[8:36]with Jeffrey Epstein in your public statements.
[8:38]Your lack of candor demonstrates
[8:40]that you were unfit to perform the duties
[8:42]required of you as Secretary of Commerce
[8:44]and you must step down immediately.
[8:47]Now, there are no Republicans at this point
[8:50]on the Oversight Committee calling for Lutnick
[8:52]to resign and the White House
[8:54]still is firmly behind Lutnick
[8:56]and serving in this Trump administration.
[8:58]But this just shows that this issue
[9:00]of Lutnick's relationship with Epstein
[9:03]is not going away anytime soon.
[9:05]I can only imagine the long-term impact
[9:08]this mistake will have on my life.
[9:12]Releasing my name while redacting the name
[9:14]of other powerful is not a mistake, it's a choice.
[9:17]It's a choice to prioritize the comfort of institution
[9:20]over the safety of the survivors.
[9:22]Rosa says she was abused by Epstein
[9:24]over a three-year period while he was under house arrest
[9:27]for his 2008 state prostitution charges
[9:30]over his involvement with underage girls.
[9:32]His house arrest, part of that sweetheart plea deal
[9:34]negotiated by then U.S. Attorney,
[9:37]then after that, Trump Labor Secretary, Alex Acosta.
[9:41]My next guest also testified in today's hearing.
[9:43]Spencer Kueven is an attorney
[9:45]and represents several Epstein survivors.
[9:47]Spencer, why was it important for you to testify
[9:49]even without Republicans who are obviously the controllers
[9:53]of Congress and the House Oversight Committee
[9:55]without Republicans there?
[9:58]Thank you for having me.
[9:59]I think it was important for me
[10:01]to be able to talk to the panel today,
[10:03]even though it was just Democrats,
[10:05]to get on the record
[10:07]what has occurred in this case historically.
[10:09]I was there at the inception of these cases
[10:11]with victim number one, who was my client,
[10:14]and it was important for me to be able to walk them
[10:16]through some of the beginnings of this case
[10:18]and some of the failures by the Department of Justice
[10:21]and then subsequently,
[10:22]and by that I mean the Department of Justice
[10:24]back in 2005, 2006,
[10:28]and then again, the Department of Justice's failures
[10:30]recently in disclosing a lot of the victims' names,
[10:34]which broke the law.
[10:35]Do you agree with Rosa that that was a choice,
[10:38]that was done intentionally?
[10:42]There is absolutely no way
[10:46]that any person who hasn't used a computer
[10:49]doesn't know to hit Control F and search.
[10:52]That is all they had to do.
[10:54]We gave them over 300 victim names
[10:56]and told them,
[10:57]please search for these names and redact them.
[11:00]They didn't.
[11:00]They were more interested in redacting the names
[11:03]of powerful and influential men
[11:04]and other people in those files
[11:06]than they were in trying to protect the victims,
[11:08]which by the way, again, broke the law.
[11:12]The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee,
[11:13]Congressman Robert Garcia of California,
[11:15]he says he has more questions for Alex Acosta,
[11:18]the U.S. attorney who negotiated
[11:19]that sweetheart deal with Epstein.
[11:22]He also wants to hear from Florida officials
[11:24]and prosecutors who played a role in that sweetheart deal.
[11:27]What questions might you have for them?
[11:31]Well, I gave them some today.
[11:33]One of the representatives had asked
[11:34]some of the questions that I would ask
[11:36]and they were actually pointed questions
[11:39]with respect to the unreleased videotapes.
[11:42]There are surveillance videotapes
[11:44]that we know existed inside of Epstein's home.
[11:46]We believe the FBI has custody of those tapes
[11:49]and has never released them.
[11:51]We know there were surveillance tapes
[11:52]taken during the investigation.
[11:54]It's noted in the original probable cause affidavit
[11:56]that the police were surveilling the home outside,
[11:59]watching people go in and out for days on end.
[12:02]Where are those tapes?
[12:04]So at the end of the day,
[12:05]we want everything released, the videotapes,
[12:08]as well as any additional photographs Glenn Maxwell took.
[12:11]And he needs to, they need to ask the witnesses
[12:15]where this evidence is and why it hasn't been produced.
[12:19]Acosta apparently testified to the committee
[12:21]behind closed doors that he thought
[12:23]that that was the best deal he could negotiate
[12:25]at the time.
[12:26]Do you agree with that?
[12:27]And what do you think is the reason
[12:29]behind the sweetheart deal?
[12:32]I absolutely do not agree with that.
[12:35]As I testified today is one of the worst deals
[12:39]ever entered into by a US attorney.
[12:41]This was a non-prosecution agreement
[12:43]that gave immunity to the pedophile perpetrator
[12:46]in addition to four co-conspirators
[12:50]and this is what made it bizarre,
[12:53]unnamed co-conspirators.
[12:56]This deal was absolutely awful.
[12:58]And we now know through going through these records
[13:01]with the litigation that subsequently occurred
[13:05]that they were having private conversations
[13:07]with Epstein's attorneys asking Epstein,
[13:10]what would he accept?
[13:11]They were basically begging him to accept a deal.
[13:14]It's absurd, it made absolutely no sense.
[13:17]Former US Attorney General,
[13:18]Pam Bondi is supposed to testify
[13:20]before the Oversight Committee in the coming weeks.
[13:23]Here are some questions that survivors say
[13:24]they want answers to, take a listen.
[13:28]Who are we covering for?
[13:29]Like, you were willing to lose your job.
[13:33]What was the process?
[13:34]And we would ask the same of Todd Blanch.
[13:36]What was the process for moving Keelan Maxwell?
[13:40]What questions do you want the committee to ask Bondi?
[13:44]I want Bondi to answer for why
[13:46]the Department of Justice has broken the law.
[13:49]And there's no question about that.
[13:51]Congress passed and the president signed
[13:53]a very clear bill with respect to the release of documents.
[13:57]They have not complied with that law.
[13:59]So they are in violation of that law as we sit here today.
[14:02]Secondarily, we need to know why
[14:05]that her office has redacted information
[14:08]that the law states they should never have redacted.
[14:11]The law is very clear that redaction should not occur
[14:14]merely because of an embarrassment
[14:17]or someone who is not a victim in these files.
[14:21]And they have clearly redacted names in these files
[14:24]that are not victims' children.
[14:27]And we want to know why she did that,
[14:29]why she authorized it,
[14:30]and it needs to be reversed immediately.
[14:32]One of Epstein's victims,
[14:33]Courtney Wild spoke at the hearing.
[14:36]My case against the government for violating the rights
[14:40]of at least 40 of us Palm Beach kids
[14:42]was happening from 2008 to 2019.
[14:47]Do you know how many other girls Jeffrey abused
[14:50]in that time period?
[14:52]I bet the FBI knows.
[14:54]But the point is that Epstein continued
[14:57]to abuse other girls in New York, New Mexico,
[15:00]around the world, and even still here in Florida
[15:03]if he had been in jail like any other man
[15:05]who did the same thing as him, he would have been,
[15:09]and there wouldn't have been a single victim after 2009.
[15:13]But he wasn't, and he did.
[15:15]He abused so many girls after 2009
[15:18]at the same exact time that I was asking the government
[15:21]why he got the deal and why they violated my rights.
[15:26]That is the real injustice here.
[15:30]Joining us now in the Situation Room
[15:31]with CNN's MJ Lee, some heart-wrenching testimony there.
[15:36]What else are we learning from the survivors?
[15:37]Yeah, this has already been a pretty emotional hearing
[15:41]in West Palm Beach.
[15:42]You know, House Oversight Democrats clearly wanting
[15:44]to give some of these Epstein survivors
[15:47]not only an opportunity to share their stories,
[15:50]but also talk about what accountability
[15:52]actually looks like for them.
[15:54]The first survivor testimony came from Maria Farmer,
[15:57]who of course was the first known Epstein survivor
[16:00]to actually report the abuse to authorities.
[16:03]She argued that nothing actually ever came
[16:06]from her reporting the abuse back in 1996.
[16:09]We also saw her not testifying in person
[16:12]because she has had so many health issues
[16:14]that she says comes from the abuse
[16:17]and the stress of everything that she has endured.
[16:20]There were other survivors like Danny Bensky,
[16:21]Jenna Lisa Jones, and then we heard
[16:24]from a woman named Rosa who is not sharing her last name.
[16:27]She has never publicly shared her story.
[16:29]She said in 2008, she was an aspiring model
[16:32]who came to the US and eventually was introduced
[16:35]to Jeffrey Epstein.
[16:36]And then she says she was repeatedly raped
[16:39]by Jeffrey Epstein while he was on house arrest.
[16:42]Listen to a part of what she said.
[16:45]I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe.
[16:49]I woke up one day with my name mentioned
[16:53]over 500 times.
[17:03]While the rich and powerful remain protected by reduction,
[17:06]my name was exposed to the world.
[17:08]Now reporters from across the globe contact me.
[17:10]I cannot live without looking over my shoulder.
[17:14]I can only imagine the long-term impact
[17:18]this mistake will have on my life.
[17:22]Really hard to watch.
[17:24]And you know, when I was texting a little bit
[17:26]with Rosa yesterday, she told me to go back
[17:29]to West Palm Beach is something I never wanted to do
[17:32]given that this is where the abuse took place.
[17:35]She told me she was extremely nervous,
[17:37]but was hopeful that this experience
[17:39]could be a little bit empowering for her.
[17:41]And when I heard her, you know, saying the words,
[17:43]I am no longer Jane Doe in front of this committee,
[17:46]I wondered whether she was hopefully getting
[17:49]that moment for herself.
[17:50]And just lastly, I just think it's important
[17:53]for us to talk about what accountability
[17:55]does look like for these survivors.
[17:56]You know, millions of files have been released
[17:59]by the DOJ, but they're obviously wanting
[18:01]the rest of the millions of files to be released as well.
[18:04]And then just, I think, reminding people
[18:06]at every opportunity that here in the US,
[18:08]Ghislaine Maxwell is the only person
[18:11]who has ever been prosecuted related to Jeffrey Epstein.
[18:14]They wanna see more interviews, more prosecutions.
[18:17]They want more accountability in the form
[18:19]of people who helped Jeffrey Epstein
[18:21]being brought to law enforcement.
[18:23]Yeah, and her case really speaks to also
[18:25]just the release from DOJ and the mess
[18:28]over the redactions, right?
[18:29]Because her name was supposed to be redacted,
[18:32]and it wasn't, and now here she is.
[18:35]And there are some survivors who have chosen
[18:37]to publicly share their stories,
[18:38]but in the case of Rosa, up until now,
[18:40]she hasn't wanted that.
[18:41]She has wanted to be a Jane Doe,
[18:43]and the DOJ, by failing to redact her name properly,
[18:46]sort of took that choice away from her.