[0:01]The release of the Epstein files has fueled non-stop headlines week after week. Names are discovered, institutions are shaken, powerful figures are put under the spotlight.
[0:12]For most, it's disturbing but distant news. For others, it's a reopening of deep wounds. Rina Oh lives with her husband and their
[0:23]two sons in the New Jersey countryside. She paints. When the latest files were released, her therapists told her to limit how much
[0:32]she engaged with them. Thank you, Rina, for doing this. How are you feeling now as there is so much attention on the Epstein files and
[0:42]on Epstein, of course, himself? Um it's very overwhelming. I sort of may have guessed that there were others
[0:53]strange nefarious activities, but now we have evidence that it was a lot worse than um we have ever imagined.
[1:03]And and he's so connected to too many people around the world. It's scary. Like all the names that are named in the files, um
[1:15]I I'm reading the emails and and I see the the way he's communicating with these people and he also lured in powerful people based on reading them,
[1:27]like what does this person who's a powerful politician need? And the way he speaks to them, it's it's very um you know, charismatic.
[1:38]And he knew exactly what they needed because everyone asked him for something. They weren't there because he was such a nice guy. You know, they were getting things out of him.
[1:48]Rina Oh was 21 years old when she met Jeffrey Epstein and going through a breakup. Her friend Lisa introduced them. Rina Oh believed he was offering her an
[1:59]opportunity. I was 21. I believed him. I completely fell for this, you know, like I mean, he he had
[2:09]a private island because Lisa told me he had a private island island and a private jet and, you know, this was a very enormous townhouse. Epstein offered mentorship and to pay for Rinao's
[2:21]schooling. He positioned himself as a benefactor. Do you recall how it was when you met him the first time?
[2:30]I actually do. Um we we spent about half an hour to an hour. Um I can't tell you exactly how long it was
[2:39]in the study. He had this big study room. It's not the living room. Um and we we sat down on a you know, on the on
[2:48]the sofa and he asked me, you know, like what's your name? And he he said, "Hello to Lisa. Uh it's nice to see you again." And um asked me, "What do you do?" And I
[2:59]said, "I'm an artist." He's like, "Oh, you're an artist. Like, you know, what what what did you bring with you?" Because I had my portfolio. And um he's like, "Can I look at it?" And I
[3:09]handed it to him and he actually studied like every single piece of artwork that was in that portfolio and and I noticed that he took a liking to a specific
[3:20]sculpture. And it it's this one, actually. I I made that when I was in high school. Um and um after we left that day, called or
[3:32]secretary called me the following day and told me Mr. Epstein would like to see you. Um and I went over the house probably the day after and
[3:44]and then he offered me a scholarship to go to art school. He said, "I think you're really talented. I think you should be in school.
[3:54]Um I guess during our initial conversation I I must have told him I wasn't in school. And he said, "If you want to become, you know, successful in in the art world,
[4:06]you need to have a college degree." And then the contact became more regular. Every time um Jeffrey Epstein was in New York, I would get a phone call.
[4:17]And the abuse started right away. And I I just thought, you know, this is just what I have to do, I guess, to to go to school. Um but
[4:28]at the time I was just so broken that I didn't even realize what was happening to me. Rina says the meetings didn't feel untoward at first, certainly not
[4:38]criminal. They felt professional. I didn't realize until I started reading about all the other things he did, like later on, that they weren't professional
[4:50]appointments. You know, like I was in a massage room. This is not normal. It seemed so legitimate. And um he's like, "Sit down next to me." And and this
[4:59]girl, who was a professional massage therapist, I know a lot of the young women and and the um the teenagers were going over there to give him erotic massages, but she was a
[5:11]certified massage therapist. I saw her give him a full body massage. Like she was massaging his scalp, his fingers, like his toes. So, it seemed very like normal, like
[5:23]nothing weird that day. And um he dictated and said, "You are going to this school." He selected the school. He didn't ask me, "What would you like to study?" or "Where do you want to go to
[5:35]school?" He just told me, "You're going You should take classes um starting with two summer classes." Like he really knew like how to like
[5:45]begin controlling me. And then he said the secretary will make all the arrangements. Just go to the school, pick up a catalog, and pick two classes. So I did exactly what he told
[5:56]me to do. Summer of 2000, every time he was in New York, I would get a phone call from the secretary. And then one day
[6:08]he took me into his his bedroom. He showed me around the bedroom. Um I saw his closet. Like he opened the drawers and he was just showing me like
[6:20]"These are my clothes. This is how they're folded." Um you know, he opened like the wardrobes and pulled out the drawers and just showed me like
[6:30]what was in it and I don't understand why he was showing me his closet. Then he took me into the master bathroom, asked me to take a bath with him.
[6:41]And then after that he took me into the bedroom. Like I can't really even count the number of times it there were so many.
[6:51]I I separate um and place them into seasons. You know, like that's the way I remember
[7:00]things. I don't remember specific dates unless I have like evidence, you know, like on paper. It felt dirty. It I was kind of ashamed.
[7:11]I was sexually abused when I was a very small child. Um so I I didn't know that was sexual abuse. The the way I was lured in.
[7:23]Um I was like five or six years old. This like like older person um
[7:33]told me, "We're going to play a game." And this happened like on multiple occasions and he gave me candy. Um The renewed attention didn't start
[7:44]with the most recent release of files. It began when earlier testimonies resurfaced. I guess the testimonies
[7:52]um resurfaced in 2018 from the young teenagers in Florida. Even then I I didn't think that I was a
[8:02]victim because I wasn't a teenager. I just thought like, well, I was an adult. There's no way I was a victim. I thought the sentence he got for the first time he was arrested wasn't enough.
[8:14]And I started speaking out. Um and unfortunately for me, it triggered me to remember
[8:24]you know, the trauma and I I ended up having a mental breakdown. I ended up in a psychiatric hospital. And when I started speaking to the other
[8:33]girls who were around my age um that he also did this to I started identifying what he did to me was sexual abuse. And what happened to
[8:45]you is what happened to a lot of the other girls. Like in the massage room, this is sexual abuse. And I I was like mortified.
[8:55]You know, when I found out um and and it really took a mental toll on me for the last 7 years. I At the center of Jeffrey Epstein's inner
[9:04]circle was Ghislaine Maxwell. I met Ghislaine Maxwell. I don't like her. Why why didn't you like Ghislaine
[9:13]Maxwell? She was very snobby and she was very suspicious of me and I could tell like something was wrong. Like like this woman like you know, is
[9:24]is is saying nice things to me, but they were not um genuine. They She wasn't a very sincere person. I think she was controlling his sex addiction
[9:36]and feeding his sex addiction Um in order to gain from him financially and and to have him provide her with that lifestyle that she was already
[9:48]accustomed to. And he used the words, "You're too old." And he said that to everyone. You know, like once those young girls that are in high
[9:58]school turned 18, he would start devaluing them and telling them, "You're too old." When I turned 22, he looked at me one day and said, "You're too old." They were some kind of a couple,
[10:10]but their relationship was not a very healthy one. Creating art helps her heal. It helps me stay in the present and not disassociate
[10:21]for my recovery and mental health. It Art helps ground me. And most recently, I started making
[10:31]advocacy work for children that are heavily trafficked. And they're the indigenous children from around the world. There are 40 million
[10:42]um humans, men, women, and children that go missing every year. Most of them are from third world countries. And here in
[10:52]North America, half a million indigenous women and children go missing every year. Learn that this is still going on. That, you know, there's a urgency in my
[11:03]voice. Um I created this collection of artwork because it hasn't ended. No one's doing anything about it. 500,000 women and children go
[11:15]missing here in the United States and northern Canada every single year. Why is it still happening? And I I created this entire series um
[11:26]of indigenous children, and I painted beautiful portraits of them in their native environment cuz I want the world the whole world to fall in love with these images
[11:37]and protect them. And that's why there's such an urgency. We need to protect them. I I want to live in a world where this doesn't
[11:46]happen anymore.