[0:12]Sky Roberts and Amanda for helping co-convene this roundtable.
[2:07]For doing this on the day that King Charles is visiting the Capitol, I had made a request
[2:12]of King Charles to meet not with me, not with Thomas Massey, not with the survivor groups,
[2:18]but the actual survivors.
[2:20]I thought the King owed that to the survivors, given his brother's serious allegations of
[2:27]abuse.
[2:28]And I thought it would have been an incredible moment and statement to show that it doesn't
[2:34]matter how much wealth you have, how much power you have, no human being is dispensable,
[2:38]and that the survivors deserve justice.
[2:41]He unfortunately declined that request.
[2:45]I met with the British Ambassador.
[2:48]The British Ambassador has suggested that the King will acknowledge the Epstein survivors
[2:54]in his address to Congress today.
[2:56]I hope his flunkies don't take out the acknowledgement from his text, and I fully
[3:01]expect the King to be acknowledging the survivors and the Epstein survivors when he
[3:07]speaks to our nation at Congress this afternoon.
[3:11]But this roundtable is about re-centering the survivors.
[3:18]They have shown such courage, such enormous guts to tell their stories over and over
[3:28]again and to see that there's justice for people who abused young girls and in some
[3:35]cases trafficked and raped them.
[3:37]Twice, Skye and other family members and survivors came outside the Capitol, and
[3:45]their advocacy is what led to Thomas Massey and my ability to pass the Epstein Transparency
[3:51]Act.
[3:52]We've managed at least 3 million files.
[3:56]Many of the people in those files have serious allegations of abuse, but there still has
[4:01]not been a single investigation or prosecution in the United States.
[4:06]We need to make sure that the men who abused, raped, or trafficked these girls
[4:11]are facing investigations and prosecutions.
[4:15]Many other countries, Britain, Latvia, Norway, have seen investigations and prosecutions.
[4:21]We haven't had a single one.
[4:23]So this roundtable is about making that call.
[4:26]And then there's still 3 million files that remain hidden, that are in a cover-up, that
[4:31]the survivors want to see released.
[4:33]There was recently a lawsuit that Katie Fang has brought under the Administrative
[4:38]Procedures Act saying that the administration, the Justice Department, is in violation
[4:43]of the law, the Epstein Transparency Act, that passed overwhelmingly, and they need
[4:47]to release the files.
[4:49]Today is a call to release all of the remaining files and to begin the investigation
[4:54]and prosecution of the Epstein class.
[4:57]But most importantly, it is a dialogue with the survivors and all of their incredible
[5:03]leaders.
[5:04]Thank you to so many of the incredible leaders from women's groups and domestic
[5:09]violence groups and sexual assault groups to have a real conversation about what needs
[5:13]to be done in this country to deal with sexual assault, to deal with the power
[5:18]differential that exists between rich and powerful men and those who they abuse,
[5:23]and what we need to do to move forward as a nation and as a world to use this awful
[5:29]Epstein saga to develop a more humane and just policy and more accountability so these
[5:35]things don't happen again to more young girls in our country or around the world.
[5:40]With that, I want to turn it over to Skye Roberts.
[5:44]Skye, thank you for suggesting that we do this, and thank you for your and Amanda's
[5:49]participation.
[5:50]Thank you.
[5:51]I very much appreciate it.
[5:53]Good morning, and thank you all for being here.
[5:56]My name is Skye Roberts, and I am the younger brother of Virginia Roberts-Jufray.
[6:01]I want to begin by thanking Representative Rokana.
[6:03]Thank you for assisting in getting this put together.
[6:06]I think it's a really big day, especially given the moment with the King arriving
[6:09]in town and obviously having the survivors here.
[6:12]It was just the year of Virginia's passing on Saturday last week, and we got to hold
[6:16]a beautiful vigil for her.
[6:18]But we're right back into advocacy work and we're just steps away from where the King is currently at.
[6:23]I want to take a moment to share Virginia's story because her story is not just hers.
[6:28]It represents so many others who never got the chance to be heard.
[6:32]When Virginia was just 16 years old, my father, who worked as a groundskeeper at Mar-a-Largo, helped her get a job there as a locker room attendant.
[6:40]That should have been a safe opportunity for a young girl.
[6:42]Instead, it became the entry point into a world of unimaginable abuse.
[6:47]That summer, Virginia was recruited at Mar-a-Largo by Ghislaine Maxwell and quickly pulled into orbit of Jeffrey Epstein.
[6:54]What followed was not just abuse by them, but by many powerful individuals, many of whom have still not been brought to justice.
[7:03]This is how trafficking works.
[7:05]Survivors are groomed.
[7:07]They are manipulated into believing they are complicit in their own abuse.
[7:11]They are isolated, controlled, and threatened.
[7:15]I remember one moment that has stayed with me forever, when Epstein handed Virginia a photo of me as a child.
[7:22]Wearing my backpack on my way to elementary school.
[7:26]It wasn't just a picture, it was a message.
[7:29]A threat.
[7:31]A way to keep her silent by making her fear for the people she loved.
[7:35]Virginia was trafficked across countries, including to the United Kingdom, where she was abused by Prince Andrew, now former Prince Andrew.
[7:45]There's a difficult irony in all of this.
[7:47]Virginia was recruited from a property owned by Donald Trump and trafficked to a member of the British royal family.
[7:54]Yet today, survivors are here, sitting with members of Congress,
[7:58]still fighting to be heard, still pushing for real accountability.
[8:03]While many of the powerful figures connected to these systems remain just out of reach, unable to acknowledge survivors face to face.
[8:11]You would expect this to be a moment for the King to give a message to the world that he stands with survivors.
[8:19]We still can't get that from our own President of the United States.
[8:23]He continues to say, hoax, victims, or whatever, and this is not about politics to us.
[8:28]This is a human issue, period.
[8:32]And that is why we're here today.
[8:34]We have an opportunity and a responsibility to set a different example for the next generation.
[8:39]Today, the reality is that many survivors of sexual assault do not come forward until around the age of 40.
[8:46]That delay is not a failure of survivors.
[8:48]It is a result of trauma, fear, and systems that have not made space for them to speak sooner.
[8:54]Yet, the stature of limitations continues to run, protecting predators while limiting survivors,
[9:00]allowing time itself to be used as a tool of silence and injustice.
[9:05]That is why legislation like Virginia's law is so critical.
[9:10]Eliminating the stature of limitations for sexual abuse at the federal level so survivors can come forward when they are ready.
[9:16]Not when the law forces them to.
[9:19]And we must do this in partnership with the incredible organizations here today.
[9:23]Thank you all so, so much.
[9:24]It's a pleasure to meet many, many of you.
[9:25]Many of you, we've worked with you guys, including World We.
[9:30]Who've provided so much support and a safe space for many of the survivors to come forward.
[9:37]And it would be a disservice not to mention you here today and how much you've done for us in the survivor community, so thank you.
[9:46]I'm honored to be a part of this conversation, but more importantly, I'm here to ensure that Virginia's story continues to drive action.
[9:53]With that, I'd like to turn it over to my wife, Amanda, to walk through SOAR,
[9:58]Virginia's law, and the concrete steps we can take together to move this forward.
[10:02]Amanda Roberts, and I am the sister-in-law of Virginia Roberts, she's right.
[10:14]And I am in awe of this moment right here.
[10:19]It's always a reminder that it is her who should be sitting in this seat.
[10:24]That her courage, her tenacity, and her refusal to back down from systems who continue to abuse their power bring us here every single time.
[10:36]And it's also striking to see these different organizations and where they come from.
[10:41]Model Alliance, Right for Girls, Ultraviolet, World Without Exploitation, now Women's March.
[10:47]It shows you that there is a problem across the globe.
[10:51]It shows you that this Epstein case is not just about a singular event or abuse.
[10:57]That Jeffrey Epstein was not an anomaly.
[11:01]But unfortunately, this is a reality that young women, girls, and men, and boys face every single day of their lives.
[11:08]And that in this moment, in this time, it is now time to do something about it,
[11:13]legally, legislatively, and anyone in power deserves to pay the repercussions of their actions.
[11:22]I want to talk to you guys about SOAR.
[11:26]SOAR was Virginia's non-profit.
[11:29]It was her baby and it was her dream.
[11:32]And one year after her passing, Sky and I get to announce that we will be the board members of SOAR and we will actively be able to continue her legacy.
[11:42]It is an honor to sit with you all today to know that this is just the beginning of a continued relationship of real work.
[11:50]I also want to talk about Virginia's law.
[11:54]That was another dream of hers.
[11:56]And it coincides with SOAR because the questions Virginia asked always is what happens now after a survivor leaves sexual exploitation,
[12:03]domestic violence, what happens now, who is there for them, what if I had an education, what if I had financial resources, what if I had mental health care,
[12:10]how could that have prolonged my life, and what if I had a system that worked for me,
[12:17]laws that worked for me, and that is what we intend to continue to do with SOAR.
[12:22]We intend to build a non-profit by survivors and for survivors alongside her survivor sisters.
[12:27]And this is just the beginning of her work.
[12:30]And I'm truly, truly honored to sit here with all of you to open this event and to share it with you guys.
[12:37]I want to thank you all for being here.
[12:40]And this is just the beginning of her work.
[12:42]And I'm truly, truly honored to sit here with all of you to open this conversation with Rokana and many representatives who want to see real change.
[12:53]We have to begin to dissect the systematic abuse and failures that happened with the first reportings of the FBI.
[13:01]How was that mismanaged and missed?
[13:05]The deals that Acosta was given and how that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to continue to abuse girls for another nine years with hundreds and hundreds of victims.
[13:17]This is a reality that survivors face every single day.
[13:21]It's why more reporting doesn't happen.
[13:25]So we have to start with legislation.
[13:27]We have to show on a legal level that they will pay those repercussions so that survivors can speak out in safety.
[13:36]Thank you, Amanda.
[13:37]Thank you for those very powerful words and thank you, Skye, for those powerful words.
[13:41]I know it's a very emotional moment and I'm grateful to both of you.
[13:45]We'll now hear from another survivor of Epstein and Charlene.
[13:49]Thank you for all the courage you've shown all these months and for being here.
[13:53]If you could share a few words.
[13:55]Thank you for everybody and all of your help.
[14:01]My name is Charlene Rochard.
[14:05]I'm a survivor of trafficking.
[14:07]But before I ever understood that word, I was just a young woman trying to build a modeling career.
[14:15]I want to speak from that place because the way trafficking actually happens is very different from the way people imagine it.
[14:25]When I entered the modeling world, I was barely a teenager.
[14:29]I was ambitious, excited, and completely unprepared for the risks that came with traveling alone across the world.
[14:38]No one ever talked to me about trafficking, not my modeling agencies, not the adults around me who I assumed understood the industry better than I did.
[14:48]There were no protective measures, no conversations around red flags,
[14:53]no warnings about the kinds of people who target young women who travel internationally with no support system.
[15:01]I didn't know what grooming was.
[15:03]I didn't know what coercion looked like.
[15:06]I didn't know what opportunity could be used as a weapon.
[15:12]And that is exactly why I was vulnerable.
[15:17]Trafficking didn't start with violence.
[15:20]It started with access, people offering mentorship, people who promised exposure, travel, and introductions to powerful individuals.
[15:29]That kind of access is like currency when you're young and trying to succeed.
[15:35]You don't question it.
[15:37]In fact, you're taught to be grateful for all these opportunities.
[15:41]I was groomed and manipulated in plain sight.
[15:45]Inside environments that look legitimate, hotels, studios, photo shoots, industry events, and most during jobs that were framed as career building.
[15:55]I didn't recognize any of it as trafficking because no one had ever taught me what trafficking looked like.
[16:01]By the time the situation shifted into dependency and control, emotional, financial, and reputational, I was already entangled.
[16:10]And like many survivors, I didn't have the language to name what was happening.
[16:15]I thought I had made mistakes.
[16:18]I thought it was my fault.
[16:21]I thought I had put myself in these situations.
[16:24]That confusion is part of the system that is not accidental, and traffickers rely on this.
[16:30]People often talk about trafficking as something that happens in a moment.
[16:35]But the truth is, the aftermath follows you far into adulthood.
[16:41]It affects your relationships, who you marry, your sense of safety, your ability to trust, your career, your mental health, and your financial stability.
[16:50]Recovery is not linear.
[16:52]It is lifelong.
[16:55]And the hardest part of knowing that so much of it could be prevented if the systems around me had been designated to protect young people instead of leaving them to navigate this danger alone.
[17:10]Trafficking is not random.
[17:12]It is structured.
[17:14]It is patterned, and it is preventable.
[17:17]I'm calling for legislation that reflects how trafficking actually works.
[17:22]Mandatory education and safety protocols for industries that employ young people, especially those who travel, including modeling, entertainment, and sports.
[17:32]Clear legal definitions of grooming, coercive control, so exploitation cannot be reframed as consent.
[17:44]Federal protections that eliminate loopholes created by varying state age of consent laws,
[17:50]especially when minors are transported across state lines.
[17:55]Stronger oversight of travel, model housing, and financial arrangements for minors and young adults working internationally.
[18:05]Pattern-based detection requirements for financial institutions because trafficking leaves financial footprints long before a survivor can speak up.
[18:15]Accountability for individuals and institutions that knowingly or negligently enable trafficking environments.
[18:24]Right now, too much of trafficking happens under the table.
[18:29]Hidden by secrecy, silence, and the assumption that if a young woman is traveling for work, she must be safe.
[18:36]That assumption is dangerous, it is wrong, and it's costing lives.
[18:40]What I hope to see are laws created that no one would have protected me.
[18:48]I need laws that protected me when I was a young model.
[18:52]Laws that ensure no girl, no model, no ambitious teenager traveling alone is left without guidance, oversight, or support.
[19:02]If we bring trafficking out of the shadows, if we close the gaps traffickers rely on,
[19:09]and if we legislate based on how exploitation actually unfolds, then we don't just respond to trafficking.
[19:17]We prevent it.
[19:20]Thank you.
[19:22]Thank you, Sean, and that was really powerful and so many very thoughtful and practical suggestions that hopefully can become part of the conversation and legislation.
[19:31]I appreciate it.
[19:33]I want to now turn to Danny Bensky, another survivor of Epstein, and really grateful for your being here.
[19:41]Thank you so much.
[19:42]Yeah, thank you.
[19:43]I want to say thank you for this incredible collective effort that has gone into this because this has never been just about Epstein and Maxwell survivors.
[19:50]It has been about survivors of all abuse, and we really saw that come into play with the Transparency Act.
[19:58]We had people from all over, survivors from all over, calling their congressional leaders and their reps, and that fueled this fight in such a profound way.
[20:08]So it is a collective, and I think people in this country really want to see change, and we feel that as Epstein survivors.
[20:16]Similar to Charlene's experience, I was also groomed.
[20:20]For me, it was the dance world, and there are safeguards that need to be put in place because, I mean, I was groomed before I knew I was groomed, right?
[20:31]So I want to take you back to 2004 and 2005, which was when my abuse began with Jeffrey Epstein.
[20:38]I was 17 years old, but again, it came from the dance world.
[20:42]Competition Dance First moved into the world of ballet, and there has always been a world of, there's a hierarchy that has always existed.
[20:53]We are, as dancers, often in places where there's direct access from older teachers.
[21:00]I remember I used to take private ballet lessons, and my mom would be with me, and there was an act of, it felt very ritualistic, of walking in there with my leotard and tights and my sweatpants over,
[21:11]and you would take off the sweatpants and you would go in and have a lesson, which really wasn't that different from what I experienced with Jeffrey Epstein.
[21:19]I was trafficked to Jeffrey Epstein. I didn't know what that meant for such a long time.
[21:25]My recruiter was, there were two, one was 19 and one was 15 years old who was just trying to make it for herself.
[21:31]And I think something that's often overlooked in this is the recruitment aspect of this, and it felt like a pyramid scheme, right?
[21:39]And there was a coercive manipulation that kept us all there that felt completely like it was something you could not escape.
[21:49]In my own abuse, Jeffrey, I know many of you know this story, but in my own abuse, my mom had a brain tumor that she was diagnosed with.
[21:59]I brought Jeffrey Epstein the scans because I had thought that he made his money from the medical profession,
[22:05]and he basically held the scans over me and said, you know, I have the power to get the best anesthesiologist and all the power at Mount Sinai,
[22:16]or I can take all that away. And I feared for her and for her life, and so I did whatever I had to do.
[22:24]And he basically said to me at that point, you can procure other girls or you can accept you have to do more here.
[22:31]And so the abuse held me there. I did not recruit anybody, but even if I had, that was all part of this, right?
[22:37]It was all about the manipulation. But all to say that trafficking can happen anywhere.
[22:44]We were on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
[22:46]They recently went back to the mansion and stood at the stops, which was one of the hardest experiences I've done in my adult life,
[22:53]because the door still felt massive. It still felt, you know, when you're young and you're playing in the backyard,
[22:59]the backyard feels so big, right? And then you go back and you're like, oh, it was so tiny, right?
[23:05]And in this experience, no, it really is that looming and not much power.
[23:11]And even just the architecture of it is meant to make you feel small. So I was held there for so long.
[23:19]And I want to shift to the way the systems have perpetually failed us. I was able to extricate myself.
[23:25]However, in 2008, I was subpoenaed and I went in for for the interview and nobody ever told me I was safe.
[23:35]I knew that I had to show up for the subpoena. I did not have a victim's rights advocate.
[23:41]I did not have a lawyer. I didn't know I was entitled to those things.
[23:45]It did feel like an interrogation in some ways.
[23:48]But even more so than that, Jeffrey had already proven his power time and time again.
[23:54]And I had a friend who called me and said at that point, you know, Jeffrey threatened my family.
[24:01]You cannot speak. He had also told me that I would be brought up on prostitution charges because I had turned 18 while I was there.
[24:08]And I called my mom and my mom was so fearful. And she said, get up, get as far away from this as possible.
[24:15]There was nobody who said there's a safe space to tell your story.
[24:19]So when we think about all of this, I think there's some reform that needs to happen here.
[24:26]When victims are brought in to the FBI or questioned,
[24:30]how do we make them feel seen and heard and safe so that we can get the stories and understand what's happening?
[24:38]I think right now there's still demand for this. Demand has not slowed.
[24:43]Right now we see things online like Rape Academy and motherless.com.
[24:48]And so we know that this is still happening time and time again.
[24:53]And if not, it's gotten worse. So who is the next Jeffrey Epstein and what is happening to our youth right now?
[25:00]I am a dance teacher. I'm a choreographer. I'm not a politician.
[25:04]And I see these girls, I see these kids that come in time and time again.
[25:10]And they're exposed to all of this and even more now with the Internet.
[25:14]In 2004, 2005, the Internet was barely a thing. They didn't have access to all of this.
[25:21]So the importance for reform is huge. So it's twofold.
[25:25]We do need change to come, obviously, in a lot of ways.
[25:29]But I think Virginia's law is a great start for those of us.
[25:34]You know, I'm almost 40 now. I'm just coming to terms with my own abuse.
[25:38]Virginia led the way for me. So did Maria Farmer in a lot of ways.
[25:42]And side note, we still haven't found the other half of her 1996 report.
[25:47]So that is still out there. No one can access that.
[25:51]So we do need the release of the files.
[25:53]But, you know, I'm just coming to terms now with my own abuse at almost 40.
[25:59]And, you know, a statute of limitations absolutely needs to change.
[26:03]There should be no time limit on trying to figure out what happened to you.
[26:08]A lot of the time, becoming a parent changes you.
[26:11]It changed me.
[26:12]And I wasn't able to look at my life until I had my son and knew that I needed to change it for him.
[26:19]So that is the first thing.
[26:21]The second thing is, I do believe that we need victims rights advocates in rooms and spaces with young survivors.
[26:28]So thank you.
[26:30]Thank you, Danny.
[26:32]Thank you so much for your continued courage and sharing that very personal story and your call for action.
[26:39]So I really appreciate it.
[26:41]We know that we have so many of the most incredible leaders in women's rights and survivors rights.
[26:50]And we've got incredible colleagues of mine.
[26:53]So maybe what we will do is we'll go have one of the leaders speak, one of my colleagues speak.
[26:58]And if everyone could just maybe try to keep to two minutes so that we can then have conversation after that.
[27:05]And I want to just thank Preeti on my team and Sarah on my team for having so many of the most incredible leaders here in this room.
[27:13]So maybe we will start, Kim, with you with the national now president.
[27:18]You need no introduction to the organization and appreciate your leadership and the work you're doing.
[27:24]Thank you, Congressman.
[27:27]I'm Kim Villanueva, president of the National Organization for Women, and
[27:31]I am so honored to be here today with the survivor sisters and members of Congress.
[27:36]The United States has spent more than two decades building a comprehensive legal framework to combat human trafficking and
[27:43]sexual exploitation, beginning with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and strengthened through bipartisan reauthorizations.
[27:51]These laws are not the problem.
[27:53]They just aren't enough.
[27:56]The problem is that they are not consistently enforced, and survivors are paying the price.
[28:01]Across this country, survivors still face unstable access to housing, health care, and legal support and advocacy.
[28:09]Cases stall.
[28:10]Restitution goes uncollected.
[28:12]Files go missing.
[28:14]And too often, accountability stops short when wealth or influence is involved.
[28:20]That's not a gap in statute.
[28:23]It's a failure of political will.
[28:25]Organizations like NOW and my sister organizations have long made it clear that trafficking and sexual violence are not isolated incidents.
[28:34]They are systemic abuses rooted in gender inequity, economic vulnerability, and power imbalances.
[28:41]If we ignore these conditions, we will continue to treat symptoms instead of causes.
[28:47]And we state without hesitation that we believe women.
[28:51]We believe survivors.
[28:53]We believe that those who come forward, often at great personal risk, to tell their truths, like Virginia, even when the powerful try to silence them.
[29:02]High profile cases like Epstein did not expose a loophole.
[29:06]They exposed a pattern.
[29:08]Institutions failing to act, systems protecting the powerful and predators, and survivors left without recourse for years, sometimes decades.
[29:18]Congress has the authority to change this.
[29:21]That means removing barriers that prevent survivors from seeking justice, including outdated statutes of limitation, Virginia's law.
[29:30]It means enforcing restitution so that it's actually delivered.
[29:34]It means holding not just perpetrators, but the institution and industries that enable exploitation accountable.
[29:41]And it means guaranteeing stable, long-term funding for survivor services so that support does not depend on political cycles.
[29:50]To federal officials, we say the tools are already in your hand.
[29:55]The question is whether they will be used to their full extent.
[29:58]Survivors do not need more promises.
[30:01]They need enforcement, accountability, and action.
[30:05]Thank you.
[30:06]Leadership and now is incredible leadership on these issues.
[30:13]And I want to recognize one of my colleagues, we'll have both of them speak, but one summarily on oversight.
[30:22]Representative Lee was the reason we have these oversight hearings, because very early on, she had a subpoena, and somehow she got Republicans to vote for it as well.
[30:35]And that's what led to the oversight committee starting all of the investigations.
[30:41]So really an honor to have you here, Representative Lee.
[30:44]Thank you.
[30:45]Thank you, Rep Khanna, and thank you so much for convening us.
[30:48]I just want to say, and first of all, just taking a moment of acknowledgement to the just incredible bravery of the women, the survivors who have come forward, not just today, not just throughout this moment that we have been in, but unfortunately for year after year.
[31:05]I just wanted to recognize just the incredible, enduring presence of Virginia on all of this work and so many more survivors who have stepped up in big and small ways, some who still will.
[31:19]And that is because of the work that you all have been doing, and of course, the support of the community who has consistently tried to move this forward from state houses to Congress.
[31:32]So I just wanted to just express our incredible gratitude to all of you all for this work.
[31:37]I just know, and we all know, that this has been incredibly difficult, right?
[31:40]Especially as you all, some of you, have been up against some of the most powerful institutions, organizations, and people across the entire world.
[31:49]I think it's important that we take that moment to recognize how big that is.
[31:54]You all have been courageous and admirable throughout all of that.
[31:58]You wouldn't have to, and you shouldn't have to be, but we thank you for using your voices.
[32:02]When we forced the subpoena for the Department of Justice to release the files back in August through the Federal Law Enforcement Subcommittee, that created the opportunity for the administration to do the right thing.
[32:16]But that wouldn't have been possible if there wasn't already a movement of people of all political backgrounds who directed the American consciousness and the media attention towards this injustice.
[32:28]Your advocacy has exposed deep failures, and our broken judicial system has pushed our country and our society to confront really deeply uncomfortable truths.
[32:43]But because of you, there is greater awareness, and there's greater pressure, and there's a greater momentum towards change.
[32:48]And unlike so many other topics that we experience in this country, this is not a new cycle that has just gone away.
[32:55]No matter how much time has gone, this is not something that has just been blown away.
[32:59]And I think that while there are so many people who would love for this to one day just be pushed under the rug, for one day for this to just pass by,
[33:06]we know that the work that is going to happen in this case won't just result in justice for the thousands of survivors of that scene or pass abusers.
[33:17]It will make sure that we have fewer survivors moving forward, which is our ultimate goal.
[33:23]The systemic failures that we see within our Department of Justice, within our United States government, within so many different layers,
[33:30]the reason why this is such an important case is because it will give us an opportunity to finally confront them and say that we need to build a better system moving forward.
[33:38]We need to ensure that we are creating the mechanisms for that no survivor would ever be unsafe when they come forward, that they would never be cast aside,
[33:47]but also that the system itself would no longer circle the wagons around each other, that these systems will be accountable and not just accountable for the immediate action.
[33:56]But what our hope is, is that we can create some accountability, that we build better systems moving forward, that our institutions fundamentally and transformationally change,
[34:06]that we have a government that could ever allow someone, because of how wealthy they are or well connected, that they would be more protected than anybody else.
[34:15]And the people who they have perpetuated harm against is a foundational problem.
[34:19]So I'm committed and I know that so many of us are. We are committed to seeing this one through, to not shutting up about this one, to not letting us off the hook.
[34:30]So I'm sorry that you have had to be more patient than anyone should have to be.
[34:34]I'm sorry that you all have had to show up more times than anyone should have to.
[34:38]But we hope that with this, this moves us into a new era.
[34:43]And we know that one way or another we're going to fight for it anyway.
[34:45]So I just wanted to thank you all so much for inviting me today, for allowing us to listen to you, to your stories and understand your work more.
[34:51]Thank you, Representative Ley for that very powerful statement.
[34:55]We'll continue to alternate between the members who have taken time out of their busy schedules to be here and our incredible leaders from the women's rights and survivor rights community.
[35:07]With that, let me give two minutes to board member Chakraborty, board member of the Women's March and has done so much incredible organizing.
[35:17]Good morning, everyone. It's great to be in this room with all of you.
[35:21]And thank you, Representative Khanna, for convening us here today.
[35:24]I'm Renalini Chakraborty. I'm an advocate and organizer for reproductive justice and gender justice.
[35:30]And 20 years ago, I entered the fight fighting for sex workers' rights and against human trafficking back home in India.
[35:38]And I'm here today representing the Women's March as one of the national board members.
[35:42]At Women's March, our primary goal in advocating against human trafficking and sexual violence has always been to center the impact on survivors.
[35:53]We've sent tens of thousands of letters to Congress in support of Representative Khanna's Epstein Files Transparency Act, demanding the full release of those files and accountability for the perpetrators within them.
[36:05]Over the last year, we funded billboards to build awareness, organized vigils, escalated protest actions across the globe and activated and mobilized thousands of activists on this issue.
[36:20]We organized 3,000 people to show up at the gates of Epstein's Zorro Ranch to demand an investigation and to remember the women and girls that were harmed within its gates.
[36:30]And following these demands, the New Mexico Department of Justice was pressured to search those desecrated grounds.
[36:38]We partnered with the family of Virginia Jufre, both to join us at Zorro Ranch and to host a vigil in her memory just this past weekend that had over 700 attendees in person and online.
[36:50]The Women's March movement grew out of public outcry that Trump, a known predator and proud misogynist, was elected to the highest office in this country.
[37:02]We knew then that his rhetoric would set a tone for the nation, and we knew that his authoritarian tendencies would only escalate as they have, as we've seen in his second term.
[37:12]At every turn since then, as we've demanded justice for survivors and drawn attention to feminist issues, we've been told to sit down and wait, sometimes from those who are meant to be on our side.
[37:25]In good times, contempt for women and feminist issues is an ongoing challenge, but in the face of rising fascism, women's rights are summarily dismissed and often called a distraction.
[37:37]But we know that misogyny, oppressive gender roles, and attacks on bodily autonomy are a key component of authoritarian movements.
[37:46]And at the same time that there is backlash against feminist progress, there is also an escalation of human rights crises, the destruction of democracy, and a rise in authoritarianism across the world.
[37:58]We cannot address these issues in isolation. They are intrinsically connected, and we cannot abandon the fight for gender justice, the fight against gender-based violence, just because we have multiple other fights in front of us.
[38:12]So our urgent call to action right now for Congress, from the press, for everyday people, is that we make these connections, that we understand that misogyny and fascism are both on the rise, that we always center survivors and ensure that their voices are heard, and that we keep fighting for a world where every perpetrator of sexual violence is terrified of the consequences of their actions. Thank you.
[38:37]Thank you for that very powerful statement, Board Member Chakraborty.
[38:44]I now want to recognize Representative Stansberry. Representative Stansberry has been just such an incredible advocate on the Oversight Committee, and reading all the files, and standing with survivors. Thank you for joining us.
[38:57]Thank you, and just, I'm honored to be amongst you all, and to stand with you in the fight, and I know this weekend was the memorial of your sister's passing, and I know all of us are, I'm sorry, it's a hard week.
[39:14]So I can feel the presence of Virginia here in this room. I think the one thing I just want to share is that the stories of all of the survivors and the advocates who are doing this work is changing the world.
[39:30]And I just want to lift up the words, I think Congresswoman Lee already said everything that could be said, and in such a powerful way. You know, I was reflecting, as you were talking about this being a foundational problem, we're celebrating the 250th anniversary of this nation's founding.
[39:51]And there's nothing more foundationally problematic about our country than the fact that at its founding, the vast majority of Americans couldn't participate.
[40:01]And part of the arc of history of this country is seeking equality, equity, justice, and to move that arc towards greater participation in democracy.
[40:16]And I believe that the work that you all are doing is not just standing up against sexual violence and exploitation, but actually moving this country and our world forward as we move into the next chapter.
[40:29]That we're not going to stand, not just with a president and an administration that is continuing to engage in abusive behavior and cover up sexual exploitation, but that as women, we are not going to allow our society to not face these inconvenient truths.
[40:48]And that as a society, we're going to continue to push forward. And I'll just add, I do have some more formal remarks, but I want to hear about what we can do to change the system from all of you.
[41:01]I travel all over the country, and I'm sure all of us have this experience. Every single day, I get stopped on the street, I get stopped at the grocery store, I get stopped just going about my life from people you would not even imagine who pull me aside, who say, I'm a survivor.
[41:23]Local leaders, elected officials, donors, people you would never expect. And so even though the institution itself has a foundational problem, even though this institution and the federal government are failing to act and have failed to act since the beginning of when many of you first told your stories, I want you to know that your stories are changing the world.
[41:46]And there are literally millions of survivors out there who are hearing and seeing what you are doing, and it's changing them. And so please continue to tell your stories, continue to demand accountability, and we're just so grateful for all the work that you guys are doing.
[42:03]So thank you.
[42:04]Thank you, Representative Sandsbury. Now we'll hear from Ms. Dahlia Locke. Thank you for your leadership with World Without Exploitation to prevent sexual exploitation of young people.
[42:15]Thank you, Congressman, for convening this roundtable. Thank you, Congresswoman. Please, die a call.
[42:22]Thank you, Representative Sandsbury, for your leadership. My name is Dahlia Edden Locke, and I'm the Policy and Education Manager at World Without Exploitation, a national coalition of nearly 200 organizations committed to ending sex trafficking.
[42:34]When a survivor of Epstein who had completed our advocacy training program came to us this past summer and shared her deep frustration with the federal government's mishandling and concealment of the Epstein case, it became clear that her experience was not isolated.
[42:48]It echoed the broader failures of accountability and justice faced by survivors of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation across the United States every day.
[42:56]That clarity pushed us forward, and our rally on Capitol Hill calling for the release of the Epstein Files helped drive the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a feat made possible only by the persistence and leadership from survivors like the incredible women who spoke before me.
[43:14]Working with Skye and Amanda and others, our team, namely my colleague Bella Perocchi, who's here today, helped introduce Virginia's law to eliminate the statute of limitations for federal civil claims by adult survivors.
[43:26]Our team is also advancing a cause of action bill with Representatives Khanna and Jayapal, so survivors can seek redress for government failures to protect them during the file release and pressing for full implementation of the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act passed in January.
[43:40]So the wrongful convictions of survivors can be vacated.
[43:44]Justice must also meet this digital moment.
[43:48]Exploitation now mostly happens online, and young people, especially girls, are uniquely at risk.
[43:55]Image-based sexual abuse has become normalized, as their explicit images, real and fake, are passed around schools, shared in group chats, and posted to pornography sites.
[44:05]They internalize the message that their bodies are currency, and their worth lies in their mass consumption.
[44:12]Sex traffickers, buyers, exploiters, abuse this erosion of consent and boundaries to exploit young people online.
[44:20]Now more prone than ever to mistake grooming for flattery.
[44:25]Legislation can deliver justice, but it also has the power to shift to norms.
[44:29]The Kids Online Safety Act, the Stop CSAM Act, and the Defiance Act are essential.
[44:34]They require platforms to prioritize safety over profit, prevent and remove child sexual abuse material, and empower survivors to hold perpetrators accountable.
[44:43]Finally, justice requires confronting the core of sex trafficking, the demand.
[44:49]The forthcoming Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Act recognizes what research shows.
[44:55]Trafficking is fueled primarily by the demand for paid sex created by sex buyers, often white men with a disposable income.
[45:04]No buyers, no business.
[45:06]This bill would incorporate demand reduction into the State Department's TIP Report, closing a critical gap in evaluation and driving global policy change.
[45:15]The powerful men in Epstein's Circle, who we have come to call co-conspirators or associates, were sex buyers who used their socioeconomic privilege to purchase access to vulnerable women and girls.
[45:27]This inherently unequal power dynamic at the crux of the prostitution system is why sex trafficking exists and persists today.
[45:36]If you take one thing away from what I say, please remember this.
[45:41]I know there are calls to fully decriminalize prostitution, including sex buying, pimping, and brothel owning.
[45:47]I ask, how in this moment of reckoning where the Epstein case had laid bare how crucial buyers are to this system, can we look survivors in the eye and say the men who exploited you, preyed on your insecurities, fetishized your race and sexuality,
[46:05]stalked you outside of foster homes, exploited your immigration status against you.
[46:09]They will be met with impunity.
[46:12]Sex buyers must be investigated and held responsible in the Epstein case and beyond.
[46:17]These measures move towards a powerful federal framework that prevents exploitation, holds buyers and exploiters accountable, and ensures survivors can access meaningful justice.
[46:27]But it is just the beginning of what we can and must do together.
[46:30]Thank you.
[46:33]Very powerful words.
[46:35]Now I want to recognize Representative Fernandez.
[46:38]Representative Fernandez is the chair of the Women's Caucus and played an incredibly critical role in getting the Epstein files passed.
[46:46]Thank you, Representative Khanna.
[46:48]And thank you to the survivors and advocates.
[46:51]I feel like we've become part of a close extended familia, right?
[46:55]And I've told you over and again, I think you are some of the most courageous and impactful women of our generation because you refused to let the rich and powerful silence you.
[47:08]And your refusal to be silenced by the rich and powerful has inspired a nation because we are sick and tired of the rich and powerful controlling our lives.
[47:20]And a very rich and powerful person is going to speak to the joint session of Congress and he refused to speak to you.
[47:27]But you didn't bow down, right?
[47:31]And I thank you for organizing this and coming to this.
[47:35]And Attorney General Actine, we don't ever really want him to be Attorney General, because he said the open quote, the DOJ has now released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga.
[47:47]How dare we call it a saga?
[47:49]And he said that the Epstein files, open quote, should not be part of anything going forward, close quote.
[47:56]Sorry, Mr. Blanch.
[47:57]That's not the law.
[47:59]The law, thank you.
[48:01]The Epstein Files Transparency Act says that the Department of Justice must release all the files about Jeffrey Epstein and his buyers.
[48:11]And we know there are about three million not released.
[48:14]And we will enforce the law.
[48:17]In collaboration with the survivors, the DWC sent a letter in January demanding an investigation into the Department of Justice's mishandling.
[48:26]And last week, the inspector general said, we will conduct an audit, right?
[48:33]Yesterday, we saw the lawsuit saying we need to investigate why have you not been doing this.
[48:44]And we also know that me and different people around this table are looking at legislation.
[48:52]We will be introducing bills to provide a right to sue for failure to carry out the act.
[49:03]And in memory of your sister and highlighting her words in that work, we have Virginia's law,
[49:12]which I'm so pleased to introduce with you and sit and stand with you as we move forward because there should be no deadline.
[49:23]There should be no clock that rings and alarms and says, sorry, you're out of time.
[49:28]Justice should not have an end date.
[49:31]And in New Mexico, we're so proud of what we're doing in Soto Ranch.
[49:34]We've been there together, right?
[49:36]Because the Truth Commission and the attorney general is willing to investigate and prosecute as necessary.
[49:43]So, Mr. Blanche, you can do something.
[49:46]Justice can prevail, but only if you're willing to do it.
[49:52]And what we are seeing by the rich and powerful in this administration is they're not willing to do it because Trump and members of his cabinet are implicated.
[50:01]And we will not stop saying that.
[50:04]We will not stop walking, working towards a process where the rich and powerful don't continue to say you will have no voice.
[50:13]I mean, one of the things that has stuck with me since our very first meeting where together we cried so much around the table with the members of the Women's Caucus.
[50:23]And he said that they he told you I have the banks.
[50:28]I have the government. You have no voice.
[50:32]You are proving him wrong.
[50:35]And we will stand by you because your voice is so powerful.
[50:41]And you are absolutely correct. Courage is contagious.
[50:46]MuchÃsimas gracias for everything you do.
[50:48]Thank you so much.
[50:49]Thank you, Representative Fernandez.
[50:52]Now we will hear from Ms. Risha Hatch, who is the executive director of Ultraviolet, a gender justice organization.
[51:00]Thank you for your leadership.
[51:01]Thank you so much for having me here today.
[51:03]As we just mentioned, my name is Risha Hatch and I'm the new executive director of Ultraviolet, a national women-led gender justice organization.
[51:12]Since Ultraviolet was founded, more than 28 million actions have been taken by millions of people demanding a response to the everyday sexism and misogyny that women face at the workplace, in the doctor's office, in our homes and online.
[51:28]Over time, we've built a constituency base of thousands of survivors and millions of allies who have worked to hold abusers accountable and create a cost for sexism, from Bill O'Reilly, R. Kelly, to Harvey Weinstein and Andrew Tate and many, many others.
[51:44]In this instance, our members have called for the release of all Epstein files.
[51:49]We've made phone calls to our representatives.
[51:52]We've signed petitions.
[51:53]They've donated flowers to memorial services.
[51:57]To support these survivors.
[52:00]I was thinking on the drive over today that while the things that I have had to survive or get over in my life pale in comparison to what these survivors have endured, I couldn't help but think about my own adolescence and how early young girls are taught that we must protect ourselves from sexual abuse.
[52:23]In high school, there were rumors of a popular R&B singer who liked young girls.
[52:28]He parked outside of local high schools in a neighboring school district next to ice cream trucks and school buses.
[52:35]Bootleg videos were passed around of his abuse before the Internet.
[52:40]It was an open secret, an urban legend we told ourselves, just girls gossip.
[52:46]It would take two decades to successfully prosecute him.
[52:50]I didn't have the words to describe it at the time, but before I had my learner's permit, I understood what a whisper network was.
[52:58]We all did.
[53:00]And we were taught a lot of rules by this whisper network.
[53:03]Don't wear that.
[53:05]Don't walk down that street alone.
[53:07]Don't travel alone.
[53:08]Be careful of that pastor or that assistant coach.
[53:13]By my first week of college, my freshman year, I knew what frat houses to avoid, what athletes secretly videotape girls in their dorm rooms, what professors to avoid.
[53:26]These whisper networks that we created were all we had to protect ourselves and our families, and they exist across every industry.
[53:36]Even in the last few weeks, we've learned about candidates and elected officials across parties, social justice movement leaders.
[53:44]We've learned about online Rape Academy networks, tech companies building and monetizing AI tools that undress women and children without any real consequence.
[53:55]The challenges before us are great, especially in this Epstein case, ranging from the sheer volume of documents released,
[54:04]the volume of names, names, and still a continued lack of transparency.
[54:10]Many of us fear that we haven't seen the worst of the worst.
[54:16]The moment that we are in will call for a level of discipline and focus, but we demand that each one be investigated, that there is justice and accountability for the survivors,
[54:28]and that there are policies that would shift a culture that would force every woman and child to grow up in a culture where we are forced to protect ourselves.
[54:38]Thank you.
[54:39]Thank you, Director Hatch. I appreciate your testimony.
[54:44]Now I would like to introduce Representative Jayapal, a huge leader on human rights, women's rights, was chair of the Progressive Caucus,
[54:52]and has also played just an instrumental role in getting the Epstein files released.
[54:57]Thank you so much, Representative Khanna, for your incredible leadership, along with Representative Massey,
[55:02]on moving the Epstein Transparency Act forward and on all the work that you've been doing to not let it go.
[55:09]We really appreciate it.
[55:11]And also I want to say thank you to all of the survivors and relatives in the room, Sky and Amanda.
[55:19]Thank you for bringing Virginia's powerful voice into every room that we're in.
[55:23]It matters so much.
[55:25]Danny and Charlene, I watch you guys on TV and it just makes me so filled with pride that I have to text you and let you know that I saw it and that it was amazing.
[55:36]Marika, thank you for all the work.
[55:39]Marika is a constituent of mine and was my guest at State of the Union and has been really powerful both in her own story, of course, of surviving the Epstein trauma,
[55:51]but also in helping me to find information in the files.
[55:55]She is like our data broker, data provider for all the things that are in the files.
[56:01]So I'm very, very grateful to all of you.
[56:05]You know, I think that it's difficult to really capture the effect that you all have had on the world.
[56:12]And when we hear about survivors coming forward in other cases, including with Cesar Chavez and others,
[56:19]what I hear from them is they saw you and they saw many of us fighting for you,
[56:25]all the advocates in the room that have been fighting on this issue for decades, not just at this moment, but for decades.
[56:31]And they felt like there was a possibility for them to also get justice, to demand accountability, that they weren't alone in that fight.
[56:40]And so I can't tell you how important your work has been.
[56:45]And our work collectively is together to continue to refuse to let this go.
[56:50]Probably the most powerful image that captures all of this was when we had Pam Bondi in the judiciary hearing,
[56:59]and she had a chance to turn around and apologize to you.
[57:04]And while you were standing there right behind her, she refused to do that and looked away.
[57:10]You all stood tall, and you all demanded that you were not going to be left behind or told to shut up or sit down.
[57:17]Following that, this isn't very public, but I got a call from then Attorney General Bondi and the assistant now acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
[57:29]And they asked me to come in and meet with them.
[57:31]I did with a whole list of demands.
[57:35]It was over an hour meeting.
[57:38]And what I can tell you is I was disgusted by the hypocrisy of how they were continuing to cover up.
[57:45]And I think I say that only to say that we still have an upheld battle ahead of us.
[57:52]We have a battle to make sure that this doesn't get put aside.
[57:56]And we need to look at all the legal options.
[57:58]Very proud to be introducing a bill with Representative Khanna and others around a private right of action.
[58:05]Very proud to be supporting Virginia's law.
[58:07]All of the things that are in front of us.
[58:09]At the end of the day, this is also going to be a public battle.
[58:13]This is going to be a battle not to win the hearts and minds of the American people because we've already won that.
[58:19]We have won that.
[58:21]And you can see it with the polling.
[58:22]You can see it with the people that come up to us.
[58:25]You can see it with the people who are not survivors but say please keep fighting on this.
[58:31]But to demand accountability is going to be an uphill battle with this acting attorney general,
[58:37]with this administration, and with all of the people who are complicit in this.
[58:42]And so I really just want to say again thank you to all of you for not giving it up.
[58:48]It is traumatic, I know, to relive it over and over again.
[58:51]And I've talked to you about how that is and what it means to tell your story and to be questioned and to be challenged.
[58:58]And for the advocates who are doing this work every day, day in and day out,
[59:03]and dealing with survivors on so many levels and so many levels up and down through the institutional system,
[59:09]but also across the breadth and depth of our society,
[59:12]it is really important that we continue to uplift your work to change the culture.
[59:18]This is a culture fight as much as anything.
[59:21]You read through those Epstein files.
[59:23]You see how people treated and talked about women, co-conspirators.
[59:27]I like to call them predators and pedophiles.
[59:30]You know, the people that enabled this to happen, we have to bring all of those people to justice.
[59:37]And so I stand ready to do that work with you and to continue to lift up all the different ways
[59:44]in which we in Congress have to do the work,
[59:46]but also we as public representatives, elected representatives of constituents across the country
[59:53]who have been watching this and who are with you, with us on this, that we do not let up.
[59:59]So thank you all so much for what you're doing.
[1:00:02]Thank you, Representative Khanna, for just continuing to refuse to back down
[1:00:07]and for making it bipartisan, because guess what?
[1:00:09]It is bipartisan.
[1:00:10]And it should be, anyway.
[1:00:12]It should be.
[1:00:13]So thank you again for having me, and I look forward to the rest of the roundtable.
[1:00:16]Thank you, Representative Chappell, for your words and your incredible leadership.
[1:00:20]Good.
[1:00:21]Executive Director Wafa, the Executive Director of Rights for Girls,
[1:00:25]which is an organization standing up for young women,
[1:00:28]not just in the United States, but worldwide.
[1:00:30]If you could share your thoughts.
[1:00:32]Thank you so much.
[1:00:33]I'm Yasmin Wafa.
[1:00:34]I'm the co-founder and executive director of Rights for Girls, based here in Washington, D.C.
[1:00:38]It's a real privilege to be with all of you.
[1:00:40]Rights for Girls is a national organization,
[1:00:43]and we work to defend the rights of young women and girls actually here in the United States.
[1:00:47]We're probably best known for our work to dismantle the abuse to prison pipeline.
[1:00:52]We work at the intersections of race, gender, violence, and criminalization.
[1:00:56]We are mostly concerned with the unjust criminalization of survivors of sexual violence,
[1:01:02]and particularly survivors of sexual exploitation, prostitution, and trafficking.
[1:01:08]And what we mostly talk about is the fact that so many survivors of sexual violence
[1:01:14]and sexual exploitation are unjustly criminalized for their exploitation and their victimization,
[1:01:19]while too often their exploiters, their abusers, enjoy impunity and anonymity,
[1:01:26]and particularly the subject of today's conversation that includes sex buyers
[1:01:30]or what many survivors we work with call commercial sex offenders.
[1:01:34]And so we have talked at length about this issue,
[1:01:37]and I'm so glad it's come up multiple times today,
[1:01:41]but we have shared this report with many of you here today.
[1:01:44]We published this report at the behest of many of the survivors that we have worked with
[1:01:49]who are survivors of not just child sex trafficking, sex trafficking,
[1:01:53]but also survivors of prostitution. It's called Buyers Unmasked.
[1:01:56]I'll share copies with the representatives here today.
[1:01:59]But this report looks at conversations that sex buyers are having online
[1:02:05]on what are known as hobby boards, or for those who are not familiar,
[1:02:08]this is like Yelp for prostitution, where sex buyers go online
[1:02:12]and they candidly talk about the individuals that they purchase for sex acts,
[1:02:16]much like you would rate a meal that you had at a restaurant.
[1:02:20]And they very candidly talk about them in terms of their racialized fetishes.
[1:02:24]They talk about young individuals.
[1:02:27]Again, no regard for the fact that these individuals are often coerced.
[1:02:33]And on the whole, we found that they are undisturbed
[1:02:36]and completely disregard the fact that there are very overt signs of coercion,
[1:02:42]violence, and desperation in the people that they're purchasing for sexual gratification.
[1:02:47]And so this report looks at all regions of the United States,
[1:02:51]including the West Coast, southern United States,
[1:02:53]and finds that misogyny and these misogynistic attitudes are largely interchangeable.
[1:02:58]Some of the quotes, again, completely unedited,
[1:03:01]talk about how one of the buyers goes online
[1:03:05]and is very excited because the ad said the person was 24,
[1:03:10]finds that the person is in fact barely 18.
[1:03:13]He's really excited that she has braces.
[1:03:16]And then towards the bottom of the ad, after going into disgusting detail
[1:03:20]about the physical characteristics of this individual,
[1:03:23]says, but she hasn't been doing this long enough to know to check the room for cameras.
[1:03:28]Several of them go into other types of very graphic details about native women,
[1:03:34]black quote unquote providers is what the dehumanizing language that they use.
[1:03:39]And again, largely echoes the Epstein files.
[1:03:42]And to Danny's point, this is not an anomaly.
[1:03:46]These are not unique.
[1:03:47]A lot of individuals who have reviewed the files say are shocked by what they're finding.
[1:03:52]But for those of us who work on these issues, unfortunately, it's not shocking.
[1:03:56]It's very consistent with what we're hearing from survivors.
[1:03:59]And frankly, the global sex trade exists because there is a steady lucrative demand
[1:04:04]that is provided by predominantly men all across the U.S. and globally.
[1:04:09]And that's what Jeffrey Epstein understood.
[1:04:12]And it's what traffickers operating massage parlors in every community understand.
[1:04:17]It's what online recruiters understand.
[1:04:20]And it's what organized criminal networks, moving women across borders, understand.
[1:04:24]The setting changes, but the logic does not.
[1:04:27]Another truth that we're not really willing to confront is that many of the child sex trafficking victims
[1:04:32]don't simply escape exploitation.
[1:04:35]They ultimately oftentimes become the adults in the commercial sex trade.
[1:04:40]The same people that were told chose it, or worse, are empowered by it.
[1:04:45]But the reality is that there are really startling statistics,
[1:04:51]like over 92% of women in the sex trade report being shot, raped, strangled, beaten, burned,
[1:04:56]stabbed, or punched, with most of that violence being committed by sex buyers.
[1:05:01]The mortality rate of women in prostitution is 200 times that of the general population.
[1:05:08]68% suffer PTSD as severe as levels suffered by combat veterans.
[1:05:13]And 61% suffer traumatic brain injuries from having their heads slammed against walls and car doors.
[1:05:20]So this is a very violent and degrading industry and one that we hear from survivors about constantly.
[1:05:26]And people are subject to long-term physical and psychological harms.
[1:05:31]And so in terms of the gaps, we have legislated many federal laws.
[1:05:36]But in terms of implementation gaps, we are still struggling with implementing demand reduction.
[1:05:42]That is the one single most difficulty we still have.
[1:05:46]We have laws on the books, but there's a culture of impunity.
[1:05:51]It's deeply entrenched, and it has to do with holding buyers accountable at the federal level,
[1:05:56]at the state level, at the local level, for all of the reasons that we know.
[1:06:01]And to Dahlia's point, to Danny's point, it's because of who these, again, predominantly men, tend to be.
[1:06:07]But we cannot be serious about the Epstein files,
[1:06:11]holding these individuals accountable without understanding this entrenched culture of impunity
[1:06:16]around male demand for paid sex and that all of these issues are intricately tied.
[1:06:23]Thank you.
[1:06:24]Thank you, Executive Director Waffen.
[1:06:26]We keep hearing the need for a demand reduction from many of our speakers.
[1:06:30]We have three more incredible speakers, and then we're going to give Marika the last word.
[1:06:35]I know we had originally wanted time for discussion.
[1:06:38]We could probably have discussion for hours.
[1:06:41]But originally when Sky, Amanda, and I thought of doing this,
[1:06:45]it was because King Charles had denied their request and the survivors' request for meeting.
[1:06:50]And the main thing was to make sure on the day that he's addressing Congress
[1:06:54]that the survivors are uplifted, that these incredible advocates are uplifted.
[1:06:58]And I'm so honored that we've had some of the most influential members of Congress
[1:07:02]working on this issue, not just Epstein, but for years, showing up.
[1:07:06]So we'll hear from our speakers, and then my hope is this is just a beginning of a conversation,
[1:07:11]and it will continue with many of the lawmakers, groups, and survivors here.
[1:07:15]With that, let me turn to Representative Iana Pressley, who everyone knows
[1:07:21]has just been such a bold voice for survivors her entire career,
[1:07:26]and has stood with Epstein Survivors.
[1:07:29]Thank you for being here.
[1:07:30]Well, thank you, Ro, for this essential and powerful convening.
[1:07:36]I was supposed to be in committee, so I actually had a scheduled conflict.
[1:07:40]But I left to be here.
[1:07:43]I don't have prepared remarks, so we'll see how this goes.
[1:07:46]I've been in Congress now for eight years, but prior to my election to Congress,
[1:07:52]I served on the Boston City Council for eight years,
[1:07:55]first black woman elected to that body.
[1:07:58]And I ran on a platform, though it's really my heart's work, to save women and girls
[1:08:05]and to champion gender-specific and responsive programming and policies in government.
[1:08:10]And there were naysayers who said to me that that was not the work of government,
[1:08:14]that I should go run a nonprofit.
[1:08:17]But each of you affirmed that it is, in fact, it is the work of government.
[1:08:22]It is the responsibility of government.
[1:08:25]I remember so many people saying to me, you're fighting for the girls,
[1:08:29]but it's the boys that are being killed in our streets.
[1:08:32]And I said, but it's the girls that are solely dying in front of you every day,
[1:08:36]that are not being given any dignity or any visibility.
[1:08:41]There are several testimonials or stories that fuel me in this work.
[1:08:50]The first is a domestic worker I met who every day went in to clean a home
[1:08:57]and removed all of her clothes because her employer said he needed that as proof
[1:09:01]that she was not stealing anything.
[1:09:04]And she went every day and cleaned that home and stripped.
[1:09:08]The other is of the mother of a 16-year-old.
[1:09:14]Her daughter committed suicide because of bullying as the result of deep fake pornography.
[1:09:24]And the third is Virginia.
[1:09:32]She is always in my consciousness.
[1:09:37]And I'm so upset because I lost my butterfly.
[1:09:46]You know, I read her book, and before reading it,
[1:09:50]I just stared at the title over and over again, Nobody's Girl.
[1:09:55]And Sky and Amanda, I just thank you for all that you were doing
[1:10:01]in carrying her legacy forward and championing the need for cultural reform,
[1:10:08]culture shifts, and legislative change.
[1:10:11]And Sky, I know she was your protector.
[1:10:18]And you are being hers.
[1:10:20]But you are also being a brother to this entire sister-survivor circle.
[1:10:26]And it is a painful thing to go through life feeling that you belong to no one.
[1:10:32]But we claim Virginia.
[1:10:37]She belongs to all of us now.
[1:10:40]And each of you belong to us as well.
[1:10:43]And I'm guided every day by the words of Angela White Davis
[1:10:47]that I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change.
[1:10:50]Instead, I'm changing the things I can no longer accept.
[1:10:54]I can no longer accept that femicide is something normalized,
[1:10:59]economic dependence, coercive control, sexual assault, domestic violence,
[1:11:05]sexual abuse, sex trafficking.
[1:11:09]I can no longer accept that we don't have an equal rights amendment
[1:11:13]in our Constitution, that we have been relegated to a second class
[1:11:21]or invisible status overwhelmingly as women and certainly as survivors.
[1:11:28]Nothing changes if nothing changes.
[1:11:33]So I just thank all of you.
[1:11:35]I do think that change is on the way.
[1:11:38]I look forward to a day where we can all not just wear butterflies
[1:11:42]but embody that spirit of feeling totally and completely free,
[1:11:48]free from the shame, free from the burden of it all.
[1:11:53]Because what has happened to our survivors around the table was a violation of dignity.
[1:11:59]It was a violation of bodies.
[1:12:01]It was a violation of dreams.
[1:12:04]You see before you've grown women, so you might forget,
[1:12:07]that they were mere children and I can think of nothing more vile
[1:12:11]than to groom, to prey upon, to exploit, to rape, to traffic a child.
[1:12:18]So I'm just grateful for each and every one of you as we hold accountable
[1:12:26]the vermin who have committed these vile acts and left survivors
[1:12:31]with a lifetime sentence to navigate.
[1:12:35]Whether they are pastors, presidents, or princes, a reckoning is on the way.
[1:12:41]Thank you.
[1:12:42]Thank you, Representative Pressley, for those very powerful words.
[1:12:46]Now we'll hear from President Lundstrom.
[1:12:50]President Lundstrom is the CEO of the Polaris Project,
[1:12:54]which really works on human trafficking in North America.
[1:12:57]Thank you for being here.
[1:12:59]Thank you, Representative, for having me here today and for convening this.
[1:13:03]It is an honor to be alongside you all.
[1:13:06]Polaris works at the systems level to strengthen the United States,
[1:13:10]how the United States responds to and prevents human trafficking.
[1:13:14]Starting with listening to survivors at the local level,
[1:13:17]we build and steward one of the most comprehensive data sets
[1:13:21]on trafficking in the United States,
[1:13:24]and we use that to inform how systems and stakeholders
[1:13:27]can more effectively operate together.
[1:13:30]And while I currently hold the professional title of CEO,
[1:13:33]I first came into this work over a decade ago
[1:13:36]as a survivor of trafficking myself.
[1:13:39]Like many survivors, I navigated systems where parts of my situation
[1:13:43]were visible to various stakeholders,
[1:13:46]but no one could see the complete reality that I was living through.
[1:13:50]And that experience of not being fully seen
[1:13:53]is something that we're hearing today from the survivors in the room,
[1:13:57]and it's also something that we see consistently across the country.
[1:14:02]So I'll add some numbers to that.
[1:14:05]In 2024 alone, Polaris sent 176 tips to law enforcement in Mississippi alone.
[1:14:14]And yet, over the last 22 years,
[1:14:18]Mississippi has only had 12 federally prosecuted human trafficking cases.
[1:14:27]The most significant challenge in anti-trafficking efforts
[1:14:30]that Polaris is working to address currently
[1:14:33]is to build infrastructure that strengthens both visibility and accountability.
[1:14:39]Legislation like the National Human Trafficking Database Act
[1:14:43]has the potential to support pattern identification,
[1:14:47]system coordination, and responses that are grounded
[1:14:50]in a complete and accurate picture.
[1:14:53]Ultimately, the goal is not to just respond to human trafficking,
[1:14:57]but to transform systems where harm is harder to ignore
[1:15:01]and people are seen and can have full agency over our lives.
[1:15:05]Thank you.
[1:15:06]Thank you so much, President Lindstrom,
[1:15:08]for those statistics and your testimony.
[1:15:12]We will now hear from the founder of Model Alliance, Sarah Zip,
[1:15:18]which promotes safety and equality in the modeling industry
[1:15:23]Founder Zip, if you would.
[1:15:25]Thank you, Congressman Khanna.
[1:15:27]Hello, everyone. I'm Sarah Zip.
[1:15:29]I'm the founder and executive director of the Model Alliance,
[1:15:32]a nonprofit advocating for the fair treatment of fashion workers.
[1:15:36]I'm here on behalf of 40 survivors, including Charlene and Marika,
[1:15:41]who signed a letter the Model Alliance recently sent to Congressman Khanna
[1:15:45]calling for an investigation into the ties
[1:15:48]between the modeling industry and Jeffrey Epstein.
[1:15:51]As a teenage model, I ended up sitting next to Jeffrey Epstein
[1:15:55]at his pool in Florida.
[1:15:58]The trip that brought me to Florida was a shoot orchestrated
[1:16:03]by my modeling agency, Next.
[1:16:06]Knowing what I do now, I doubt that was a coincidence.
[1:16:09]I wasn't abused by Epstein, but I couldn't escape the system
[1:16:14]built to send models, sometimes girls as young as 14 years old,
[1:16:18]directly to predators like Epstein, Harvey Weinstein,
[1:16:23]and his associate Fabrizio Lombardo, who when I was 19 raped me
[1:16:28]after a meeting that my agent arranged.
[1:16:32]The reason predators are routinely linked to underage models
[1:16:37]is because their modeling agencies served as that link.
[1:16:42]Epstein had deep ties to Next's co-founder Faith Cates.
[1:16:47]This is the woman who was in charge of my working life from the age of 14.
[1:16:51]He offered her multimillion-dollar loans
[1:16:55]to buy an apartment and a stake in Next.
[1:16:58]In return, she offered him, quote,
[1:17:01]unconditional friendship and access to young models.
[1:17:05]Parisian agent Jean-Luc Brunel trafficked over 1,000 young women
[1:17:10]and girls to Epstein, who gave Brunel a million dollars
[1:17:14]for his MC2 modeling agency.
[1:17:18]Epstein also appears to have paid for models' visas at One Model Management.
[1:17:24]Modeling is seen as a glamorous industry.
[1:17:27]In reality, young models are uniquely vulnerable to agencies
[1:17:31]that are often their visa sponsor, landlord,
[1:17:35]power of attorney, and gatekeeper to opportunity.
[1:17:39]That power imbalance leaves models blind to the extortion and trafficking,
[1:17:44]sending them directly into the arms of known rapists.
[1:17:48]This is systemic.
[1:17:51]If we are looking for a concrete way to address trafficking and sexual assault,
[1:17:57]there's no better place to start than the $2.5 trillion global industry
[1:18:02]that acted as a referral pipeline for predators.
[1:18:06]Regulations like those in the Fashion Workers Act,
[1:18:09]which the Model Alliance championed in New York, are a critical advancement.
[1:18:14]But to honor survivors and protect the next generation,
[1:18:18]we must also uncover the true extent of these recruitment schemes
[1:18:23]and the ties between the industry, Epstein,
[1:18:26]and the powerful people he was connected to.
[1:18:29]To do that, we need the immediate and thorough investigation
[1:18:34]by the Oversight Committee that Survivors and Congressman Kana have called for.
[1:18:39]Thank you.
[1:18:41]Thank you, Executive Director Zeph and for all your work
[1:18:44]in exposing the abuse in the industry and calling for reform.
[1:18:49]We're going to have our final speaker,
[1:18:51]and then I'll have Skye and Amanda close it out for us.
[1:18:54]Our final speaker is Ms. Marika Chattouni, a survivor herself.
[1:19:00]Ms. Chattouni, if you could share a few of your comments.
[1:19:03]I'd like to acknowledge the victims that could not be here.
[1:19:11]My friend Maria and Annie Farmer could not be here today.
[1:19:15]Maria Farmer first reported this case in 1996, as many of you guys know.
[1:19:20]When institutions like the FBI and the DOJ
[1:19:24]fail to address the claims of Maria Farmer and others that came forward after her,
[1:19:29]it feels like they, too, are part of the exploitation.
[1:19:32]By not investigating, they not only tolerated,
[1:19:37]they enabled both the CSA and the abuse of thousands of girls and women.
[1:19:42]Their inaction sends a message that sexual abuse victims are not valued.
[1:19:47]The files that were released is a chilling reminder of this institutional failure.
[1:19:55]Thank you.
[1:19:57]Thank you very much for being here.
[1:19:59]Amanda, why don't you close us out?
[1:20:02]I'm going to have Skye kind of close us out on some words of Virginia.
[1:20:09]But I do want to take the moment to thank every single person who has showed up in this room today
[1:20:17]and shows up every single day with the work that they do for survivors, seen and unseen.
[1:20:24]I also want to take this moment to speak to every single survivor who has
[1:20:30]endured the unimaginable, but I also want to tell you that you don't have to be loud,
[1:20:37]that your healing in silence is victory, and that as long as we have breath,
[1:20:45]our commitment to you and to this work and to Virginia, her survivor sisters, it will not stop.
[1:20:52]We are not going away. We will not be silent.
[1:20:55]We're working to change the culture and fix the system that has been broken for far too long.
[1:21:03]I echo everything that Amanda just said, but emotional day to day.
[1:21:13]It's a privilege. It's an honor to be in the room with all of you.
[1:21:17]I know we've got a lot of work left to do here, so it's certainly not the last time.
[1:21:21]But there's no more fitting way to end this than just the words of Virginia herself.
[1:21:26]So I'm going to read page 366, Nobody's Girl.
[1:21:31]If you've read this far, I hope my story has moved you.
[1:21:37]To seek ways to free yourself from a bad situation, say, to stand up for someone else in need,
[1:21:42]or to simply reframe how you judge victims of sexual abuse.
[1:21:46]Each one of us can make positive change. I truly believe that.
[1:21:50]I hope for a world in which predators are punished, not protected.
[1:21:55]Victims are treated with compassion, not shamed.
[1:21:58]And powerful people face the same consequences as anyone else.
[1:22:03]I yearn, too, for a world in which perpetrators face more shame than their victims do.
[1:22:08]And where anyone who's been trafficked can confront their abusers when they are ready,
[1:22:13]no matter how much time has passed.
[1:22:18]We don't live in this world yet.
[1:22:20]I mean, seriously, where are those videotapes the FBI confiscated from Epstein's houses?
[1:22:26]And why haven't they led to the prosecution of any more abusers?
[1:22:30]But I believe we could, someday, imagining it is the first step in my mind,
[1:22:36]hold a picture of a girl reaching out for help and easily finding it.
[1:22:42]I picture a woman, too, who, having come to terms with her childhood pain,
[1:22:47]feels that it's within her power to take action against those who's hurt her.
[1:22:52]If this book moves us even an inch closer to the reality like that,
[1:22:57]if it helps just one person, I will have achieved my goal.
[1:23:07]Thank you. Thank you.
[1:23:10]Do you want me to pass or no? Or are you sure?
[1:24:17]More than I've heard of.
[1:24:19]I'm prepared to be honest.
[1:24:21]You couldn't tell?
[1:24:23]I don't know.
[1:24:25]I was very honest.
[1:24:27]My mouth was just moving around like it didn't matter.
[1:24:29]I was mad at myself.
[1:24:35]I walk in, I'm so glad I prepared.
[1:24:38]Something made me to say it.
[1:24:40]I was like, maybe we're going to have a discussion here.
[1:24:43]Thank you.
[1:25:04]Thank you for what you said. It was very powerful.
[1:25:06]Thank you.
[1:25:08]I appreciate it.
[1:25:11]We work together.
[1:25:13]Yes, and we've got similar background.
[1:25:15]I guess you're from Kerala.
[1:25:17]Sorry?
[1:25:18]From Kolkata.
[1:25:20]Can you work with the organization I led for a while, Men For Choice?
[1:25:24]Yes.
[1:25:25]Wonderful. Well, let's get together.
[1:25:27]I would love that. Can we take a picture together?
[1:25:29]Yeah, we'd love to.
[1:25:31]Thank you for everything.
[1:25:33]Yes, please. That would be so nice.
[1:25:35]Thank you for your work.
[1:25:37]Thank you for everything you have done.
[1:26:03]Were you aware this was what it was going to be?
[1:26:07]I don't think so.