A traveling bookmobile displaying copies of the Jeffrey Epstein files stopped in Chicago’s Andersonville neighborhood Wednesday as part of a national campaign to educate the public on the 3.5 million declassified federal documents.
The so-called Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile, a box truck-converted library, was first unveiled earlier this summer by the nonprofit organization the Institute for Primary Facts. The tour stop comes as President Donald Trump is expected to attend the Presidents Cup golf tournament in Medinah this weekend.
Five at a time, Chicago visitors boarded the library parked on North Clark Street Wednesday afternoon and thumbed through the white-and-red-bound novels on the shelf, which contained physical copies of the released Epstein files, the millions of declassified records and documents related to the crimes of the convicted sex offender that were released in 2025.
Elizabeth Gabbard, 64, of Bowmanville, was standing on the sidewalk outside the truck, reading through a detailed timeline of Trump and Epstein’s time spent together through the years at Mar-a-Lago and beyond, which adorned the exterior of the cream-colored vehicle. After also looking inside, she said the exhibit was shocking.
“You hear so much, but when you see (it all) so black and white as these books, it’s hard to believe we’re still where we’re at,” Gabbard said.
The Epstein saga — and the Trump administration’s disjointed approach to it — has shadowed Trump’s second term. He’s enacted a vast legislative agenda, reached trade deals with key countries and tightened his grip across the federal government. Yet he’s struggled to stamp out lingering questions regarding his involvement with Epstein.
Beyond the thick volumes of documents, the interior walls held colorful, yet violent-looking, artwork from Maria Farmer, one of the earliest known Epstein accusers, as well as homemade notes of support for the women who followed in her footsteps.
Chicago is one of 14 cities scheduled to host the bookmobile tour, which launched in Dallas on Sept. 10, according to the nonprofit behind the mobile installation. The tour visits a number of blue states in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
The goal of the truck is not only to educate the public on the extent and content of the files, but to bring them to life, according to Sharlene Rochard, who identifies as a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s grooming and abuse.
“It’s a way to bring the Epstein files to the people in a way that humanizes the experience. As a survivor, it’s my life in these books,” Rochard said. “I want to humanize this.”
Rochard, who now lives in Canada, said she met Epstein in New York City in the early days of her modeling career. She began modeling at the age of 13, then started traveling for work when she was just 16 years old, and met Epstein when she was 17, she said.
“He was an older man, and he was saying, ‘ Oh, I can get you a job,’ and I’m a young girl traveling,” Rochard said.
Rochard declined to talk about the length or details of her relationship with Epstein, but she told the Tribune that she traveled to New York City, Miami and Epstein’s private Caribbean island.
“What people don’t understand is the grooming and the manipulation and the coercive control that it took to get me there, to go back and to keep going back,” she said. “The reason why I am here as well is because it’s so important for people to understand what the red flags are.”
The bookmobile shares Rochard’s experiences and those of more than 1,000 other women like her, organizers say. She hopes it will prompt legislative action to uncover the rest of the Epstein files and reform sexual assault laws across the country.
