Oversight panel Democrats hold event at ‘the scene of the crime’ in Florida and ask Trump to not pardon Maxwell
Democrats tore into government’s handling of theJeffrey Epsteinabuse scandal on Tuesday – revealing new details of the scale of his international sex trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon to the late sex offender’s sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.
Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gave tearful testimony at a congressional field hearing inFloridaof their experiences as teenagers in s orbit. Some spoke of being retraumatized after they were “outed” by the justice department’s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.
Democratic members of the US House oversight committee said they held Tuesday’s event in Palm Beach, where the president lives, and where Epstein had a residence, because it was “the scene of the crime”.
“We’re here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location,” California Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, told a press conference after the hearing.
“We know that the crimes ofJeffrey Epsteinand Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted.”
Garcia began the hearing by unveiling a new report called “The Price of Non-Prosecution” that he said revealed how Epstein was able to build a substantial and lucrative international sex trafficking ring following his infamous “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors in 2008.
After dodging serious charges and serving only 13 months in prison for a solicitation of prostitution conviction, he said, Epstein and his associates gamed the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.
“[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta’s sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse,” Garcia said.
“This report is just the beginning of numerous reports and information that we intend to put out over the course of the months ahead.”
One survivor, Dani Bensky, testified how she was groomed and recruited into Epstein’s circle – and how victims were encouraged to recruit friends of their own.
“I had two recruiters,” she said. “One was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old, just trying to escape her own abuse.”
Multiple others were recruited from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, allegedly during the many years of friendship between the now-president and Epstein.
They included Virginia Giuffre, who worked as a spa attendant at the age of 16 in 2000, when she said she was recruited by Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and “fixer”. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Giuffre was one of the most prominent voices in exposing Epstein, and appeared in aninfamous March 2001 photographwith Maxwell and the discredited British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose arm is around the then 17-year-old’s waist.
