'We Will Not Shield Powerful Abusers': Ayanna Pressley Calls For Epstein Accomplices To Be Taken To Account

Forbes Breaking News

During a press conference on Tuesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) called for Jeffrey Epstein's accomplices to be "taken to account" following a closed-door House Oversight Committee where some of Epstein's victims testified.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, ranking member Garcia. What we heard here today was harrowing and it

00:11is proof of what has been an institutional systemic betrayal for

00:16decades. These women now who were preyed upon, groomed, exploited, violated from

00:28as young as 13 years old, their bodies violated, their minds manipulated, and

00:36their dreams denied. Aspiring artists, lawyers, actors, people who had big dreams

00:47and those dreams have been dashed and denied because of the shame they carry,

00:54because of the trauma they carry. It is a lifetime sentence. Jeffrey Epstein is

00:58dead, but his hurt and his harm is alive and well in the daily experiences of

01:07these survivors. Maxwell is incarcerated, but it is these survivors, these victims,

01:13who are still very much in jail. And they are deserving of transparency, of

01:19accountability, and of healing.

01:24We are where we are today because of the leadership of ranking member Garcia and our

01:32ranking member on the subcommittee for law enforcement, Summer Lee, enforcing that vote

01:38for a subpoena. Because in order for us to hold powerful abusers to account who

01:45participated actively in a predator, pedophile, Ponzi scheme, meant to feed on the daily perversions

01:57of a rich and powerful man and his enablers and those who were his co-conspirators, we want

02:03to center the victims and the survivors, not shield the powerful, the wealthy, and the well-connected.

02:12So we forced to vote for a subpoena in a hearing that was on child trafficking, to point out

02:18the hypocrisy. Then, I led calls for a hearing in the Committee on Oversight, centering the

02:28victims. And my colleagues joined with me in that. We do believe that that did lead to pressure

02:37that resulted in today's roundtable, where many of the victims said it was the first time

02:43that they had felt heard. On the heels of the many years of abuse that they experienced,

02:51to be re-victimized and traumatized by a government, they had abusers that told them they were trash.

02:57And because they've never gotten justice and been heard, it has contributed to the ways

03:03in which they have felt demoralized and invisible. The role of this Committee is to be an efficient

03:09and effective pursuit of the truth. And we will be until these survivors get the justice

03:13that they deserve. Again, we will not shield powerful abusers. They must be taken into account.

03:21And that cannot happen if we are not centering and prioritizing the voices of survivors.

03:28And now, I'll turn it over to my colleague and dear friend, Congresswoman Simon from California,

03:35who has worked for many years with survivors of trafficking.

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