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00:00We'll bring you now live at that press conference where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is speaking.
00:05They believe, as I do, that what happened to Virginia and to all the victims here today and throughout the world must finally lead to change.
00:16And all you have to do is look at the faces of these beautiful women and just have total, total empathy for what they've gone through,
00:26admiration for their courage and anger about what happened to them.
00:35So, thank you.
00:37Today, we're here to do something simple and long overdue.
00:43Today, I'm introducing Virginia's law, legislation to end statute of limitation barriers that have kept survivors of sexual violence from justice far too long.
00:55And to create new legal avenues to pursue justice.
01:01Because justice should not expire.
01:05Justice should not expire.
01:09And because for survivors, healing does not run on a government clock, does it?
01:16I'm also so proud to be joined by Congresswoman Teresa Ledger-Fernandez.
01:27Not just chairwoman of the Democratic Women's Caucus, but she's always been a fierce advocate for survivors and a partner in this fight.
01:38She's a champion and a fighter, and that's what a bill like this requires.
01:48A fighter who will relentlessly push for the cause of justice.
01:55Justice.
01:56That's what we demand.
01:57Justice.
01:57And here is World Without Expectation and Sigrid McCauley, whose work, along with the survivors, helped shape this legislation.
02:11We thank her.
02:13The bill exists.
02:14Why?
02:15Why does the bill exist?
02:16Because people refuse to accept silence as the end of the story.
02:22It's that simple.
02:24It cannot be when something this dastardly and this terrible and this heart-wrenching happens.
02:31For years, survivors of Epstein's abuse were ignored.
02:37They were doubted.
02:39They were silenced.
02:39They were dismissed.
02:40And even when the truth finally came out, even when the world finally listened, too many survivors were still told by the law,
02:50it's too late, your justice has expired.
02:55Not because the harm wasn't real, not because the abuse didn't happen, but because the system ran out the clock.
03:03When they were told, it's too late, your justice has expired, we aimed to change that.
03:11And that's what we're trying to do today.
03:16When you say the system ran out the clock, tough rocks, too bad, too late, that's not justice.
03:24That's a system that protects abusers by waiting survivors out.
03:29Our law, Virginia's law, changes that.
03:31It allows survivors to seek accountability when they're ready, when they're strong enough, supported enough, able to face the weight of civil litigation.
03:44Sometimes it takes years to recuperate from the horror that occurred.
03:50Why should the government say, well, we're setting an arbitrary time when you are able to pursue your case?
04:01It makes clear, our law makes clear that abusers, and those that enable them, cannot escape responsibility by running out the clock.
04:13It makes clear that the law will empower survivors to pursue justice, and it recognizes something survivors have always known.
04:21Time does not erase harm.
04:26Time does not erase harm.
04:30Jeffrey Epstein depended on silence and fear, on a system that protected power instead of protecting people.
04:37Today we are saying no more.
04:39This bill carries Virginia Giuffre's name because she spoke when so many were told not to.
04:51And because her story, and the story of the survivors standing here today, and we salute you again, all of you, for your courage.
05:00Look at these nice faces, and it shouldn't have happened to you.
05:05It shouldn't have happened to you.
05:11So, no survivor should ever be told again that the law failed them, and that time mattered more than truth.
05:19The survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have waited long enough.
05:24Virginia waited long enough.
05:25The time for justice is now, and Congress must act.
05:31So now let me call on our great leader in the House, Representative Teresa Leger-Fernandez.
05:39Where'd you go?
05:45Thank you so much, Leader Schumer, for your amazing work on this issue, which is not new.
05:51You have championed these issues for many, many, many years.
05:55In the House, and in the Senate.
05:57But I want to also acknowledge the survivors.
06:00We have shed tears together.
06:03Because what happened was horrible.
06:10The cover-up and the abuse that continued by refusing to acknowledge the pain and the crimes and everything that happened was also an injustice.
06:24And that's what we are here to do today, to say that justice delayed is indeed justice denied.
06:32And one of the lines that the survivor shared with me early in the many meetings we've had, and it's chilling, it's a chilling warning that Jeffrey told them.
06:43He gave them this warning.
06:44He told the women and young girls, I have the government, I have the banks.
06:51In other words, you are powerless.
06:55Imagine hearing that from the man who abused you.
06:59Imagine being a young girl, a young woman, already traumatized and being told that the system, the government, the institutions, the courts, the powerful are on his side.
07:10That he and those to whom you were trafficked are untouchable.
07:15That the world is made up of the powerful who are above the law, above reproach.
07:21And you, you are disposable as a mere object of sexual use and abuse.
07:30And for too long, those sexual predators have been protected by their wealth and power.
07:35And now, with the help of Donald Trump and Pam Bondi, the pedophiles and sexual predators are being protected by our government.
07:45But today, today we're one step closer to proving Epstein wrong.
07:52But this bill is bigger than Epstein.
07:59It's bigger than the abuse that the victims endured.
08:06It takes years for victims of abuse to feel safe enough to come forward.
08:12And time should never be a weapon in the abuser's arsenal.
08:17Virginia's law eliminates the statute of limitations for key federal civil claims brought by survivors of trafficking and sexual exploitation.
08:27It includes a look-back window.
08:29So survivors who were previously barred, who were told, no, you do not have access to the courtroom.
08:35So they have time to now go back and seek justice.
08:39And it clarifies that traffickers cannot escape accountability by committing abuses in another jurisdiction.
08:47You don't get to escape prosecution by simply putting predators and victims on a plane to a private island or a mansion in Florida or a ranch in New Mexico.
09:01Because justice should not depend on a calendar.
09:05Justice should not depend on geography.
09:08And it should never depend on how powerful your abuser is.
09:13To Virginia Joffrey's family, thank you.
09:20Thank you for letting us use her name in this law.
09:26It's her courage that we are honoring today with Virginia's law.
09:31Her courage unlocked the first set of gates that were protecting the rich and powerful.
09:38This bill will unlock the doors to the courthouse for the survivors.
09:42And to every Epstein co-conspirator and sexual predator, we're coming for you.
09:48And to Donald Trump and Pam Bondi, how dare you, how dare you use the Department of Justice, a government agency which by its name is intended to bring justice, to use it, to prevent justice, to protect yourself and that predatory circle of abusers.
10:09And so I join with the senator and with the leader, yes, let's pass this bill, let's prove Epstein wrong.
10:17And now I want to recognize, as I was talking to Sky and Amanda Roberts, we talked about how they couldn't have imagined that this day would come.
10:30And we talked about how, yes, it's been a long journey.
10:36But before Virginia, there was one of those big arroyos or chasms that you see in New Mexico, right?
10:43There was no way to cross it.
10:45But what Virginia did was build the bridge.
10:48And now we are crossing that bridge because of the bravery and the words and the wisdom.
10:56And I'm sorry for the loss of Virginia.
11:00But she has left something so powerful for all victims.
11:05And so I'd now like to recognize Sky and Amanda Roberts.
11:18That was a tearjerker.
11:27I am the crier in my family.
11:29I'm just going to throw that out there.
11:30So, all right.
11:32Hello, everyone.
11:35My name is Sky Roberts, and I am the brother of Virginia Roberts Jufre.
11:39I am deeply honored to stand here today alongside some of the most extraordinary people you will ever meet.
11:46including World Without Exploitation, Congressman Chuck Schumer, Congresswoman Teresa Ledger Fernandez,
11:57survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, and the legendary Sigrid McCauley, known to many of us.
12:13I want to begin with a single word, a word that meant everything to my sister, a word we will not stop fighting for until real justice is served.
12:34And that word is change.
12:38Virginia's dream was to inspire and empower survivors to come forward.
12:43In a world that too often turns away from abuse and pushes it into the shadows, she wanted to bring light.
12:51That light is change.
12:55Virginia's dream was to inspire and empower survivors to come forward.
12:58One of the main missions of her nonprofit, SOAR, was to eliminate the statute of limitations on adult sex trafficking.
13:09She talked about it all the time while elevating the voices of survivors, alongside her publicist and dear friend, Dean Yvonne Muffling.
13:17Today, we give Virginia her voice back.
13:22We amplify the voices of survivors around the world.
13:26Today, we send a clear message to perpetrators everywhere by introducing Virginia's law.
13:32We are introducing Virginia's law because survivors deserve justice, not expiration dates.
13:38Change must mean justice, not someday, not in speeches, not in private settlements, justice in law, justice in court, and justice in the form of consequence.
13:56Virginia's law is more than legislation.
13:59It is a change in the truest form.
14:01It challenges how we see, how we confront, and how we respond to sexual abuse and sex trafficking, not just in theory, but in reality.
14:14We do not take this moment lightly.
14:17We are holding an overwhelming mix of grief, loss, and pride.
14:22And if our voices shake and our tears fall, it is only because of the depth of our love for our sister.
14:29Grief without action is another kind of silence.
14:35And Virginia did not survive what she survived just to be silenced again.
14:40And with that, I'd like to turn that over to my wife, Amanda.
14:51Virginia was a passionate voice, a fierce warrior, and an unraving advocate for survivors everywhere.
14:59She named what others were afraid to name.
15:03She stood up to wealth, status, and power.
15:06And she proved that having money does not guarantee exoneration in the eyes of the court.
15:13Virginia's purpose was always to create lasting change.
15:17Her truth and resilience helped spark a monumental shift in how survivors are seen and heard.
15:24But she also knew cultural change is not enough.
15:27She saw the legal gaps survivors fall through, and she was determined to close them at the legislative level.
15:36Her wish was clear, to reform the statute of limitations.
15:42When a child, teenager, or adult experiences sexual abuse, it is a profound violation of both body, mind, and spirit.
15:52The mind often protects itself in the only ways it can, through denial, disassociation, and silence.
16:03It can take years, even decades, before the walls of trauma begin to crack.
16:08And a victim can truly understand what happened.
16:13It takes time to release the shame that never belonged to them in the first place.
16:26Statistically, many survivors do not disclose until around the age of 40.
16:31Virginia understood this, not as a theory, but as a lived experience.
16:38Virginia's law does more than honor her legacy.
16:41It protects the future of every survivor.
16:44It says, legislatively and legally, we see you, we believe you, and what happened to you matters.
16:53It says, you deserve the right to seek justice, no matter the status, wealth, or power of the person who harmed you.
17:06And no matter when the abuse occurred.
17:11To every member of Congress, mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers,
17:16we ask you to stand with us, stand with survivors, and say, no more.
17:21No more silence, no more systems that protect the powerful and deny justice to everyone else.
17:30No more laws that treat survivors as though time can erase harm.
17:35Pass Virginia's law.
17:36Let this be the moment this country chooses accountability over denial,
17:43courage over comfort, and justice over obstacles.
17:46Page 361, nobody's girl.
17:54We need to make it easier to punish those who victimize others.
18:00Siggy and I want to eliminate laws that limit the period in which survivors can seek justice for their abusers.
18:09Virginia put that into writing, and we're here to put that into law.
18:13And with that, Siggy, that's what we're here to do today.
18:28You guys, you're depraved.
18:31Beautiful.
18:32Such courage.
18:34Now everybody knows my nickname.
18:37Sorry, Virginia.
18:38This is really a watershed moment for survivor rights, the announcement of Virginia's law.
18:46And as you heard today, the genesis of that law is to get rid of the statute of limitations
18:52so that survivors can work on their own timeline.
18:56With the passage of this law, no longer can abusers weaponize the clock.
19:03Survivors can act when they're ready to act.
19:09As you heard, and as Virginia and I both experienced together,
19:14many survivors don't come to terms with their abuse until many, many years later.
19:20And they deserve the right to be able to bring an action when they're ready.
19:26That's what this law does.
19:28It is heartbreaking to be here announcing this without her.
19:36But I will tell you that her voice is being heard loud and clear.
19:41She is saying all Americans, Democrats, Republicans, independents, all Americans need to come together
19:53and pass this law.
19:55It's the right thing to do.
19:58It's the thing we need to do now.
20:01So please pass Virginia's law.
20:04Now I'm going to let Rebecca Zipkin come up from World We.
20:08Without this group, we wouldn't be here.
20:11So we're all very grateful for that.
20:18Hello, everyone.
20:19My name is Rebecca Zipkin, and I'm the policy director at World Without Exploitation.
20:24And we are the largest national anti-human trafficking and sexual exploitation coalition in the country.
20:29And we have had the true privilege of working closely with the survivors who are here today
20:35and Skye and Amanda to push forward advocacy to release the Epstein files.
20:43And today we are privileged to be here to speak in support of Virginia's law.
20:47Thank you so much to Leader Schumer and Congresswoman Leisure Fernandez for their championing of this legislation.
20:55Today we're here to support Virginia's law, named Virginia Roberts-Jouffre,
21:01whose courage helped expose one of the most far-reaching sex trafficking networks in modern history.
21:08Virginia's story is not just about one man.
21:11It's about a system of wealth, power, and protection that allowed abuse to continue for years
21:16while survivors were silenced, disbelieved, or illegally shut down.
21:22Virginia spoke the truth, and she paid the price for it.
21:27She did so knowing that accountability might never come,
21:31not because the abuse didn't happen, but because the law said it was too late.
21:37That is why eliminating the statute of limitations for civil claims by adult survivors of sex trafficking is so critical.
21:44Trafficking is not a single moment of harm.
21:46It is a prolonged, coercive, and deeply traumatizing experience.
21:50Survivors often cannot name what happened to them as abuse until years later.
21:56They may be threatened, manipulated, financially dependent, or psychologically trapped.
22:01Many are children when the abuse begins.
22:03Others are groomed into believing they consented when, in reality, consent was impossible.
22:10The statute of limitations does not account for this reality.
22:14Instead, it functions as a legal shield for abusers and the institutions that enabled them.
22:19It cuts off accountability before survivors ever had the meaningful chance to come forward.
22:26Virginia's law recognizes a simple truth.
22:29Healing does not follow a legal deadline.
22:33Eliminating the statute of limitations does not guarantee survivors will sue.
22:36It simply gives them the choice, it restores agency, and it sends a clear message that time does not erase responsibility.
22:45Jeffrey Epstein did not operate alone.
22:49He relied on enablers, the men who were the buyers, the exploiters, and the abusers.
22:54Many of those individuals and institutions have never been held accountable,
22:58not because the facts are unknown, but because the courthouse doors have been closed.
23:03First, when civil claims are barred by time, accountability disappears.
23:09Virginia's law changes that.
23:11It tells survivors you are not too late, you were harmed,
23:14and the law will no longer be used to protect those who harmed you.
23:18And it tells the public that justice does not disappear simply because an arbitrary amount of time has passed.
23:24Justice is not about convenience.
23:26It's about courage.
23:28Passing Virginia's law is not about reopening the past.
23:31It's about finally confronting it.
23:32And we owe survivors, all of the survivors here today, and the thousands around the world, nothing less.
23:43Let me say to Sky and Amanda, if you could come up here.
23:48So the Bible tells us when something terrible happens to people,
23:53the natural inclination is to curse the darkness, to turn inward, be angry.
24:03But the Bible also tells us it's like angelic to light a candle,
24:09to create light, to prevent what happened to your loved one from it happening to anyone else.
24:19You are lighting a candle.
24:20So we thank you.
24:26Okay.
24:27We'll take questions on this subject.
24:30Yes.
24:30Thank you very much.
24:32Mark Stone from Sky News in the United Kingdom.
24:36Thank you for inviting me to.
24:38That was a great part of it for you tonight.
24:40I have a question for you, Mr. Roberts, if that's right, and also for you, Senator Schumacher.
24:47Mr. Roberts, the photograph of the then Prince Andrew, which is armed around your sister,
24:55has become, certainly in the UK, a defining part of this scandal.
25:01Clearly, he is one person who hasn't answered questions here.
25:04What is your message to Andrew, my batting window today, please?
25:10I think he should show up in front of our Congress and answer questions.
25:15I think that he has a lot of questions he needs to answer,
25:18and he has been exploited through these files to have inconsistencies in his own messaging.
25:25So I want today to be about Virginia's law, to not allowing this to happen again.
25:30But to Prince Andrew, former Prince Andrew, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, to be specific,
25:36he needs to show up.
25:37He needs to show up, and he needs to answer questions in front of our Congress.
25:40He needs to show up, and he needs to answer questions in front of our Congress.
26:10I think that we are starting to see a form of social justice here,
26:21and this is exactly why Virginia's law is so important,
26:26because legislatively it says that they can no longer hide.
26:31And that's where we're going to focus, the change that we can create.
26:36Yes.
26:36Yes.
26:37Mr. Leader, I'm wondering when you plan to go down to the Department of Justice
26:42to use some of the files, and what do you plan to look for when you go down to them?
26:46Look, the whole file should be released completely.
26:49We got them to agree to let people come down.
26:52We have to make an appointment,
26:53and a number of my colleagues and I are considering doing that very soon.
26:57What do you plan to look for?
26:58Everything.
26:59What's not disclosed.
27:01Period.
27:02Yes.
27:03Can you outline how this legislation builds on the bill that President Biden signed a few years ago?
27:11Were there shortcomings that this tries to fix?
27:15And you also mentioned new avenues for legal action.
27:18Can you dip off any of those?
27:19Yeah, the bottom line is, we want this to be, our law has no loopholes.
27:25We don't want any loopholes in this law,
27:28because the lawyers for those who did such terrible things will exploit them.
27:32That's number one.
27:34And number two, we're going to pursue every legal avenue we can.
27:38Okay?
27:40Do you want to?
27:40Yeah.
27:41Last answer for Teresa.
27:42Yeah, and I think it's really important to recognize that we need to provide protections
27:47and the avenue to the courtroom for everybody,
27:50whether you were a minor or an adult when you were abused.
27:54And we do need to go and see those files.
27:56I will be going, I believe, tomorrow morning.
27:59But the idea that we have to make an appointment and that they're scrutinizing
28:02and that they have failed to disclose under the Epstein Transparency Act half of the files.
28:10And when they've done so, they've done so heavily redacted,
28:14protecting the predators and exposing their survivors.
28:17So we need to call out those actions by the Department of Justice at all times.
28:22We are not going to rest until all the files are released, period.
28:26Whatever means, we have to pursue.
28:28Is that right?
28:29Yes.
28:29That's right.
28:30Thank you, everybody.
28:34Thank you so much.
28:40We're just joining us on France 24.
28:46We've just been listening to the Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer,
28:50flanked by Jeffrey Epstein, survivors, advocates, and the family of Virginia Giffray,
28:56introducing a bill called Virginia's Law Legislation,
29:00aimed at ending the statute of limitations that has shielded sex traffickers.
29:05Quite an emotional press conference we heard there hailing Virginia Giffray,
29:12who died by a suicide in 2025.
29:16She was one of the most well-known of Jeffrey Epstein survivors.
29:20We're going to talk a little bit more about what we've just heard.
29:22Ketavan Gorjastani, our international affairs editor, joins me in the studio.
29:26Ketavan, of course, this comes amid the latest batch of Jeffrey Epstein files,
29:33those revelations still, you know, bubbling, leading to fallout, not just in the U.S., but elsewhere.
29:40Yes, absolutely.
29:41The context is very important.
29:43And I think what was interesting was when Chuck Schumer and that referenced really what we were seeing right now
29:52was that there were all the people that had been protected, that had never, you know, seen the inside of a courtroom,
30:00that he talked about the victims that were never believed.
30:03But he said even when the truth comes out, even when they are believed,
30:09the situation with the statute of limitation makes justice impossible.
30:14So basically the idea is all of these documents coming out into the open mean nothing
30:20if you can't then seek justice because a certain number of years have come and gone.
30:27And that was really the key message there when he said justice should not expire.
30:34That was their whole key premise for pushing that bill forward.
30:40Virginia's law, of course, named after Virginia Jeffrey.
30:43And so this bill, of course, is focused on the statute of limitation,
30:47but it is a bill of its context and of its time, given what is happening with those Epstein files.
30:56And the fact that there are a lot of elements coming out in these documents
31:01that are potentially merit either criminal legal action or civil legal action.
31:09And what they want to do is give those victims the time they need to actually be able to seek justice.
31:17And this is something that is not, you know, linked solely to the Epstein files, solely to Virginia Jeffrey.
31:26When you listen to survivors of sexual abuse, whether it's in the United States, in France, elsewhere in the world,
31:35one of the things that comes back often is a lot of people need years in order,
31:41A, to process the assault, the abuse, and then to find the courage and the support to go through with actually trying to seek justice.
31:51And that timing is not necessarily the time of the statute of limitations.
31:57And in the United States, the statute of limitations, when it comes to sexual abuse, is very varied.
32:03First of all, there's the federal versus the different state who have different statutes of limitations.
32:09And it depends on whether you're a minor, whether you're full age.
32:15It depends on what the sexual assault or abuse was.
32:19And what they're trying to do is sort of open the floodgates to stop putting those issues and those blocks
32:27and give as much openness to the victims to be able to seek justice.
32:32Yeah, it's not just about the Epstein case, but of course, what we've been talking about a lot now.
32:38And with that in the news, survivors, some of them have come out and said,
32:42look, we feel like we're being traumatized all over again because of this.
32:46And there's been also some controversy about the way that the U.S. Justice Department has released or redacted or not redacted some of these files as well.
32:54This is going to be the key issue if you set aside what we've just seen there,
32:59which is the victims deciding or not and going after their own justice.
33:03But the political issue in the United States is exactly that, this question of how the redaction was done and how it wasn't done.
33:13Because the Department of Justice sort of slow-balled the release of these documents.
33:18And when they did, they really haphazardly, to say the least, released those documents, millions of documents, first of all, that you need to sift through.
33:29But also two things.
33:31One is the absence of redaction on some of the victims.
33:35Either you have elements that allow the identification of a victim, even though the name is redacted, like nicknames, like phone numbers, addresses.
33:44And a lot of survivors, some of them who had never come out in public, are saying that they were exposed without their knowledge, without their authorization.
33:54So there is that aspect of it.
33:56Why did you miss these redactions?
33:59There were also a lot of pictures of women that were not redacted, naked pictures of women that were not redacted.
34:07So that is going to be one angle.
34:09Was that very bad incompetence?
34:13Or was that done on purpose?
34:15And the other angle is going to be what was redacted.
34:20Yesterday, Ro Khanna and Tom Massey, the two representatives who pushed for the law forcing the Department of Justice to release those documents,
34:29they actually saw some of those unredacted documents that they were talking about in this press conference.
34:35And they didn't reveal any identities, but Tom Massey and Ro Khanna both said that there are at least, according to them,
34:44six men who have done reprehensible things, maybe criminal things, that were protected, that were redacted.
34:52And they are right now giving the Department of Justice the benefit of the doubt, saying maybe it was a mistake.
34:58We're giving you the time to correct your mistakes.
35:01But if you don't put out the identities of these people, we will give those names.
35:08We will put it out ourselves.
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