00:00I was abused by Jeffrey Epstein in 2004 and 2005.
00:05That was eight years after Maria Farmer first reported Jeffrey to the FBI.
00:11Although discussing my abuse is far from easy,
00:15I live with diagnosed PTSD from that experience.
00:20My story is actually one of the safest stories to tell.
00:23The key abuser who caused me physical harm is dead.
00:27Instead, it's imperative to understand that the stories you are hearing today
00:31are a tiny fraction of the whole.
00:34I am one of more than 1,200 girls and women.
00:38I don't face the same level of threats of defamation lawsuits
00:42and serious risks to my safety as some of my survivor sisters do.
00:48While there are co-conspirators who do need to be held accountable
00:52for the parts that they played in the operation of my own abuse,
00:56I was trafficked only to Jeffrey,
00:59which really, unfortunately, is not the case for so many others.
01:04I was groomed prior to meeting Jeffrey.
01:06I grew up in the dance world where perfectionism,
01:10body image issues ran rampant
01:12in a world that was built on hierarchy and secrecy.
01:16I would have my body criticized, critiqued, and manipulated,
01:21not so different from what I initially experienced with Jeffrey.
01:26I was trafficked to Jeffrey.
01:28I had two recruiters.
01:30One was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old,
01:34just trying to escape her own abuse.
01:37Jeffrey weaponized my aspirations and dreams
01:40by speaking the language of dance and making false promises.
01:44My mom had been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
01:47I had seen the name Epstein listed on a donor wall
01:51and believed that his wealth and power
01:53had come from the medical profession.
01:56I brought him her scans, hoping to understand her diagnosis.
02:00Instead of helping her,
02:02he used my mother's brain scans over me,
02:05giving me an ultimatum.
02:07Either recruit more girls or do more for him.
02:10I didn't end up recruiting anyone,
02:13and instead just endured the abuse.
02:15In May of 2005, my mother had a successful operation
02:20at Mount Sinai to remove the tumor,
02:23and I finally extricated myself from Jeffrey's web.
02:28The Epstein case demonstrates that institutional systems
02:32have failed survivors time and time again.
02:36I was first subpoenaed in 2008 for an interview.
02:39I was just 20 years old,
02:41and without a victim's rights advocate or a lawyer,
02:45I didn't know that I was entitled to those protections.
02:48No one told me I was safe,
02:50and for many parts of my interview,
02:53it felt like an interrogation.
02:55Jeffrey had already threatened my friend,
02:57and he had told me that I would be charged with prostitution
03:00if I ever interacted with law enforcement.
03:03He made it clear that he held the cards.
03:07The passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act
03:11was a moment in which survivors hoped and believed
03:15that we might see some reckoning.
03:18But the system, yet again, failed survivors.
03:22Before the first document dump by the DOJ,
03:27my lawyer teamed up with another law firm
03:29representing survivors.
03:30Together, they submitted 350 victims' names to the DOJ,
03:36as names that needed to be redacted
03:40prior to the deadline on December 19th.
03:43In the first round of documents,
03:45I saw my name in two places.
03:47Then in the January dump, there were more,
03:50and the redactions were far, far worse.
03:53These files displayed my name,
03:55my phone number, my old address,
03:58where I worked at the time,
03:59where I was studying,
04:01and other identifying information.
04:04What's important to understand
04:06is that these documents
04:08weren't just somehow overlooked
04:10and not redacted at all.
04:12On one document, my nickname, Danny,
04:15redacted, while Danielle Hanabensky
04:17is left completely unredacted.
04:19I am just one of the hundreds of survivors
04:23exposed like this.
04:24A few weeks ago,
04:27a legal analyst reached out
04:28to share that yet again,
04:30my name appeared in a third batch
04:32of only 20 documents.
04:34After my lawyer continued to contact the DOJ
04:38on multiple occasions for protection,
04:41my name and information remained attached.
04:44These documents hold disturbing
04:47and yet incomplete accounts of my abuse,
04:50and they were viewable
04:52not only by the entire world,
04:54but my child, my students,
04:57my students' parents,
04:59my friends, my employers,
05:01my colleagues, my family.
05:04I am public.
05:06However, in my FBI 302,
05:10a Jane Doe who has never,
05:13ever wanted to be revealed
05:14was exposed.
05:15This outing of survivor names
05:18does real irrevocable damage.
05:22The passage of the Epstein-Files
05:24Transparency Act
05:26was meant to be a moment
05:27when survivors could regain their power
05:30and finally obtain the truth.
05:33It was a time for our institutions,
05:35created to protect the American people,
05:37to for once stand on the side of survivors.
05:41As survivors,
05:42we have said time and time again,
05:44and this is not political.
05:47This requires coming together
05:49and prioritizing coming together,
05:53not political showmanship.
05:56I'm always asked,
05:57what does accountability look like?
06:00Accountability means
06:02removing perpetrators from power,
06:04seeing arrests be made,
06:06and legislators pass laws
06:09like protecting victims' rights,
06:11like Virginia's law,
06:12which would remove
06:13the statute of limitations
06:14for victims' civil claims
06:16against their abusers.
06:18Our entrenched systemic failures
06:20have allowed powerful people
06:22like Jeffrey to thrive.
06:24When institutions prioritize
06:26protecting the powerful
06:28and their enablers
06:29over protecting victims,
06:31abuse becomes normalized.
06:35If we continue down this path,
06:38the question isn't
06:39whether abuse will happen again,
06:41but who will be
06:42the next Jeffrey Epstein.
06:46This moment is critical.
06:48It is time to reform our system,
06:50to protect our survivors,
06:53not the perpetrators,
06:54and to ensure
06:55the truth can come to light.
07:00Thank you so much.
