WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� For nearly a year, public demand and increasingly outspoken calls from the survivors of sexual abuse have driven Congress to mostly set aside party politics and search for accountability.
Yet even after interviews with some of the highest-ranked officials to ever appear before a congressional investigation, including a former president, lawmakers have little to show in terms of for Epstein鈥檚 crimes or a definitive acknowledgment of government failure.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, who sponsored the release of case files on Epstein, told The Associated Press he is still asking, 鈥淲hy there has not been a single investigation of people who have allegedly abused or committed financial crimes?鈥�
Lawmakers hoped to get some answers to those questions during a transcribed interview Friday with , President Donald Trump’s former attorney general who oversaw the release of the files.
But the interview left Democrats fuming at Bondi’s decision to defend the Trump administration’s handling of that material, as well as her refusal to answer questions about the Republican president’s involvement. Democratic lawmakers also singled out Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, saying he has allowed administration officials to dodge tough questions from Congress.
For survivors of Epstein’s abuse, including several who traveled to Washington to confront Bondi, it was a frustrating development at a time when many are weary of pleading their case before government officials. They say the Department of Justice’s chaotic , which included nude photos and personal information of potential victims, has only added to a wider failure by the criminal justice system to believe or protect them.
鈥淭he government鈥檚 refusal to acknowledge the failures that were there have led to so much harm,鈥� said Annie Farmer. 鈥淎nd I think whenever you鈥檙e thinking about things from a perspective of justice or healing, without acknowledgment, it鈥檚 really hard to move forward.鈥�
Push for accountability scrambled political lines
The committee’s investigation has been remarkably bipartisan at many moments, with Democrats and Republicans joining witness testimony. Besides Bondi, lawmakers have interviewed former Democratic President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick.
That effort shows lawmakers are willing to cross political lines when there is overwhelming public pressure to act. Dozens of women have accused Epstein, a wealthy and well-connected financier, of sexual abuse and rape, including in the years after he reached a deal with federal prosecutors in 2008 to dispose of a federal investigation in exchange for pleading guilty to state level sex offense charges in Florida.
Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges, of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.
His case has captured the public imagination as an example of how the rich and powerful escape accountability for wrongdoing. Lawmakers took up the cause last year after the administration failed to meet promises to provide transparency on the case.
Different continents, different standards?
Despite the investigation originating in the United States, the reckoning over Epstein has been relatively mild in the country compared with Europe. There, senior figures in governments including the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway and Slovakia have all been forced to step down over their ties to Epstein.
In its investigation, the House committee spoke to some of Epstein鈥檚 closest associates, including his former financial client Les Wexner, his lawyer Darren Indyke and his accountant Richard Kahn. The Clintons, Lutnick and others were also called to testify.
All have said more or less the same thing: They knew nothing about Epstein abusing underage girls.
Still, the release of has had consequences. At least eight American academic and business figures have been forced from positions of power, including former Treasury Secretary from teaching at Harvard University and from her post as the chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs.
Bank of America and Epstein鈥檚 estate have reached multimillion-dollar settlements with women who have accused the institutions of facilitating Epstein鈥檚 sex-trafficking operations.
Comer, R-Ky., said last week that the names of three people allegedly involved in abuse had come up in an interview with Epstein鈥檚 former personal assistant, Sarah Kellen. The congresswoman plans to interview six more people with connections to Epstein in the coming weeks, including billionaire Bill Gates, private equity investor Leon Black, the former CEO of Barclays Bank Jes Staley and Ruemmler.
鈥淭he government has failed the survivors. There鈥檚 no doubt about that,” Comer said, adding, “What we鈥檙e trying to do is connect all the dots and see if there is a way to hold people accountable.鈥�
But it has stung lawmakers to see a reckoning over Epstein for figures such as Britain鈥檚 former Prince Andrew at time when the administration has tried repeatedly to move past the issue.
鈥淎 prince has been taken down and here in the United States, our Department of Justice, which is sitting on millions of files, is refusing to act,鈥� said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., pointing to unreleased case files that the Justice Department is withholding on the grounds that they are duplicative or illegal to make public.
鈥淭hat is not a failure, that is a choice,鈥� Stansbury said.
Survivors and Democratic lawmakers have also taken issue with the administration’s decision to move Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein鈥檚 longtime confidant and former girlfriend, to a minimum-security prison camp. She is serving a 20-year sentence for for Epstein to abuse.
Will survivors be heard?
Scattered across the country and busy with lives of their own, survivors of Epstein’s abuse have made repeated trips to Washington to push for government action. After years of fighting in court and sharing traumatic stories privately, they have become increasingly outspoken in their quest for accountability.
鈥淚t is very taxing to be continually focused on this case,鈥� Farmer said. She added that even if the government’s response has not met her hopes, she has seen a wider cultural movement to address sexual predation.
To Marina Lacerda, another survivor, 鈥淎ccountability is kind of hard right now. But we are looking for saving the next generation.”
But they also want the administration to listen to their stories. Pressing for the president’s ear, several victims spoke this month at a hearing just miles away from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida that was organized by Democrats on the House committee.
For some of the survivors, the return to South Florida was also an opportunity to finally be heard. Jena-Lisa Jones told the panel that she was 14 years old when she was abused by Epstein in Palm Beach.
She implored the lawmakers: 鈥淔ind a way to bring closure to the story of Jeffrey Epstein to allow survivors and this country to finally begin to move forward so that one day, and I pray soon, Jeffrey Epstein鈥檚 name is no longer something we are forced to hear every single day.鈥�
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