Pressley Continues to Call for Release of Full Epstein Files, Public Congressional Hearing to Center Survivors, Shed Light on their Stories

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), a member of the House Oversight Committee, held a media availability with Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Committee Democrats following a closed-door Oversight Committee roundtable with survivors of unconscionable exploitation and abuse perpetrated by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their co-conspirators. The Congresswoman is continuing her push for healing and accountability, the release of the full Epstein files with survivors’ names redacted, and a full, transparent and public Congressional hearing that centers survivors that want to share testimony.

As a survivor of sexual abuse herself, Congresswoman Pressley has been a dedicated advocate for survivors’ justice and has led committee Democrats in calling for a full Congressional hearing to ensure survivors’ firsthand accounts are heard.

A full transcript of the Congresswoman’s remarks at the media availability is available below, and full video is available here.

Transcript: Pressley’s Remarks Following Closed-Door Meeting with Survivors of Epstein’s Abuse
September 2, 2025
Washington, DC

Thank you, Ranking Member Garcia. What we heard here today was harrowing, and it is proof of what has been an institutional, systemic betrayal for decades.

These women now who were preyed upon, groomed, exploited, violated from as young as 13 years old, their bodies violated, their minds manipulated, and their dreams denied. 

Aspiring artists, lawyers, actors, people who have big dreams, and those dreams have been dashed and denied because of the shame they carry, because of the trauma they carry. It is a lifetime sentence.

Jeffrey Epstein is dead, but his hurt and his harm is alive and well in the daily experiences of these survivors. 

Maxwell is incarcerated, but it is these survivors, these victims, who are still very much in jail, and they are deserving of transparency, of accountability and of healing. 

We are where we are today because of the leadership of Ranking Member Garcia and our Ranking Member of the Subcommittee for Law Enforcement Summer Lee in forcing that vote for a subpoena, because in order for us to hold powerful abusers to account who participated actively in a predator pedophile Ponzi scheme meant to feed on the daily perversions of a rich and powerful man and his enablers and those who were his co-conspirators. 

We want to center the victims and the survivors, not shield the powerful, the wealthy and the well-connected. 

So we forced a vote for a subpoena in a hearing that was on child trafficking to point out the hypocrisy. Then I led calls for a hearing in the Committee on Oversight, centering the victims, and my colleagues joined with me in that. 

We do believe that that did lead to pressure that resulted in today’s roundtable, where many of the victims said it was the first time that they had felt heard, on the heels of the many years of abuse that they experienced to be revictimized and traumatized by a government.

They had abusers that told them they were trash and because they’ve never gotten justice and been heard, it has contributed to the ways in which they have felt demoralized and invisible.

The role of this committee is to be in efficient and effective pursuit of the truth, and we will be until these survivors get the justice that they deserve. 

Again, we will not shield powerful abusers. They must be taken to account, and that cannot happen if we are not centering and prioritizing the voices of survivors.

…

Today’s roundtable, again it was necessary, it was long overdue, it was very powerful — and it is why I continue to call for a Congressional hearing, because their stories need to be a part of the Congressional Record, and the entire public needs to understand just how systemic and how far and wide and how deep this institutional betrayal goes.

So that Congressional hearing still needs to happen, and this discharge petition still needs to go to the floor. 

So this roundtable, you know, Oversight Dems forcing the vote for the subpoena to the DOJ, important step. Today’s roundtable, important step. A Congressional hearing centering the voices of Epstein’s survivors is essential. 

We cannot powerful abusers to account without centering those survivors and doing it on the Congressional Record to give that transparency to the public as well. 

And then, finally, this discharge petition does need to come to the floor so that we can get all of the files.

One of the things that was said over and over again today was that the investigation is not complete. The investigation is not even done, so we need all of this. 

…

I would ask my Republican colleagues to prove that they will break their legacy of treating trauma with more trauma and shielding from Jim Jordan to Matt Gaetz, to Donald Trump, and now to Jeffrey Epstein. 

They have a hell of a track record, they might want to try to break that up. 

In the words of Edmund Burke, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men and women to do nothing. 

Are we going to stand up and be good men and women so that evil does not triumph? 

And I’m going to close on the final thing which is the most important. For people that would wonder, how high are the stakes here? This is a matter of life and death, because Virginia  Giuffre took her life after decades of failure and there are victims that can no longer come forward because they are in a fetal position so broken by the weight of what they’ve been carrying, shame that they’ve been carrying when it is not their shame to carry. 

So Virginia Giuffre took her life because of the institutional, consecutive failures and betrayals of our government. So this is a matter of life and death. 

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Rep. Pressley has led the demand for a hearing with survivors as the Committee has continued its investigation and after the Congresswoman successfully helped pass a motion by Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Congresswoman Summer Lee to force the Committee to subpoena the Epstein files.

In recent interviews, Rep. Pressley described why her work to subpoena the Epstein files is deeply personal to her.

Throughout her time in Congress, Rep. Pressley has been a champion for justice for survivors of sexual violence and reproductive freedom.

In July 2024, Rep. Pressley reintroduced the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (BE HEARD) in the Workplace Act of 2024. In June 2024, Rep. Pressley renewed her calls for accountability and survivor-focused solutions following the damning reports of a toxic work environment at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  In June 2024, Rep. Pressley also sent a letter to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) requesting information about the botched closure of FCI Dublin, abuse of women while they were being transferred to other facilities, and BOP’s management of investigations into the staff sexual misconduct and abuse at FCI Dublin and other federal BOP facilities.

Rep. Pressley is also a lead co-sponsor of H.R. 5388, legislation that would prevent the Secretary of Education from rolling back Title IX protections for survivors, as well as H.Res. 560, a resolution calling for an impeachment inquiry into Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, following reporting on new allegations of sexual misconduct committed by the Associate Justice.

In April 2019, following the passage of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, Rep. Pressley issued a statement honoring her mother, Sandra Pressley, a survivor of domestic violence. Rep. Pressley is also the lead co-sponsor of an amendment to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that would establish the first-ever grant program dedicated to supporting LGBTQ+ survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking, which passed the House of Representatives in March 2021.

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