A group of women who were victimized in disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking say they plan to list the wealthy and powerful men who were involved — but the list may never go public.
The women said they might keep the list to themselves to avoid lawsuits or other retribution by the accused.
The women, speaking in front of the Capitol on Wednesday, urged lawmakers to pass a measure to force the Justice Department to release all of the government files associated with their investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in a New York City jail in 2019 while awaiting prosecution.
“Why do we have to say the names when the government knows the names?” Lisa Phillips, one of the victims, said.
Ms. Philips said some of the victims plan to compile their own list of names, although it was not clear who would be included or whether the public would ever see it.
“Us Epstein survivors have been discussing creating our own list,” Ms. Philips, who met Epstein in 2000, said. “We know the names. And many of us were abused by them. Now, together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors. No one else is involved.”
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Epstein victims and House lawmakers spoke for 90 minutes about the need for the government to release every document connected to Epstein. A House panel released nearly 34,000 documents on Tuesday that were provided by the Justice Department following a Congressional subpoena. Much of it was previously released and lawmakers expect to make public additional information related to Epstein’s sex trafficking case.
None of the women at Wednesday’s press conference revealed a single name of a wealthy and powerful Epstein friend who engaged in sex with them while they were part of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
One victim, Chauntae Davies, described being “trapped” in Epstein’s “orbit,” and said she was “taken on a trip to Africa with President Clinton and other notable figures.”
Yet she remained silent for years.
“In those moments, I realized how powerless I was,” she said, “If I spoke out, who would believe me? Who would protect me?”
Ms. Phillips, who said she was lured into Epstein’s “dark and disturbing world” by his connections to the modeling industry, said she’s reaching out to other victims who have been fearful to come forward to find out the names of Epstein’s alleged clients.
She and other women at the press conference said they were “scared” to name the men who were involved, Ms. Phillips said, and the private list she’s making may never be made public.
Some of the victims who spoke Wednesday, including Annie Farmer, were 16 when they were lured into becoming sex workers for Epstein. Ms. Farmer said she was “flown to New Mexico to spend a weekend with Epstein” and his then-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 1996. She said she was sexually assaulted by Epstein, and it was reported to the authorities by her sister, who was also victimized by Epstein.
“I am now 46 years old, and 30 years later, we still do not know why that report wasn’t properly investigated or why Epstein and his associates were allowed to harm hundreds, if not thousands, of other girls and young women.”
Bradley Edwards, a lawyer representing some of the victims, said he talked to them about “the various people that they were farmed out to,” and his law firm “created somewhat of a list” of Epstein clients.
But he said that while all of the women were abused by Epstein, only “a section of them” were provided to some of his friends.
“That does not mean all of his friends,” Mr. Edwards said.
Mr. Edwards said he’d be “happy to assist” in creating a list “behind the scenes and see what we do with it.”
He later said “there’s not a list,” and described “a complicated scheme where others should still be investigated,” including people who were on Epstein’s payroll who helped him procure dozens of young women and girls or enabled him by not stopping it or reporting it.
“With that being said, to certain of his friends he farmed out certain of the women that he was exploiting, but that wasn’t the primary purpose of the scheme,” Mr. Edwards explained. “And I don’t think he wrote the names of those people down. There’s not a list. … That’s just not how that organization works.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, one of a handful of Republican lawmakers backing House legislation to force the Justice Department to release all of their files on Epstein, said if the women made a list of men who engaged in sex with Epstein’s victims, she would read it out loud in Congress.
“I’m not afraid to name names,” Ms. Greene said. “If they want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women. I can do that for them, and I’d be proud to do it.”
The same group of Epstein victims appeared Tuesday on NBC News, where they also remained mum about the men, other than Epstein. All of them said they had never encountered President Trump or former President Bill Clinton, both former Epstein pals, at any of the Epstein properties where the alleged sex crimes took place.
Ms. Davies said Wednesday that Epstein’s “biggest brag” was about his friendship with Mr. Trump and said he kept a photo of the two of them in his office.
Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Clinton were at one time friends with Epstein, and both traveled on his private jet, according to flight logs. Mr. Trump said he stopped speaking to Epstein nearly two decades ago after he hired away young women working at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
President Trump on Wednesday slammed continued media coverage of the Epstein case as “a Democrat hoax that never ends,” and pointed out the Justice Department’s delivery of thousands of Epstein documents to House lawmakers, who have made them public.
“They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” he said.
• Mallory Wilson contributed to this report.
