Congress returned from its August recess this week with one issue overshadowing all others: Jeffrey Epstein. On Tuesday, lawmakers held a closed-door session with several of Epstein’s victims, whose testimony has not yet been released to the public. What was revealed inside, however, has already shaken Washington.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna emerged from the meeting sounding an alarm. She told reporters the scandal is “far bigger than anyone anticipated” and suggested Epstein may have operated as a foreign asset. While she declined to name which country or countries may have been involved, Luna said the victims explicitly connected foreign governments to Epstein’s trafficking operation.
According to Luna’s summary, the victims described an international criminal network that went far beyond Epstein’s private island. She said survivors pointed to more than 33,000 documents that detail Epstein’s financial empire, which involved shell corporations and suspicious transactions through Deutsche Bank. The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. James Comer, is already preparing to send a request to the U.S. Treasury for suspicious activity reports tied to Epstein’s accounts.
Victims reportedly revealed that Epstein’s network extended into Eastern Europe, with young women trafficked from Slavic nations through immigration fraud. One survivor claimed her newborn child was threatened as retaliation for coming forward. Luna also said Epstein continued abusing minors even while on work release, ankle monitor and all, spending his days free before returning to jail at night.
The revelations add urgency to the push for transparency. On their very first day back, Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna filed a discharge petition to force a vote on unsealing the government’s Epstein files. The petition already has more than half the signatures it needs. With bipartisan support almost assured, pressure on leadership to allow a floor vote is intensifying.
Speaker Mike Johnson had adjourned Congress early in July, a move widely seen as an attempt to stall action on Epstein. That delay is now over. Massie bluntly said the scandal “has not gone away like the speaker had hoped.” Meanwhile, Epstein’s victims plan to rally at the Capitol on Wednesday alongside Khanna and Massie, demanding answers and accountability.
The House Oversight Committee has already dumped more than 30,000 documents from the DOJ, though most were previously released. What victims described this week suggests the real bombshells have yet to see daylight. The American people may soon learn just how deep Epstein’s ties to governments, banks, and powerful elites truly ran.
Leave a Comment