In a Small Room on Capitol Hill, Survivors of Epstein Refuse to Be Ignored - Ms. Magazine
Last week, while much of Washington’s attention was fixed on the highly choreographed visit of the king of England to the U.S. Capitol, a very different gathering was taking place just a few hallways away. Survivors of sexual abuse and trafficking, family members of Virginia Giuffre, advocates and several members of Congress packed into a small conference room in the Cannon House Office Building for a roundtable convened by Rep. Ro Khanna. The event came just days after public vigils marking the one-year anniversary of Giuffre’s death and was intentionally timed to coincide with the royal visit, drawing attention to the fact that survivors continue to feel ignored by many of the institutions and powerful figures connected to the Epstein network.
The purpose of the roundtable was not symbolic alone. Survivors and advocates gathered to push for concrete political and legal action in response to what they described as decades of systemic failure surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. They called for enforcement of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the release of millions of unreleased documents connected to the case, and passage of “Virginia’s Law,” which would expand statutes of limitations for survivors pursuing civil claims related to sexual abuse and trafficking.
For many in the room, this was also about correcting what they see as a dangerous imbalance in how the Epstein case has unfolded publicly: Survivors’ names and private details have repeatedly been exposed, while many powerful people connected to Epstein’s network have largely escaped scrutiny or accountability.
What unfolded inside that room felt urgent precisely because survivors understood how quickly public attention moves on. Many of the women speaking had spent years navigating systems—law enforcement, courts, media and political institutions—that they believe failed to protect them or meaningfully respond after the fact. With only a few minutes each, survivors attempted to compress years of trauma, coercion and institutional indifference into testimony aimed directly at lawmakers capable of advancing reforms.
