After months of lies and stalling by the Trump administration, both houses of Congress finally voted to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all the evidence in its possession on Jeffrey Epstein and his friends and their rape and abuse of numerous children and young women over the years. After months of trying to make the issue go away, and only days before it became obvious that Congress had the votes to pass the bill forcing the release, Trump finally agreed to sign the law they passed.
Despite what seems like a victory for transparency and justice, whether or not the full contents of these files are now released is still very much in question. Trump’s loyal charlatans and attack dogs in DOJ could still redact many of the most incriminating segments, particularly those relating to the president. Or, since Trump has now demanded that his Attorney General open an entirely new case focusing solely on Democrats around Epstein, it is very possible that large portions of the files will be held back with the excuse that they are now, suddenly, parts of another ongoing investigation. There is no certainty that new information will come out, particularly new information regarding the clear and obvious ties between Trump and Epstein.
But in at least two press conferences that a group of dozens of Epstein’s survivors have held in the past two months as they pushed for Congress to act, women got past the immediate politics and to the core of the issue. All spoke powerfully and eloquently about not only what they felt and suffered, but also how this all occurred. They told their individual stories and exposed how not only Epstein himself raped and sexually abused them, but how the police and legal system failed them, and in some cases even worked against the victims themselves. From at least 1991 until likely the late 2010s, Epstein and his co-conspirators both exploited and dehumanized probably hundreds of women, all the while using their wealth and power to manage and manipulate systems to avoid any consequences.
One survivor named Shante Davies, who at least once travelled with Epstein and former President Bill Clinton, stated clearly how Epstein’s wealth and connections shielded him from scrutiny.
“The truth is, Epstein had a free pass. He bragged about his powerful friends, including our current President Donald Trump. It was his biggest brag actually.”
Another survivor named Annie Farmer, who along with her older sister was abused by Epstein in 1996 at age 16, and whose sister reported the abuse to the F.B.I. that same year, stated clearly how the entire political system has failed the dozens of abused women.
“This is not an issue of a few corrupt Democrats, or a few corrupt Republicans. This is a case of institutional betrayal. 30 years later, even as oceans of allegations and obvious truths have emerged, the government has still not chosen transparency.”
Another survivor named Ashley Rubright told a larger story about how the legal and political system actively worked to deny their pursuit of justice.
“We were victimized as children, and failed, repeatedly, by the very system that was supposed to protect us…The Epstein case was gravely mishandled, consistently and deliberately over many years. Epstein could have been stopped decades ago, but instead he was able to continue his abuse, even during his sweetheart deal. Yes, with his ankle monitor on and beyond. A deal that protected him and silenced us. While I was a child fighting to survive what happened to us, federal prosecutors were negotiating ways to shield powerful adults…Our civil cases were met with hostile judges and delay tactics, intimidation and p.r. campaigns designed to smear us in the public eye. We were treated as problems to be managed instead of victims to be protected.”
While we could quote more, this final statement addresses the core of the problem. The government does not work for us. It is not meant to protect us. This government and governments worldwide work for the wealthy and powerful. They are instruments of class rule that maintain the wealth, power and privilege of the dominant class.
These women and other victims of sexual abuse are victims not only of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and a few others. They are victims of the much larger class structure that affects us all. A small sliver of the population who control most of the world’s wealth and natural resources constantly mold governments to meet their needs, and of course those governments then shield them from accountability. Their wealth gives them protection to be predators and avoid real consequences. They are able to traffic and abuse girls and young women on private islands, to get sweetheart deals from politically ambitious prosecutors, to rape women in department store dressing rooms, to call women “piggy,” to pay off women they’ve had affairs with, and more. In other facets of life, they get away with starting wars that poor people fight and die in, they destroy the planet on which we all live, they hire and fire us, they exploit our labor to make themselves richer. Their wealth enables them to own private islands and residences that seem almost completely outside the law.
To destroy predators like Trump, Epstein and the others who have spent their lives preying on women, it won’t be enough to just release the Epstein files or to pass a new law or two. It won’t be enough to hold just a few of them accountable. A few years ago it appeared that the “Me-Too” movement was a moment of reckoning, and that women and other victims of sexual abuse would be heard and their tormentors punished. But while a few were punished, the class system that bred and nourished them remained in place, and the wealthy and powerful predators of the capitalist class have generally been untouched.
To truly destroy them and to make sure new predators like them are no longer able to develop, we must remove their wealth and power and make clear that they can no longer be allowed to exploit us and abuse us and live better than us.
But to do that it will take more than new laws and small reforms. We will have to dismantle the system that enables them. That can only be done by us, through large scale collective action. These survivors, by coming together collectively and uniting to tell their story, are showing us first steps. Let’s follow their lead and go further.
