Six survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and two members of another accuser’s family said they felt "degraded" during Wednesday's contentious House Judiciary Committee hearing, at which Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to face them and apologize.
Several Epstein survivors and relatives were on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers grilled Bondi for over five hours about several matters, including the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein case. She was specifically questioned about why released files were heavily redacted and why several survivors' names were not.
“There was such a lack of empathy today. There was such a lack of, honestly, humanity today,” Dani Bensky said on NBC’s "Hallie Jackson NOW."
At one point, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., asked Epstein survivors in the room to stand up and raise their hands if they hadn’t had the opportunity to meet with the Justice Department. Every single one raised their hand.
Jayapal then asked Bondi to turn toward the survivors and apologize. She did neither of those things.
"Something that I think all of us felt a little devastated about was that she had three opportunities to address survivors. We stood up, and all she had to do was turn around, and she could not even turn around and face us," Bensky said.
Bensky has said she was 17 and a budding ballerina in 2004 when Epstein sexually abused her at his New York City mansion.
“I felt like such a ghost walking through Epstein’s mansion. I felt like there were so many people who saw me. There were so many people who should have spoken up," Bensky said.
"Now, to not have AG Bondi turn around and acknowledge us, it’s the exact same type of victimization," she continued.
Teresa Helm, who alleges that Ghislaine Maxwell groomed her and that Epstein sexually abused her in 2002, when she was 22, said of the hearing: “There was no integrity in that room today, it seems like, when it came to Epstein and Maxwell.”
Epstein, a politically connected convicted sex offender, died by suicide in 2019 as he was awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors. Maxwell, his co-conspirator, was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Sharlene Rochard said Wednesday that she felt “really degraded” and that Bondi was “not taking at all any accountability” regarding survivors. Rochard has said she met Epstein as a teenager when she was working as a model in New York.
In her opening remarks, Bondi did refer to Epstein’s victims, saying, “I am deeply sorry for what any victim, any victim, has been through, especially as a result of that monster.”
Jess Michaels, another accuser, said that while Bondi apologized for Epstein's crimes, she did not apologize for "the crimes of the cover-up." Michaels accused Bondi of being a part of the alleged cover-up.
Marina Lacerda criticized Bondi and the Justice Department for allowing survivors’ names to be published in the latest trove of files.
"She sat there in the beginning, she said sorry for what Jeffrey Epstein did to us, but yet she couldn’t apologize for what she did to us, what her department did to us," Lacerda said. "You had one job — was to redact our names, to respect our privacy — but yet you carefully took the time to redact all these powerful, rich men." (The Justice Department on Tuesday released the names of three people the FBI once called co-conspirators of Epstein's after lawmakers complained that the names had been improperly withheld.)
Lacerda has said she was 14 when she met Epstein, lured into his mansion under the pretense of being paid to give massages.
Pressed Wednesday about why survivors' names were in the released files, Bondi said, “We did the best we could, immediately.”
Asked whether any Epstein co-conspirators would be prosecuted, Bondi said the Justice Department has pending investigations. She did not elaborate on who or what was being investigated.
"Who, what, where, why, when? We don’t have any information," Bensky said. "I would think that they would come to us to get that information."
Bensky, Helm, Rochard, Lacerda, Michaels and fellow Epstein accuser Liz Stein all indicated none of them have heard from the Justice Department. Sky Roberts — the brother of Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Guiffre, who died by suicide last year — and his wife, Amanda Roberts, said they, too, have not heard from the Justice Department.
All said they want more prosecutions.
Amanda Roberts said her late sister-in-law "named over 40 names in sealed depositions and open depositions." However, she said, the Justice Department still has not acknowledged or investigated those people.
Guiffre claimed that Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to the former Prince Andrew in the early 2000s when she was 17. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his royal titles last year, reached a legal settlement with Guiffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum but has denied having had sex with her, as well as any wrongdoing connected to Epstein. He has never been charged.
Guiffre's brother described Wednesday's hearing as "gaslighting."
"You know, she’s [Bondi] like, 'Any survivor can come forward and talk to us.' Well, first, you don’t really have an open-door policy," he said.
"I hope the American people can continue to stand behind us," he added. "I hope that they can demand justice, because realistically, this justice needs to happen."
