'Appalling': Epstein survivor says Trump admin's 'horrific lack of justice' is 'backfiring'

Jess Michaels lives with the PTSD from her 1991 assault by the serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. She is part of a national chorus of voices calling on the Trump administration to release files related to the federal case against Epstein, who reportedly died by suicide while awaiting trial in 2019. Trump’s personal relationship with Epstein has been under heavy scrutiny since he broke a campaign promise to publicize details about the Epstein case and instead moved to cut a new deal with convicted Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. The decision has fractured his right-wing base, but as demands for transparency grow within the MAGA movement, Michaels says survivors are still struggling to be heard. “You never hear the words 'Epstein victim' or 'Epstein survivor' out of this White House,” she says, slamming the politicization of survivors’ pain and trauma. “The victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been speaking up for almost two decades,” Michaels says. “It is appalling that there is so little justice for this issue.”

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show looking at attempts by the Trump administration to quell an uproar by Trump’s MAGA base over the government’s refusal to release files related to the dead serial sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. CNN is reporting Vice President JD Vance met with top Justice Department officials Wednesday to discuss the Epstein case. The meeting was reportedly set to take place at his Washington, D.C., home but was moved to the White House amidst intense media coverage. The gathering reportedly included Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, among others, of course, with JD Vance, who discussed the need to craft a unified response to the Epstein scandal and emerging details of Trump’s longstanding friendship with the dead serial sex trafficker. CNN’s reporting directly contradicts Vance’s denial that officials huddled behind closed doors for this discussion.

Meanwhile, the family of Jeffrey Epstein survivor Virginia Giuffre has called on President Trump not to consider clemency for the serial sex trafficker’s co-conspirator, the convicted sex felon Ghislaine Maxwell. She was the first — Giuffre was the first survivor to come out publicly against Epstein. She died in Australia in April, reportedly by suicide. In a statement, Giuffre’s family members said they were alarmed by these comments of Donald Trump in July, when Trump said Epstein “stole” Giuffre away from his Mar-a-Lago club, and that was the reason that he threw Epstein out.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think she worked at the spa. I think so. I think that was one of the people, yeah. He — he stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.

AMY GOODMAN: In response, Giuffre’s siblings and their spouses wrote, quote, “It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been 'stolen' from Mar-a-Lago. It makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey 'likes women on the younger side … no doubt about it.' [unquote] We and the public are asking for answers; survivors deserve this,” the family of Virginia Giuffre wrote.

Well, Ghislaine Maxwell was moved from Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas just days after she met with Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, who formerly served as Trump’s personal criminal defense attorney. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse and traffic underage girls. Trump has not ruled out pardoning Maxwell.

For more, we go to Jess Michaels, a survivor of a 1991 sexual assault by Jeffrey Epstein. She’s an advocate for sexual assault survivors, the founder and CEO of 3 Joannes, a public benefit corporation.

Jess, thanks so much for joining us. I think the key question right now, as we hear about these private huddles — we know about Todd Blanche getting the nine-hour response of Ghislaine — of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is a convicted perjurer, as well. Is he also speaking to survivors? This very serious question of where voices like yours are. Can you talk about what this all has meant for the survivors? It’s believed the survivors of Maxwell and Epstein might number as much as 1,000, you included.

JESS MICHAELS: Well, firstly, Amy, thank you so much for having me on, and thank you for asking for the survivors’ perspective on what’s happening, because you are, and this White House is not. When you ask me how we feel about that meeting that they had about the “Epstein situation,” in quotes, what it didn’t include was any survivor voices, any victim voices. And that’s something that is very frustrating for all of us to hear.

I also had heard you mention earlier, you know, “Where are survivors in this?” And I want to point out, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been speaking up for almost two decades. That’s two decades including the 2006 case against him. But before that, authorities were alerted in 1994, 1996, by Maria Farmer, who’s now leading a class-action suit against the government, the FBI, and I believe it’s the Florida Attorney General’s Office, for not following protocols for being alerted of sex trafficking. So, victims have been doing the right thing. Where it’s fallen apart is any accountability and justice. And that’s really frustrating.

What’s incredibly beautiful about this moment is that this issue is crossing party lines. There is no one out there that is OK with child sex trafficking.

AMY GOODMAN: As you point out, Maria and her sister Annie Farmer. Annie Farmer testified at —

JESS MICHAELS: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial. And what is also amazing here is that she has been moved, after speaking to Todd Blanche, Trump’s former attorney, criminal defense attorney, to a — from Florida to a Texas minimum-security prison camp. I don’t know —

JESS MICHAELS: Yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: — if any sex felon has ever been at a minimum-security prison camp, because, again, important to point out — and you’ve worked with so many of these survivors — she’s not only accused with conspiring to bring women and girls to Epstein, but she herself —

JESS MICHAELS: She participated.

AMY GOODMAN: — abused women.

JESS MICHAELS: Yes, yes, she participated. And so, when I hear a call for her to be considered a victim of this, I am appalled. I am sick to my stomach that anyone would say a grown woman molesting children is a victim in any way. And we could go on — that’s a whole other interview and discussion, Amy, on what is a victim. But it is appalling that there is so little justice for this issue.

So, on one hand, we have this wonderful public support of finally believing that survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been harmed, and they’re behind — America is behind the victims 100%. That’s what I’m seeing in my comments. That’s what I’m seeing on social media. That’s what I’m getting in emails and DMs in an overwhelming degree.

And the reason they’re responding this way is because they are seeing now, maybe for the first time, the horrific lack of justice for sexual assault survivors, when there is so much evidence. Because it’s not just — it’s not just all of the videotapes and the audiotapes. It is victim impact statements. All of our victim impact statements are in those files. And we are all saying the same thing: Release them. Protect our identities, but release them. Release them now. And guess who else doesn’t want those — doesn’t want those files released? Ghislaine Maxwell does not want those files released.

AMY GOODMAN: Why?

JESS MICHAELS: Because it’s going to prove how much she was involved. There are victim statements about her.

AMY GOODMAN: And what do you make of President Trump refusing to rule out a pardon? You almost have the sense of moving to a minimum-security prison camp, then possibly what? House arrest and then a pardon. Each one is a trial balloon to see how the public responds. But what’s so interesting about this is that MAGA has divided over this, President —

JESS MICHAELS: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: — Trump’s base.

JESS MICHAELS: Yes, yes. Do you know what I find really fascinating about this whole thing, is the miscalculation on his part. I have been speaking up as an advocate for four years. And in my comments four years ago, when I shared that I was an Epstein survivor, I would see right-leaning up to MAGA, serious MAGA, saying, “You know what? Donald Trump is on top of this. Donald Trump is the one that’s helping the FBI get the evidence on him.” They really believed that he was law and order. And I think that’s the big disconnect right now, is they’re finding out that he’s not following through with what they — who they thought he was, and it’s really backfiring.

I think it’s also backfiring for him because we are not — I’m not the 22-year-old girl that was raped in 1991. The children that were abused by Maxwell and Epstein are no longer children. We are women. And I think he is greatly misunderstanding the strength and resolve of women that have been systemically and over time completely ignored.

You never hear the words “Epstein victim” or “Epstein survivor” out of this White House. I have yet to hear those two words. It’s always about “We are going to get the bad guys. Here’s the first — the first big phase one dump of information from Pam Bondi,” in February. But we never hear, “We’re going to get the victims justice. We care about how the victims feel right now. We’re going to try to move this along in a way that gets the victims and those survivors, that have been working so hard to speak up, justice.” That’s not happening. So —

AMY GOODMAN: Jess —

JESS MICHAELS: — it is a level of injury that is painful.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds, but I don’t want to end before you talk about trauma, before you talk about PTSD or, as you call it, PTSI, post-traumatic stress injury, of the survivors at this point.

JESS MICHAELS: What I think people assume is that we are just struggling emotionally. And what they — what the — what happens for me, I should — I’m speaking for me now — is that the pain is physical. It’s fatigue. It’s stomachaches. It’s heart palpitations. It’s headaches. It’s insomnia. It’s anxiety. It’s an inability to just calm my nerves down. So it has physical repercussions that I think people are not aware of.

AMY GOODMAN: Jess Michaels, I want to thank you so much for speaking out, 1991 Epstein rape survivor. She was 22 at the time. Now she’s head of an organization called 3 Joannes. That does it for our program. I’m Amy Goodman, This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report.