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Avis, who had not spoken out publicly until now, mentioned that she was motivated by Jones’s courage. Both Avis and Jones recounted their encounters with Epstein at his Florida estate, with Avis stating she was 14 years old in the early 2000s when he abused her.
“Justice is not being served for everyone, and that’s unjust,” Avis expressed, asserting that “ordinary people like myself are also victims.”
This summer, the Epstein case has been a major news topic, and it is expected to remain prominent as Congress reconvenes in Washington following the August break.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee planned a private meeting with ten accusers on Tuesday. Committee Chair James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, aims to question Maxwell, contingent on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision later this month on whether to review her 2021 sex offender conviction related to Epstein.
Republican House leaders have introduced legislation directing the Oversight Committee to further investigate the “potential mishandling of the Federal government’s probe into Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Meanwhile, Representatives Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, and Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, are organizing a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday with Epstein and Maxwell’s accusers. They will advocate for swift action and the complete disclosure of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. Khanna and Massie are spearheading a discharge petition that, if it garners enough support in the House, would compel a vote to release the documents.
Such a move would clash with the Trump administration and the Justice Department, which has sought to release only some documents out of “public interest.” Trump initially said he supports full disclosure of the documents, but over the summer, he has been at odds with some members of his party and his base who have pushed conspiratorial narratives about Epstein’s death and a “client list” that could implicate other high-profile and powerful men involved in the trafficking of underage girls.
The White House and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Epstein died by suicide in his New York City jail at 66 while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. A Justice Department report in 2023 uncovered a cascade of misconduct, negligence and errors by corrections employees that created the conditions allowing Epstein to take his own life but found no evidence to contradict the official conclusion that he died by suicide.
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in recruiting and trafficking minors for sex as a longtime confidant to Epstein. She is appealing the conviction.
Last month, the Justice Department released transcripts from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s two-day interview with Maxwell this summer, in which she insisted she never witnessed any inappropriate conduct from any man, including Trump, who had been friendly with Epstein. She denied the existence of an incriminating “client list” and maintained her innocence to Blanche.
Days after the interview, Maxwell was moved from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to an all-women’s prison camp in Bryan, Texas, stoking outrage among former and current federal Bureau of Prison staff members who said such a transfer is highly unusual.
The Bureau of Prison didn’t provide a reason for her relocation to Bryan, where the majority of inmates are serving time for nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes.
Giuffre’s family have said that they were against showing leniency to Maxwell and that the Justice Department’s release of transcripts from her interview gave her a “platform to rewrite history.”
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a previous statement that he was thankful the Justice Department released her interview “so that people can judge for themselves.”
On the matter of a potential pardon for Maxwell, Trump said last month that “nobody’s asked” him to grant her clemency but that he has “the right to give pardons.”
Danny Wilson, Giuffre’s brother, said doing so for Maxwell would be a “slap in the face” to his sister’s and the other accusers’ memories.
Chartouni, who said Epstein sexually assaulted her after she moved to New York in 2000, agreed that it “is an insult” that Trump would even be “toying with the idea” of a pardon.
“She’s not a reliable narrator for her story,” she said of Maxwell, adding that the administration’s focus seems to be “so much attention on the criminals” rather than on what Epstein’s accusers want.
Markus said in a statement Tuesday that Maxwell was being made a scapegoat by accusers seeking financial gain.
“As far as changing the narrative, most of these women didn’t mention Ghislaine when they were repeatedly interviewed by law enforcement back in the day,” Markus said. “Only when plaintiffs’ lawyers came knocking and dollar signs started flashing did they start pointing the finger at Ghislaine.”
Phillips alleges Epstein groomed and sexually assaulted her after she first went to his private Caribbean island in the late 1990s when she was 21. She agreed with the other women Tuesday that the Justice Department must continue investigating Epstein and that if it doesn’t make documents public, his accusers will come forward.
“A lot of us survivors know we’ve been compiling lists of our own, and we have so many other survivors,” Phillips said. “Please come forward, and we’ll compile our own list and seek justice on our own. I mean, I think that’s what’s going to happen next.”
Michaels said that it can be “triggering” each time Epstein’s case returns to the headlines but that she has found “strength in numbers” with the other accusers.
“No matter where you are in your healing journey, no matter how strong you feel, trauma responses happen in an instant,” she said, as they struggle with headaches, insomnia, nightmares and other invisible symptoms. “We live with the effects of what has happened to us in ways that you might not think of.”
