1 week ago
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A group of survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse have warned they have received death threats and are worried about an escalation as they wait for the release of the files related to the late paedophile financier.
In a statement titled “What we’re bracing for”, the women said they had received threats of harm and asked police to investigate and protect them.
Several women who were abused by Epstein have ramped up their campaigning efforts in recent weeks to push for the release of the justice department’s files related the late sex offender.
Some have spoken publicly about their ordeals, putting themselves at the forefront of a scandal that has dominated the national conversation in the US as a rare Republican rebellion saw Donald Trump drop his opposition to a move to release the files and sign it into law. Since the signing, the department of justice has 30 days to release the files.
“Thanks to brave supporters in Congress and in the public, we have won one victory, the passage of the bill to release the Epstein files. But we know the battle is far from over,” said the statement signed by 18 named survivors and 10 Jane Does.
The statement said the women were braced for attempts to blame the victims for their own or each other’s abuse, incomplete disclosures, efforts to pull the survivors apart and threats to their physical safety.
“Many of us have already received death threats and other threats of harm. We are bracing for these to escalate. We ask every federal and state law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over these threats to investigate them and protect us,” the statement said.
A few women have opened up about the threats they have received in the wake of telling their stories.
Anouska De Georgiou, who was the first British woman to allege she was sexually abused by Epstein, told the BBC’s Newsnight program this month that she had received threats that she believed were intended to silence her since waiving her anonymity in 2019.
Virginia Giuffre, perhaps the best known Epstein survivor, had also reportedly suffered a campaign of intimidation and death threats before she killed herself in April.
The statement signed by survivors including sisters Maria and Annie Farmer, Marina Lacerda and Jess Michaels, also referenced recent attempts by some which appeared to downplay the abuse of Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Last week the conservative radio host Megyn Kelly appeared to question whether Epstein really was a pedophile. “There’s a difference between a 15-year-old and a five-year-old,” she said on her podcast.
“We are already hearing efforts to suggest that victims who had reached the age of 18 were not really victims anymore,” the women said in the statement.
“We denounce this outrageous argument. Some of us were over 18 when we were victimized. Some were vulnerable because of childhood sexual abuse. Some were vulnerable because of poverty. Some of us were assaulted by Epstein and Maxwell and their accomplices using force, intimidation, and violence. All of us were vulnerable because of life circumstances our young selves faced that were manipulated by Epstein and Maxwell and for which we were targeted.”
