WASHINGTON — Victims of late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his incarcerated accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell said Wednesday they are compiling a list of rich and powerful “clients” who were part of the pair’s shadowy network.
Lisa Phillips, a model who was introduced to the disgraced financier in the early 2000s, said that she and other survivors of the Epstein-Maxwell sex trafficking scheme have been discussing putting together a roster of influential associates who Phillips alleges “abused them.”
“We know the names,” Phillips said during a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “Many of us were abused by them.”
“Now, together, as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know who were regularly in the Epstein world. And it will be done by survivors and for survivors — no one else is involved,” she added.
Nearly a dozen other victims or family members of victims who were abused by either Epstein or Maxwell or both met at the US Capitol Wednesday to call for Congress to pass a discharge petition that would force the release of all files currently held by the federal government about the sex trafficker, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019, while awaiting federal trial.
That petition, which was introduced by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), had the 216 votes needed for passage as of Wednesday morning.
“In New York City, countless young women were abused by him,” Phillips said of Epstein. “Everyone in the industry knew, yet he was too powerful to stop. He had friends in all of our entertainment and arts, and his value to those friends made him untouchable.”
“Who was he to our government that he was allowed to operate openly for decades?” she asked. “Why was he allowed to sponsor visas for young models using their immigration status as leverage to abuse them?”
“Epstein was not just a serial predator — he was an international human trafficker,” Phillips concluded. “And many around him knew this, many participated, and many profited. And yet he was protected.”
