Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding that Chairman James Comer expand Congress’s investigation into the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case by allowing survivors of the disgraced financier’s abuse to testify.
Earlier this week, the Republican-led committee subpoenaed the Justice Department for its files on Epstein’s decades-long sex-trafficking scheme involving girls and young women, after Democrats pushed a vote forward.
The committee also issued 10 subpoenas to former Republican and Democratic officials for testimony regarding the investigation. In addition, Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, has also been subpoenaed.
However, Representative Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts and 15 of her Democratic colleagues believe those who survived Epstein and Maxwell’s abuse should be permitted to speak up.
“The Trump Administration made clear that it wants to silence Mr. Epstein’s victims when the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigations issued a July 2025 memorandum asserting that the Epstein case was essentially closed ‘without even talking to a single victim,’ according to one victim’s counsel,” the group of Democrats wrote a letter to Comer on Thursday.
“If we are to hold powerful people to account, our investigation must center the voices they tried to silence,” Democrats wrote.
The committee’s current probe into Epstein was spurred by widespread public grievances after the Trump administration’s memo, refusing to release any more information about the government’s investigation into Epstein.
Trump previously promised to release information on Epstein to quell any conspiracy theories that the government covered up information about high-profile individuals involved in Epstein’s abuse of girls and young women.
The Justice Department’s refusal, compounded with allegations that Trump was more closely associated with Epstein than previously thought, has raised concerns among Republican and Democratic lawmakers about hidden information.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in his friendship with Epstein. The president has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch and Dow Jones over the publication of an article that alleged Trump drew a bawdy drawing to celebrate Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
Whether or not survivors may testify is unclear. Some victims in the case feel as though they were denied justice in the Epstein case because of his suicide while in federal jail in 2019, before his federal criminal trial could begin.
Many of those have said they approve of the Justice Department unsealing grand jury testimony in the investigation through letters, submitted by their lawyers, to judges.
They have also raised concerns about “platforming” Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, who is primarily credited with procuring and grooming victims for Epstein. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking a minor in 2021
“I know the pain and trauma that survivors carry,” Pressley told The 19th. “Those that have been victimized by Epstein and his co-conspirators, they deserve this transparency, this accountability, this healing, and I think they’ve not been centered enough.”
“People have gotten distracted and derailed with what they perceive as the political gamemanship of this and people doing what my Republican colleagues do so often, which is playing games with people’s lives,” she added.
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