KISSIMMEE, Florida — Two years ago, Jena-Lisa Jones voted for President Donald Trump for one reason and one reason only: his and his allies’ promise to release millions of files connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who abused her and hundreds of other known victims. They’re among the few people who can say they’ve taken on an increasingly emboldened and revenge-obsessed Trump and won — working with Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep.
Ro Khanna to get around opposition to releasing the files from GOP leadership, forcing Trump and Republicans’ hand until they relented. Some 3.5 million files have been released, but survivors are pushing for the release of some 3 million more. For months, they and other survivors have been on the road with the Donald J.
Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room and bookmobile, an interactive exhibit of the Epstein files, continuing to tell their stories and hold events with Democrats running for Congress in key battleground races. After two stops early last week in central Florida, the Bookmobile tour went west to the Tampa Bay area and finished up Sunday in Fort Lauderdale with Pia Dandiya, the Democrat running to represent Palm Beach, which includes Trump’s residence of Mar-a-Lago, in Congress. We’re tired of waiting for the truth to come out, so we have to bring it to the people,” Rochard said, standing next to the Bookmobile, which was parked outside the venue where Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon held a rally a few hours later.
If Democrats flip one or both chambers of Congress on Tuesday, the relentless advocacy of Epstein’s survivors will have played a crucial role. They’ve campaigned in Texas, Michigan and New York, and their message of powerful people covering up crimes is one that resonates with voters frustrated with Trump and Republicans. Ashley Moody of Florida and Roger Marshall of Kansas.
Both initially voted against measures in the Senate to compel the release of the files before Trump got on board with the effort. The files that have been released so far put a renewed spotlight on Epstein’s abuses and the people in power who helped rehabilitate his reputation. But in Epstein’s former backyard of South Florida, the stark economic inequalities and systemic failures that enabled him to prey on young girls persist.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state-level counts of soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida as part of a controversial nonprosecution agreement that effectively shut down an FBI sex trafficking probe. In 2019, after the Miami Herald published an investigation into the plea deal that also identified many of his survivors for the first time, federal prosecutors in New York charged Epstein with sex trafficking conspiracy. They said in the indictment that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” in Florida and New York.
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