Epstein survivors give tearful testimony in House field hearing in Palm Beach

Democrats tore into government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal on Tuesday – revealing new details of the scale of his international sex-trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon to the late sex offender’s sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gave tearful testimony at a congressional field hearing in Florida of their experiences as teenagers in his orbit. Some spoke of being retraumatized after they were “outed” by the justice department’s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.

Democratic members of the US House oversight committee said they held Tuesday’s event in Palm Beach, where the president lives, and where Epstein had a residence, because it was “the scene of the crime”.

“We’re here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location,” the California Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, told a press conference after the hearing.

“We know that the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted.”

Garcia began the hearing by unveiling a new report called The Price of Non-Prosecution that he said revealed how Epstein was able to build a substantial and lucrative international sex-trafficking ring following his infamous “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors in 2008.