Epstein survivors implore Congress to act as push for disclosure builds

People at the news conference at the US Capitol on Wednesday (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard on Tuesday in Washington DC, pressuring politicians to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back US President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax”.

In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files”, the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.