'They deserve this transparency': Rep. Ayanna Pressley calls for hearing with Epstein survivors [View all]
Rep. Ayanna Pressley on Thursday called for a congressional hearing to amplify the voices of trafficking survivors abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their associates, in a letter shared exclusively with The 19th.
Pressley and 15 Democratic colleagues argued in the letter to House Oversight Chairman James Comer that, in light of the national conversation around Epstein and whatever Department of Justice files may exist pertaining to his trafficking and sexual abuse crimes, Congress should be hearing directly from survivors.
The Massachusetts Democrat is no stranger to speaking out on behalf of survivors — herself included. Pressley has publicly shared her own experiences as a survivor of both childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault while in college, and is a leading voice in Congress on prioritizing survivor voices as a critical step towards holistic justice.
“I know the pain and trauma that survivors carry. 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,” Pressley told The 19th. “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.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/deserve-transparency-rep-ayanna-pressley-193536996.html
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