Looking out into the room when he delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Donald Trump will be faced by more than a dozen survivors and family members of those abused by Jeffrey Epstein.
Democratic lawmakers have invited the survivors as guests for the president’s primetime speech after the Trump administration failed to release all the files on the pedophile or charge any co-conspirators.
The president himself has repeatedly raged that the investigation into the convicted sex offender is a “hoax” by Democrats, despite campaigning on releasing the files.
Members of his administration have refused to meet with the survivors amid mounting pressure and ignored calls for an apology for revealing survivors’ names in their botched release of documents.
The State of the Union address will be the first time Trump will have to walk into the same room as survivors, some of whom have been calling for the president to meet with them and hear their stories for months.
Epstein survivors, members of the Women’s Democratic Caucus and some male Democratic lawmakers will also be wearing pins in the crowd Tuesday night, according to a staffer.
The pins read “Stand with Survivors” above “Release the Files” with a black bar that looks similar to a redaction.
Among the Epstein survivors attending are Dani Bensky, who is the guest of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and Marina Lacerda, who was invited by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, who wrote about being recruited by Epstein at Mar-a-Lago, will attend as the guests of House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, and Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. Giuffre died by suicide last year.
Survivor Annie Farmer will also be in the room at the invitation of House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia, while Haley Robson is the guest of Rep. Ro Khanna, who helped push through the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Survivors turned advocates Liz Stein, Lisa Phillips, Jess Michaels, Marijke Chartouni, Sharlene Rochard, Lara Blume McGee, Jena Lisa Jones and Teresa Helm will also be in attendance for the president’s address.
The group of brave women abused at the hands of Epstein continues to call on the Justice Department to release all the files as the administration has failed to meet the deadline required by law. They’ve vowed to keep fighting until co-conspirators are held accountable.
But Trump has flat-out rejected their calls for justice while defending himself amid questions about his own association with the pedophile.
On Tuesday, the president was hit with another bombshell report by NPR that the Justice Department withheld and removed Epstein files related to Trump.
Earlier this month, the president argued that the country needs to “move on” from the Epstein files while claiming his own name had been cleared despite a lack of evidence to support it.
“I think it’s really time for the country to get on to something else, really,” Trump said, seated in the Oval Office.
When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about getting justice for the survivors, the president instead attacked the reporter who asked the questions.
Asked about the arrest of former Prince Andrew on Air Force One last week and whether any people in the U.S. will ever face arrest for ties to Epstein, the president said the arrest was “very sad” to see and “bad” for the royal family. He did not address the alleged crimes or the survivors.
