The first step in the right direction towards exposing a group of pedophiles in society's elite, Wild told ABC News after both the House of Representatives and the Senate gave the green light for the document release.
That all material in the investigation into the convicted and deceased sex offender be made public is something she and other victims have demanded for years. After the congressional announcement on Tuesday, the ball is in President Donald Trump's court, who has promised to sign the decision.
To the White House?
The fact that the “Epstein documents” have become a political issue is something many victims regret. Jena-Lisa Jones, who said she was 14 when Epstein abused her in Florida, recently urged President Trump – who has been against disclosure for much of the year – to show “class and leadership,” according to media reports.
Now Jones says that Trump owes the victims an apology, and that some of them should be present in the Oval Office when he signs the decision.
He made it (the disclosure) a central part of his campaign, that's why I voted for him, she tells
, adding that the president's U-turn earlier this year was painful for many.
During the fall, Wild, Jones and several others have told their stories standing on the steps of the Capitol. They have received support, primarily from House Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, who pushed the bipartisan initiative that ultimately led to the vote on the documents.
Over 1,000 victims
Several victims have simultaneously expressed concerns that the political game will overshadow Epstein's criminal act and that he - in their opinion - got off lightly in the first legal proceedings.
According to a memorandum from the Department of Justice, there are more than 1,000 victims of crimes linked to Jeffrey Epstein over a 20-year period. These include trafficking, sex trafficking, abuse, sex with minors and girls who, according to their own statements, were kept as “sex slaves” in Epstein’s Florida villa, New York townhouse or on his private island in the Caribbean. Many of the victims are described as young and vulnerable, often lured into Epstein’s circles with manipulative promises of career opportunities or modeling contracts.
A crime victims' fund set up has paid out over $121 million to 135 victims, according to law firm Edwards Henderson The Crime Victim Law Firm , which has represented a number of them.
An investigation into businessman Jeffrey Epstein began in 2005 after a 14-year-old girl told police she had been molested by him at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. The investigation grew and in 2007 he was indicted in federal court.
After a plea deal with prosecutors, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sex trafficking in 2008. He was released after 13 months.
The case received renewed attention in 2018 after a series of articles in the Miami Herald in which several women came forward and accused Epstein of sexual assault during the period 2001 to 2005.
In July 2019, Epstein was arrested at an airport in New Jersey. The new charges against him concerned the abuse of dozens of underage girls between 2002 and 2005. According to the prosecution, Epstein tried to buy the silence of witnesses with millions of dollars. Epstein denied the crime.
On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell in Manhattan's New York City jail. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. It is believed he took his own life, but this is disputed.
A prominent plaintiff against Epstein was Virginia Giuffre, who died earlier this year. She claimed that Epstein’s convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell discovered her at Donald Trump’s Florida spa when she was 17 and hired her as Epstein’s masseuse—his “sex slave.” Giuffre also accused Britain’s Prince Andrew of rape, which ended in an out-of-court settlement between the parties.
