Avis, who hadn’t previously come forward publicly, said she was inspired by Jones. Both women said they had interactions with Epstein at his Florida mansion, and Avis said she was 14 in the early 2000s when he abused her.
“Not everybody is getting justice, and that’s not right,” Avis said, adding that “the everyday person is out there, and that’s me, and we’re victims.”
The Epstein case has dominated headlines this summer, and it isn’t likely to go away now that Congress has returned to Washington after the August recess.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee was scheduled to meet privately with 10 accusers Tuesday. Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., is seeking to depose Maxwell, which could happen after the U.S. Supreme Court decides later this month whether it will review her 2021 sex offender conviction linked to Epstein.
Republican House leadership added legislation Tuesday that would direct the Oversight Committee to continue its investigation into the “possible mismanagement of the Federal government’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell.”
But two lawmakers, Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., plan to hold a news conference Wednesday with Epstein and Maxwell accusers on Capitol Hill and call for immediate action and the full release of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. Khanna and Massie are leading a discharge petition, which, if it earns enough House support, would force a floor vote to release the files.
Such a move would clash with the Trump administration and the Justice Department, which has sought to release only some documents out of “public interest.” Trump initially said he supports full disclosure of the documents, but over the summer, he has been at odds with some members of his party and his base who have pushed conspiratorial narratives about Epstein’s death and a “client list” that could implicate other high-profile and powerful men involved in the trafficking of underage girls.
The White House and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Epstein died by suicide in his New York City jail at 66 while he was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. A Justice Department report in 2023 uncovered a cascade of misconduct, negligence and errors by corrections employees that created the conditions allowing Epstein to take his own life but found no evidence to contradict the official conclusion that he died by suicide.
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in recruiting and trafficking minors for sex as a longtime confidant to Epstein. She is appealing the conviction.
Last month, the Justice Department released transcripts from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s two-day interview with Maxwell this summer, in which she insisted she never witnessed any inappropriate conduct from any man, including Trump, who had been friendly with Epstein. She denied the existence of an incriminating “client list” and maintained her innocence to Blanche.
Days after the interview, Maxwell was moved from a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to an all-women’s prison camp in Bryan, Texas, stoking outrage among former and current federal Bureau of Prison staff members who said such a transfer is highly unusual.
The Bureau of Prison didn’t provide a reason for her relocation to Bryan, where the majority of inmates are serving time for nonviolent offenses and white-collar crimes.
Giuffre’s family have said that they were against showing leniency to Maxwell and that the Justice Department’s release of transcripts from her interview gave her a “platform to rewrite history.”
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in a previous statement that he was thankful the Justice Department released her interview “so that people can judge for themselves.”
On the matter of a potential pardon for Maxwell, Trump said last month that “nobody’s asked” him to grant her clemency but that he has “the right to give pardons.”
Danny Wilson, Giuffre’s brother, said doing so for Maxwell would be a “slap in the face” to his sister’s and the other accusers’ memories.
Chartouni, who said Epstein sexually assaulted her after she moved to New York in 2000, agreed that it “is an insult” that Trump would even be “toying with the idea” of a pardon.
“She’s not a reliable narrator for her story,” she said of Maxwell, adding that the administration’s focus seems to be “so much attention on the criminals” rather than on what Epstein’s accusers want.
Markus said in a statement Tuesday that Maxwell was being made a scapegoat by accusers seeking financial gain.
“As far as changing the narrative, most of these women didn’t mention Ghislaine when they were repeatedly interviewed by law enforcement back in the day,” Markus said. “Only when plaintiffs’ lawyers came knocking and dollar signs started flashing did they start pointing the finger at Ghislaine.”
Phillips alleges Epstein groomed and sexually assaulted her after she first went to his private Caribbean island in the late 1990s when she was 21. She agreed with the other women Tuesday that the Justice Department must continue investigating Epstein and that if it doesn’t make documents public, his accusers will come forward.
“A lot of us survivors know we’ve been compiling lists of our own, and we have so many other survivors,” Phillips said. “Please come forward, and we’ll compile our own list and seek justice on our own. I mean, I think that’s what’s going to happen next.”
Michaels said that it can be “triggering” each time Epstein’s case returns to the headlines but that she has found “strength in numbers” with the other accusers.
“No matter where you are in your healing journey, no matter how strong you feel, trauma responses happen in an instant,” she said, as they struggle with headaches, insomnia, nightmares and other invisible symptoms. “We live with the effects of what has happened to us in ways that you might not think of.”
