Maybe they see the bookmobile as it makes its way through different locations.

Yeah.

I think that the whole purpose of this reading room and bookmobile tour is so that we can bring this to the people who need this information the most.

And so I think that it's going to vary depending on the city and the state that we're in.

But I don't think that when people take the political emotion out of this and when they look at what this is, this is sex trafficking.

It's a crime, right? And I don't think that anyone could say...

yeah, I'm totally fine with girls and young women being sexually exploited.

Liz, do you ever feel like your identity now is so tied into this, especially now that you've become public about, you know, who you are and your role in all of this?

bookmobile as it makes its way through different locations.

Yeah.

I think that the whole purpose of this reading room and bookmobile tour is so that we can bring this to the people who need this information the most.

And so I think that it's going to vary depending on the city and the state that we're in.

But I don't think that when people take the political emotion out of this and when they look at what this is, this is sex trafficking.

It's a crime, right? And I don't think that anyone could say, yeah, I'm totally fine with girls and young women being sexually exploited.

Like, I don't have any problem with that.

Liz, do you ever feel like your identity now is so tied into this, especially now that you've become public about, you know, who you are and your role in all of this?

Are you frustrated right now?

I think everyone is frustrated, not only the Epstein survivors, but I think citizens across this country are frustrated.

We are now looking at two separate things.

We're looking at the crimes committed by Epstein and his co-conspirators, and now we're looking at the crimes of the coverup.

If these men have nothing to hide, then why are they hiding? And I think that we're watching this play out in front of our eyes.

And I think that, you know, people across the country just cannot stand for it anymore.

Liz, what's your reaction when you hear that?

Well, I think that we all want answers from Todd Blanche.

What are the most important questions that you still want answered by Todd Blanche?

Well, I think that we are very concerned about, um, the fact that Ghislaine Maxwell, um, has been moved to a low security facility.

This is something that's unprecedented for anyone who has a conviction that she has.

And we haven't ever gotten real answers about what transpired there.

Um, it feels to us like it was a reward for her, um, saying what, um, Todd Blanche wanted her to say publicly.

Um, but that's a, a really big concern for us.

We're also very concerned about the way that the files were released and the way that redactions were handled.

Uh, w-what have-- what do you think is going to come next, and how are you going to keep up the pressure on lawmakers to get to the bottom of everything?

Do you feel like that was productive?

We did.

You know, it was really, we really appreciated Senator Cornyn's staff sitting down with us and listening to what our exact concerns were about the nomination of Todd Blanche.

Um, you know, Senator Cornyn has a long-standing track record of standing behind, um, survivors of human trafficking, and I think that, you know, something that gets missed a lot in all of this, I say all the time that there's so much political emotion infused into what is the crime of sex trafficking.

Um, I think that when we are able to get these face-to-face meetings with people and really make them understand the human element of this case, their whole perspective changes.

What was that moment like, those moments?

You know, I think that it was really important for us to do because I think that sometimes when we talk about the Epstein files being three and a half million pages that have been released so far, that feels very abstract.

But when you bring into someone's office a book that has been earmarked with potential investigative leads and you say, "Here.

Can you expand on that a little bit? What about it made you come away with that impression?

Well, like I said, we went into the m- meeting really in earnest looking to work with Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice.

We went into the meeting with an agenda, um, questions that we had that we wanted answered.

And when we got into the meeting, we didn't receive any answers to any of the questions that we were asking.

Um, he talked around the subjects that we were trying to press him on, and we couldn't really get him to commit to anything.

I think that, um, if Todd Blanche even offered us the slightest bit of an olive branch, we would've been satisfied with that, but it just felt like more of the same over and over again.

Um, you know, earlier this year, when Pam Bondi testified and refused to acknowledge that we were in the room, that sent a really strong message to us about what the DOJ thinks of us as victims of crime, and our meeting with Blanche only reiterated those feelings for me.

If Todd Blanche is confirmed as attorney general, how do you hope the DOJ proceeds when it comes to Epstein?

And here is how that meeting with Todd Blanche went, according to survivor Liz Stein.

It had absolutely nothing to do with us, and it had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he can get a promotion.

Um, I don't think that we had high expectations going into this meeting.

I certainly did not.

But I didn't expect to walk out of the meeting feeling the way that we feel right now.

Um, it was [sighs] demoralizing, um, to say the very least.

Um, and I think that Todd Blanche had an opportunity today to throw us some kind of bone.

Mm-hmm.

So you share with us whether this meeting had anything to do with you.

Look, it had absolutely nothing to do with us, and it had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he can get a promotion.

I don't think that we had high expectations going into this meeting.

I certainly did not.

But I didn't expect to walk out of the meeting feeling the way that we feel right now.

It was... to say the very least.

And I think that Todd Blanche had an opportunity today to demonstrate throw us some kind of bone, to agree to something, to just...

Were you able to convey that to Todd Blanch? Were you able to tell him what you felt, what you thought,

That narrative is false." Is that narrative false?

[laughs] Very ironic.

We have been asking, almost begging to meet with the DOJ for months now.

Um, we have made ourselves available, and I think that what we saw today from Todd Blanche was a lot of deflection.

There's always deflection, right? Survivors have been speaking to the FBI for almost 30 years, since 1996.

We have given information, um, and he just keeps putting the, the impetus back onto us-

Um, if you had a chance to meet with Todd Blanche, if he's watching CNN right now, what would you say to him?

Well, I said this the other day.

Mm-hmm

... and for certain commercial customers just to avoid antitrust, right? It's all speculation on my part, but I imagine there's some amount of that in their business plan.

Um, you know, I think all launchers, right, have an opportunity to step in because the need is not just what we're seeing in, you know, um, AI data centers, which is sort of the, the, a hot thing right now in, in space, right? Orbital data centers.

Um, I think there's massive needs on satellite communications.

There's potential future needs in infrastructure as we increase lau- launch cadence for manufacturing of crystalline materials up there.

There's a lot of interesting things that you can do up there.

I think Satcom in particular is going from something that right now is serving consumers and bridging the digital div- divide to an orthogonal layer of critical infrastructure for enterprise and sovereigns, right? We live in an age of geopolitical uncertainty, and redundancy is not resiliency.

[laughs]

W- what is it like to see Todd Blanche move further up in the administration in light of how you feel about how he is, has handled the Epstein files?

Thanks, Jake.

To say that this is concerning would be a really gross understatement.

Um, you know, if his nomination is confirmed, Todd Blanche would be the head law enforcement agent of our country.

And we have seen consistently over the past year his behavior in regards to the Epstein case is just really concerning.

We've heard him say that there's nothing to see here.

We've heard him say that there are no investigative leads.

And also, did you discuss any names of any possible perpetrators in this meeting?

If you could have been inside that room, which survivors were not allowed in, what would you wanted to press Pam Bondi on?

What I would have wanted to know from Ms. Bondi today was, what were the procedural aspects by which these files were reviewed? What was the redaction process? Um, we saw over and over and over when these files were released, survivors' names, identifying information, um, uh, were unredacted time and time again, yet we're seeing perpetrators' names redacted all over the place.

Um, it feels very intentional on the, the part of the Department of Justice to expose survivors' names and cover up, um, perpetrators' names.

So from what you heard from the committee about this interview, did you get any more clarity, Liz? And will you follow up with Chairman Comer?

Unfortunately, I haven't received a lot of clarity, and I know that, um, most of the survivors that I'm in contact with feel the same way.

Um, absolutely will I follow up with Chairman Comer.

We have said all along that this is not a partisan issue for l- for us.

This is a crime.

And if there's any way possible to hold people accountable, I think there's many ways that people could be held accountable, right? Like this is not rocket science.

No, I would agree with you.

I think that when we look at these Epstein files, they are riddled with investigative leads.

I mean, almost on every page, there's some lead that the Department of Justice could have followed and just chose not to.

And that is incredibly concerning to us, both as survivors and as citizens of this country, that our Department of Justice is taking the stance that this multi-decade international sex trafficking ring has no merit.

Do you agree?

Absolutely.

I think that, you know, it's very obvious that today we didn't get a whole lot of answers.

Now Liz, what do you want the public to know during today's Pam Bondi testimony?

I think that we want the public to understand that we are survivors of a crime.

I think that that is something that's getting lost in all of this.

We're h- we're seeing so much political emotion pumped into the Epstein case, and we're failing to understand what it really is about.

And what we're looking at is, you know, our country and perhaps our world's largest and longest operating sex trafficking ring.

And so today I'm hoping that Pam Bondi can shed some light on how the Department of Justice has investigated these crimes, how they have acted procedurally, um, in releasing these files, and anything that gets us closer to the truth is important.

What do you think that says to the American people about how these survivors of Epstein's abuse are claiming back, uh, who they are, uh, their value, uh, and really in, in, in a, one sense I guess shaking the American people to pay attention to their stories?

stories?I think that we saw a lot of really impactful testimony today, and I think that, um, the way that the testimony from the survivors was book-ended.

First we heard from Maria Farmer, and then we heard from Rosa at the very end, with Danny and Jenna Lisa and Courtney in between.

[sighs] You know, I think that to hear Rosa's story today is something that no survivor should ever, ever have to, have to deal with.

This is someone who intentionally has kept this private for decades of her life.

Um, and she's been outed.

Her name was exposed over 500 times, and so now she's been thrust into the spotlight.

It is harrowing.

Liz?

For me, it was really upsetting, you know, as Dani and Jess just expressed, to sit there and for her to not react to us.

But I let go of that moment of upset for a moment, and I really just looked at it and I thought, 'Wow, by her actions, she's telling everyone exactly who she is.' And so in ways, I think that her reaction couldn't have been better because it was so telling, um, that she could not even be human.

And I think that we're seeing over and over and over again, um, where our Department of Justice is ...

It feels like to me, Kara, it feels like they are trying to, um, push a narrative, um, despite the fact that it's false.

But what we're seeing is that people see through that narrative.

And so I think that the more they behave like this publicly, the more people are going to demand, uh, that this all come out.

We're not here to be pun- pundits, right? Like, we are here to really tell our story and hope that it doesn't happen and perpetuate again.

What do you make of the DOJ's refusal to investigate further here?

Well, I think that despite, um, those assertions by the DOJ, I think that the American public knows that there is a lot more to be investigated in this case.

And I think that, um, what we saw in November was, um, really remarkableUm, in November, we saw bipartisan support for the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Um, and Americans spoke.

They spoke to their lawmakers, and they said, "You know, this is really an important issue to us, where, um, we wanna see transparency, and we don't really care, um, you know, who is involved.

We just wanna get to the bottom of this." And so I think that, you know, as survivors, we are really hopeful that we're going to see that kind of energy again because I don't think that anyone who's looking at this with any kind of objectivity could say that there's nothing to see here.

Liz, what, if anything, do you wish more people knew about the challenges some survivors face as these files continue to garner more public attention?

I think that it's important to remember that we are victims of a crime, and for many people, it's difficult to be in the public spotlight.

Liz, tell us why it was important for you and other Epstein survivors to come to the State of the Union address and be in the room.

I think that for us, um, for so long we have watched this Department of Justice fail us over and over and over again.

Um, this haphazard release of the files where we're seeing potential, um, perpetrators being protected and names and personal information of survivors being identified really felt like, um, an intentional attempt to try to silence us.

Uh, and that is the opposite of what the effect was on us.

If anything, it made us more energized to go forward in our pursuit of justice.

And so it's really important for us to be here today and to, you know, make ourselves seen and make ourselves heard, um, because It is just so important for us to, to finally get accountability, um, it w- by whatever means we need to do that.

Do you want President Trump to acknowledge you and your fellow survivors when he speaks this evening?

I think that it will be interesting to see what happens.

Do you align yourself with that?

Absolutely.

I think that this is a good start, but it's just a start.

And we need to see this kind of accountability start to happen in the United States.

We're looking at the UK, we're looking at Norway, we're looking at countries in Europe, holding people accountable.

You know, for us in the United States, I think that maybe it's easy to kind of just look at this and say, well, Andrew was arrested.

This is the first time that a member of the royal family has been arrested since the 1600s.

Do you feel like Congress has maybe misfired in their approach here in how they're handling the release of the Epstein files?

Just you, you know, share whatever you're comfortable sharing today.

I, I met Ghislaine Maxwell while I was a senior in college, and I was working at an internship for one of Mr. Wexner's stores.

Um, and the day that I met, uh, Ghislaine, uh, she made it a point to let me know that her boss, who was Jeffrey Epstein, was very close to Mr. Wexner.

Now, I have no allegations against Mr. Wexner, but you're seeing initially in my first meeting with them, they're using him as, you know, a way to influence my behavior.

And so um, when this happened to me, I, I was a senior in college.

I was 21 years old.

This was 1994 to 1997.

Liz, what would you say to people who think that their daughters, or sisters, or women they care about and love could never be in the position of being trafficked to rich, powerful men?

Ask the hard questions.

It's really hard for us to hear the DOJ kind of saying, this is done there's no more to see here when in every page of the files that i have looked at there is some kind of investigative lead and you know i can see that even with the over redaction that the doj has done of the files and today we saw rokhana and thomas massey were able to view the unredacted files and they're saying that they saw six six names today alone that should never have been redacted in the first place.

So I think that our confidence in the DOJ is not there anymore.

And yet America, the many women you elect, are preventing that from happening.

I think that's exactly why we're doing it.

That's exactly why we refuse to be silent.

We are victims of a crime.

We are victims of a sex trafficking ring.

How does that land? It

doesn't land really well with us.

And I want to be clear that we have been willing to help this investigation in any ways that we're able to.

We have disclosed names of people, places to our lawyers.

They have that information.

It should not be on us.

to come out publicly and call people out individually, that's putting us at great harm.

So what can we do to help you and to help the victims of this get the individuals exposed who need to be exposed and accounted for here?

Yeah.

And there's this concept that we talk about in anti-trafficking work called the Romeo pimp, and this is someone who comes into your life under the guise of being a romantic partner, and they shower you with love and gifts, and they make you feel safe and secure while they're grooming you and bringing you in.

And then by the time that you realize that this is not a genuine romantic relationship, you're so far in that you feel like there is just no way to get out.

Another thing that traffickers do is they isolate you.

They isolate you from anyone that you're close to, your family, your friends, people who could potentially help you get out of the situation.

Um, and these are all things that keep people trapped in trafficking.

But I don't think that the public really understands trafficking, um, in the way that it, that it actually unfolds.

And what happened?

Listen.How are you thinking about the road ahead for you and for the other survivors?

I think that today is a really good starting point for us all.

Um, we have been relentless in speaking out about this and this is not gonna stop just because we're getting a vote from the House today.

We know that we have a long road ahead of us and we're prepared to, we're prepared to ride it out.

We ... (sighs) we've waited so long for this and we've been so patient and we know that we're gonna have to be patient for a while longer, but it feels really good to see finally something happen.

(image crashes)

What does it feel like as a survivor to see your lived trauma reduced to political fodder?

Well, I think it's important for people to understand that this is not a political issue.

This is a crime, and the crime is sex trafficking.

And so to have...

We had 20 Epstein survivors gathered today.

To have so many women coming forward with similar stories, we don't know each other, we've never met each other, most of us, yet we have this commonality, and it's being ignored and downplayed.

Um, the amount of emotional turmoil that you go through in coming out and telling your story, the risk to your safety, your life changes forever when you become public.

As a survivor of their crimes, how does that strike you?