'Not a hoax': Jeffrey Epstein's "Minor Victim-1" broke her silence today
Scores of Epstein survivors spoke in front of Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning, some for the first time.
Some Epstein survivors have denounced their stories becoming grist for politics and conspiracy theories.
Journalism providing context and humanity has never been more important.
Scores of Jeffrey Epstein survivors spoke in front of Capitol Hill on Wednesday to urge lawmakers to finally force transparency onto the docket, including a central figure in his indictment who had been silent for more than 20 years.
“Today is the first time that I ever [spoke] publicly about what happened to me,” Marina Lacerda, previously anonymized in Epstein’s indictment as “Minor Victim-1,” said. “I never thought that I would find myself here. The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say.”
In the cold language of court papers, Lacerda’s story seems indistinguishable from dozens, if not hundreds, of children and young women brought into Epstein’s orbit in the 1990s through the mid-2010s.
“Epstein also encouraged and enticed Minor Victim-1 to recruit other girls to engage in paid sex acts, which she did,” the indictment states. “Epstein asked Minor Victim-1 how old she was, and Minor Victim-1 answered truthfully.”
Speaking at a dais in front of the Capitol — surrounded by attorneys, reporters, and other survivors — Lacerda filled in the sparse details of the cold record with her story as an immigrant from Brazil.
“I was working three jobs to try to support my mom and my sister when a friend of mine in the neighborhood told me that I could make $300 to give an older guy a massage,” she said.
She said the job soon became her “worst nightmare.”
“Jeffrey's assistant Leslie Groff would call me and tell me that I needed to be at the house so often that I ended up dropping out of high school before ninth grade,” Lacerda said. “And I never went back.”
Groff was one of four people specifically shielded from prosecution in Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement signed by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta.
In Epstein’s orbit, the line between victim and recruiter often got blurred, and Lacerda described her pining for a position like the one Groff had.
“Every day, I hope[d] that he would offer me a real job as one of his assistants or something, something important. I would probably have ‘made it big’ as, like we say, the American dream,” Lacerda said. “That day never came.”
Lacerda said that she worked for Epstein between the ages of 14 and 17, when she was told she had become “too old.”
In Epstein’s indictment, prosecutors obscured the identity of the assistant who recruited Lacerda as “Employee-1.” The day after Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction in 2021, Groff’s attorneys told Business Insider that prosecutors informed them that their client would not be prosecuted, and the non-prosecution agreement remains Maxwell’s central defense on appeal.
More than two decades after meeting Epstein, and nearly three years after Maxwell’s conviction, Lacerda explained why she finally stepped forward.
“The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people who matter in this country finally care about what we have to say,” Lacerda said. “As an immigrant from Brazil, I feel empowered knowing that the little girl struggling to get by at 14 and 15 years old finally has a voice.”
Asked by a reporter about Donald Trump’s comments inside the Oval Office today once again describing the Epstein story as a “Democrat hoax,” survivor Haley Robson offered to meet with him and declared: “I am a registered Republican, not that that matters because this is not political.”
During the same question and answer session, Lacerda echoed those sentiments: “This is not a hoax. It's not going to go away.”
Lacerda spoke at a bipartisan press conference organized by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who are pushing for the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Massie said that they are two signatures shy of forcing a vote on the bill.
“Rosa shouldn’t have to be here today”
Earlier in the morning, another survivor went public for the first time: Rosa, who stood silently on the stage as her attorney Arick Fudali narrated the broad outlines of her story.
“Rosa shouldn’t have to be here today — and I'm gonna tell you why — because Rosa was trafficked from Uzbekistan under the guise of a modeling contract in 2009,” Fudali said.
That was the year that Epstein completed his short prison sentence following his sweetheart plea deal.
“That means that Rosa wouldn't be here today if Alex Acosta hadn't had Jeffrey Epstein in his grasp, had what every single law enforcement officer dreams of — to stop a predator in his tracks,” Fudali said. “And what [Acosta] do? [Epstein] get[s] a slap on the wrist, and [Acosta] let[s] [Epstein] to continue to abuse.”
Epstein served his 13-month sentence between 2008 and 2009 under unusually lenient terms, and multiple federal lawsuits alleged that Epstein sexually abused women “while on so-called ‘work release’ from jail, while he was still wearing his ankle monitor.”
Fudali did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment on whether Epstein allegedly abused Rosa while on work release or sometime later.
Other highlights from the conference and rally
Anouska De Georgiou, who recently went public as the witness who testified against Maxwell under the pseudonym “Kate,” said at today’s press conference: “To be clear, the only motive for opposing this bill would be to conceal wrongdoing." On Tuesday night, De Georgiou called Maxwell’s comments to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “retraumatizing” in an exclusive interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
Lisa Phillips, who said she was brought to Epstein’s island, spoke about survivors compiling their own list: "Together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know, who were regularly in the Epstein world.”
Chauntae Davies said Epstein boasted about his influence with his powerful friends like former president Bill Clinton and Trump. It was previously reported that Davies went on a trip to Africa with Clinton, but Davies said Trump was his “biggest brag.”
Robson, who previously spoke about her abuse in the documentary “Filthy Rich,” said another benefit of transparency would be dispelling conspiracy theories: “Secrecy only allows for conspiracy theorists to tell lies that drives up our anxiety and fears and will continue to lead to more pain, more suffering, and honestly more deaths of innocent victims,” she said.
Multiple survivors pushed for the release of more Epstein-related files to learn more about their own abuse.
i'm impressed that these women have been so forthright and brave, while the perps have been weak and pathetic
Good summation/review. Please, survivors, create and release your own Epstein files.