Rep. Ayanna Pressley on Thursday called for a congressional hearing to amplify the voices of trafficking survivors abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and their associates, in a letter shared exclusively with The 19th. 

Pressley and 15 Democratic colleagues argued in the letter to House Oversight Chairman James Comer that, in light of the national conversation around Epstein and whatever Department of Justice files may exist pertaining to his trafficking and sexual abuse crimes, Congress should be hearing directly from survivors. 

The Massachusetts Democrat is no stranger to speaking out on behalf of survivors — herself included. Pressley has publicly shared her own experiences as a survivor of both childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault while in college, and is a leading voice in Congress on prioritizing survivor voices as a critical step towards holistic justice.

“I know the pain and trauma that survivors carry. Those that have been victimized by Epstein and his co-conspirators, they deserve this transparency, this accountability, this healing, and I think they’ve not been centered enough,” Pressley told The 19th. “People have gotten distracted and derailed with what they perceive as the political gamemanship of this and people doing what my Republican colleagues do so often, which is playing games with people’s lives.”

Recent actions by the Trump administration have contradicted the near-constant rhetoric from Republicans about protecting women, halting human trafficking and guarding children from sex crimes. Last month, the State Department implemented a so-called ‘reduction-in-force’ within the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), effectively decimating a team that worked to combat labor and sex trafficking abroad and helped coordinate domestic efforts across other agencies, including the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor. 

Lately, Pressley said she has been thinking back to two seminal moments in her own life where she learned the power of survivor testimony. One is reading Maya Angelou’s memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and understanding for the first time “that I was not alone in the world.” The other is watching Anita Hill testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee during confirmation hearings for future-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1991 about the sexual harassment she said she experienced while working for him. Pressley’s mother taped Hill’s testimony on VHS each day and would play it for Pressley when she came home from school. “My mother, not even knowing what I was navigating with the intra-family abuse that I was experiencing, she recognized the historic significance and the bravery of Anita in that moment,” she said.

Pressley said she understands the two-fold lesson her mother wanted her to glean from Hill’s testimony: the power and strength of Hill’s choice to speak out publicly and “how hard institutions and culture could work to silence her voice.” These days, Pressley has also been thinking about the full-circle moment she experienced when, years later, Hill presented her with the Victim Rights Law Center Leadership Award in 2014. While embracing on stage, Hill whispered to Pressley, “I believe you.” 

Now, Pressley said she wants to do the same for the Epstein survivors: “I want to be that whisper.”

The House Oversight Committee is one of the most powerful bodies in the legislative branch, with the ability to carry out its own investigations of the federal government by conducting its own investigations, including but not limited a process that includes holding hearings, issuing subpoenas and reporting findings to not only Congress but the public. Historically, the committee has operated with a fair amount of bipartisanship. However, in the GOP-controlled Congress under the second Trump administration, Comer, a six-term lawmaker from Kentucky, and other Republicans are unlikely to heed any requests from their Democratic colleagues, especially about the Epstein investigation.

Pressley stressed that granting survivors the opportunity to appear before Congress is critical in ensuring they receive justice and the American people hear their truth. “We do have some survivors that have expressed a clear willingness and desire to come before Congress and it’s important that if they have the strength, the courage and the bravery to raise their hand and say, ‘Call upon me’ then we cannot meet them with inaction and complicity,” she said.

The so-called Epstein Files have become a divisive flashpoint among Republicans. Infighting continues on the right after President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to publicly release the files; last month Attorney General Pam Bondi — who had announced in February that the alleged Epstein “client list” was sitting on her desk — said that no such client list existed and no further files would be released. The backlash was immediate, with many MAGA faithful and Democrats alike asking why the Trump administration, once adamant about talking about Epstein and forever invoking their prioritization of protecting women and children from sexual predators, was no longer going to release additional information about a man convicted of sex trafficking minors. 

Pressley also underscored the degree to which the Trump administration has rolled back meaningful gains made for survivors by the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and other federal programs, including access to behavioral health and support services for survivors. “There’s a divestment of federal support in many of these programs and policies and proven models of successful, community-based organizations that support survivors,” she said.

It’s why Pressley and her co-signers —  the committee’s Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Reps. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Stephen F. Lynch, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Kweisi Mfume, Summer Lee, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Emily Randall, Suhas Subramanyam, Yassamin Ansari, Lateefah Simon, Dave Min and Rashida Tlaib — want a hearing where victims get to speak. 

“The role and responsibility of this committee is to make sure that we center who and what matters most to this moment, and that is truth and this is survivors,” Pressley said. “I think only by hearing directly from people who have been so devastatingly impacted can people understand and join the cause with us and link arms in this fight. They have to hear it for themselves.”

Should Comer not grant the survivors a hearing, Pressley said she’s far from done in continuing in this work. 

“If it doesn’t happen, I will remind people why it didn’t happen and that those elected officials are on the side of predators, while the Democrats are on the side of survivors,” she said. “Republicans want to shield predators and Democrats are siding with survivors and their justice and with truth.”