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Epstein Survivors Break Silence at State Capitol Hearing In New York (5/6/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Epstein Chronicles. For years now, the Epstein's story has been
• 0:07
  fed to the public in fragments, control releases, carefully worded statements,
• 0:12
  timelines that never quite line up the way that they should.
• 0:16
  Every time it starts to build real momentum, it gets redirected, diluted,
• 0:21
  or buried under something else. And if you've been paying attention,
• 0:25
  really paying attention, you know that the most important voices
• 0:29
  in all of this have too often been pushed to
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  the margins, not because they didn't matter, but because what
• 0:35
  they had to say made the entire structure around the
• 0:37
  case a lot harder to defend. But yesterday, that dynamic
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  it didn't hold. Yesterday, those voices were put front and
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  center in a way that couldn't be edited down, couldn't
• 0:49
  be spun, and couldn't be ignored. And that's because yesterday
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  wasn't another checkbox hearing in Albany. It was survivors dragging
• 0:57
  a decade's long failure into a room of people who
• 1:00
  can hide behind procedure anymore. And if you've actually followed
• 1:04
  the case, not the headlines, but the filings, the timelines,
• 1:07
  the way this thing was handled in Florida, in New York,
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  across agencies, then what you saw yesterday should have hit
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  like a punch to the chest. These weren't vague recollections.
• 1:19
  These are people who actually lived inside a system that
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  had every opportunity to intervene and didn't. They weren't asking
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  for a belief, they were forcing acknowledgment. And there's a difference.
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  Belief can be debated. Acknowledgment once it's on the record
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  becomes a problem for anyone who spent years pretending the
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  scope wasn't clear. And what made it uncomfortable, and it
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  should have been uncomfortable, is how precise it all was,
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  not just what Epstein did, but how it was allowed
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  to continue, the access points, the normalization, the fact that
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  this operation didn't exist in a vacuum. You don't get
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  that kind of scale, that kind of consistency without gaps,
• 2:00
  serious gaps in oversight, enforcement and will. And those gaps
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  weren't theoretical yesterday. They were described by the people who
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  had to navigate them in real time. And let's be real,
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  that's the kind of thing that shifts the ground, because
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  once survivors start outlining the structure around the abuse, not
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  just the abuse itself. You're no longer talking about a
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  rogue individual. You're talking about an environment that made it possible.
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  And here's the part that nobody in that room can
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  claim ignorance about anymore. None of this is new. The
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  paper trail has been sitting there for years, court records, depositions,
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  internal reviews. The question has never been what happened. The
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  question has always been why didn't anything stop it when
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  there were multiple points where it could have. Yesterday forced
• 2:47
  that question back into the open. But this time it
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  came with the voices attached people who can tie those
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  failures to lived experience, not abstract policy. So now it's
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  not about statements or follow ups or the usual cycle
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  of promising to look into it. That phase should have
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  ended a long time ago. What happened yesterday put a
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  spotlight on something that's been carefully managed for years. This
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  wasn't just about Epstein, and it never was, and the
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  survivors they make that impossible to ignore. And once that's
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  established in a legislative setting, once it's entered into the
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  record in that way, the pressure shifts, because from here
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  on out an action is in confusion. It's a decision.
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  Today's article is from News ten and the headline Epstein
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  victims testify at state capital first time publicly before legislators.
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  This article was authored by Vanessa Blase. For the first time,
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  alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking ring testified publicly
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  before a legislative body Monday at the New York State Capitol.
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  For women shared their stories of abuse, pushing for a
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  bill that would protect victims of sex trafficking and push
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  for punitive damages. Certain crime shouldn't have statue of limitations,
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  and I think human trafficking is certainly one of them.
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  I mean, if you can prove that there was human
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  trafficking involved, then I think that the statue of limitation
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  shouldn't apply. I mean, we're talking about a heinous ass crime,
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  modern day slavery. More than five years after Epstein died,
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  the fight for justice continues. Four women spoke at a
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  Senate codes meeting on Monday, including Krinni da Silva, Laura
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  Bloom McGee, Alexandra Colomades, and Glendy's Espinal. These women all
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  came from different walks of life, but unfortunately shared very
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  similar stories of abuse. For decades. I carried the shame
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  and the secret, said Laura Bloom McGee. It took more
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  than twenty years for me to find the courage to
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  tell the truth and look for a lot of these women,
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  they still haven't found their footing. A lot of these
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  women still haven't come forward, and a whole lot of
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  women in places like South America and Eastern Europe, we're
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  never going to hear from them. And that's why it's
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  imperative that we listen to the survivors that are coming forward.
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  It's very important that we take what they have to
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  say seriously and then investigate those claims and then if
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  there's enough there, we progress from that point, right And
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  that's what I've always said, real investigations, and of course
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  the only way we can do that at this point
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  is with a special counsel. I'm here today, but it
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  took me a lifetime to be able to speak about
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  what happened to me, said Carini da Silva. McGee shared
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  that she was recruited by Epstein with a promise of
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  a Victoria's Secret model contract, which did not happen. Da
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  Silva shared that she met Epstein in two thousand and
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  one when she was working in the massage industry to
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  make money. No one ever told me it was going
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  to be sexual, said Da Silva. And there's going to
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  be people out there that are like, well, you know what,
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  these were adults, These weren't children. As if adults can't
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  get caught up in a human trafficking scheme, tell that
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  to the millions of people that are living in indentured
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  servitude right now as we speak around the world. There
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  are more people living in slavery right now than at
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  any other time in history. Chew on that shit for
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  a minute, and then tell me that adults can't be
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  victims of human trafficking. They most certainly can now. Of course,
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  the most heinous crime you can commit is against children.
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  Everybody knows that. But let's not act like a woman
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  or a man who is forced into some kind of
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  human trafficking situation is having a grand old time. They
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  are not. And Jeffrey Epstein, well, he had several different
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  layers to his operation, didn'ty When it comes to the
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  young girls. That was his forte. That was his own
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  personal taste and a little special side that he'd serve
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  up to some of his really good friends. But for
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  the most part, these women that were coming over with
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  promises of modeling careers and whatnot, they were being housed
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  and they were being abused. And what Epstein would do
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  is he'd hold their immigration status over their head. So
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  these women they'd be at that building on E sixty
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  six and then from there they'd be sent out to
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  go to parties whatever. But it wasn't always young girls.
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  That was Jeffrey Epstein's proclivity. That doesn't mean that he
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  only had underage girls, right. There was a lot of
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  women who were of age who were caught up in
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  his human trafficking nonsense. And that's something that has been
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  very apparent from the very beginning. When you have people
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  that are coming to America from a different country and
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  they're having their passport taken and they're relying solely on
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  somebody like Epstein or Brunel, and then none of the
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  things that they were promised come to fruition, and they're
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  stuck doing things they don't want to do. Well, what
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  do you call it for? Alexandra Golaman and Glendye's espinal
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  Monday was their first time speaking out publicly. Golomatis from
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  Queens and Espinal from The Bronx. Both Mett Epstein Is
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  young at young ages. Both Espinal and Golo Mattis said
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  the abuse started when he tricked them into massage in
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  them and that was the mo He'd get them in
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  the room, and then from there he'd start the abuse.
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  We've all read the reports. You don't have to have
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  me recounted to you. That's why we go through those reports, right.
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  I mean, if somebody was telling you the things that
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  I'm telling you, I would think that they were crazy
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  unless they had some sources, some proof, because the whole
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  entire thing sounds crazy. How could something like this happen
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  for so long? But nobody's stepping up, nobody doing anything
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  about it, nobody stopping this man. And now, unfortunately, there's
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  really not much we can do as far as what
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  Epstein was up to as far as the abuse. He's gone.
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  But the people that were helping them, the people that
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  were around them, the people that got them off, the
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  people that protected them, they're still here and a lot
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  of those people are still engaging in this cover up.
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  The first time he sexually abused me, I was fourteen
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  years old. He made me massage and touch them in
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  places I felt uncomfortable with, said Golomdis. For many of
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  these women, the abuse lasted years, and although it happened
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  when they were young, it's affected them the rest of
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  their lives. Yeah, no, shit, you get abused at that age,
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  forget it. It's gonna stunt you. I mean, how are
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  you gonna trust somebody? How are you going to have
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  a relationship where you know, you feel like you're comfortable
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  with a person to open up, tell them everything you
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  know that you would tell somebody that you love the
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  whole thing, and then they're forced to pick up the
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  pieces for the rest of their lives. Because I was
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  sex traffic to Epstein, I suffered deep shame and depression,
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  said Golamdis. Because I was sex traffic to Abstein, I
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  have suffered a lifetime of mental hardships, said to Silvi,
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  with devastating long term implications. Many victims take years to
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  tell their story, if they tell it at all. One
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  expert on the topic and survivor herself, Catherine Robb, testified
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  in the Senate Codes meeting on Monday as well. She
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  shared that too many survivors carry their trauma in secret,
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  which is yet another reason justice must be served. It's
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  not just Jeffrey Epstein, it is a network, said Rob,
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  who often escape accountability. This bill will disrupt that. This
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  bill will hold all these entities liable responsible. And remember
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  a few months ago, or hell, maybe almost a year
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  ago at this point when I was talking about dual
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  sovereignty and how the state could step in if Donald
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  Trump pardons Maxwell. Well, I think this is the precursor
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  to that, and I think that if we see a pardon,
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  I would look for the State of New York, especially
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  to file charges against Maxwell. Rob referred to Senate Bill
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  s nine to nine six zero, ansored by New York
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  State Senator zelnor Myrie. This bill would allow victims to
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  seek punitive damages from their abusers and their accomplices, extend
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  the current statute of limitations for victims to make it
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  a crime to be benefiting from sex trafficking. Well, that's
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  a great idea. Why should anyone benefit from sex trafficking?
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  If you're benefiting from a sex trafficking enterprise, you should
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  be charged with rico. The current criminal statute of limitation
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  for sex trafficking victims in New York is five years
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  and about twelve years for civil lawsuits. With that, none
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  of the women who spoke Monday can get justice. Some
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  say that justice isn't for themselves, it's for others. This
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  is bigger than me. This is for every little girl
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  and little boy that's been abused. Hopefully we're able to
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  change things for the next generation, said McGee. And look,
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  you got to get them victories where you can find them.
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  And these women who have went through gruesome and horrendous abuse,
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  they don't want anybody else to ever suffer through that.
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  So in hopes of that never occurring again, or you know,
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  trying to stop it from occurring again, they've come forward
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  and put their names behind this bill. McGhee also had
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  a message for anyone who may be a victim but
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  hasn't shared their story yet. The shame is not yours
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  to hold. There's nothing to be shameful about. I carried
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  the shame with me for over twenty years, and the
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  shame is one hundred percent on the perpetrators, said McGee.
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  That's a fact. The shame is not on the abused,
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  It's on the pieces of shit who did the abusing.
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  And at some point the predator is going to become
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  the prey. And whether that's at the state level or
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  the federal level. I don't know. But if they think
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  that this is over and done with and that there's
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  never going to be anything else to come of it,
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  they are crazy. The Codes Committee passed to Senate bill
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  on Monday, along with two other bills, S four four
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  zero six and S six four six zero A related
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  to sex trafficking. Senator Murray said they are actively in
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  conversation with the Assembly to move on to the next step.
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  He said he hopes to get this passed as soon
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  as possible, and I support the words right. Sounds good,
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  sounds like a great plan. The question is are they
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  going to follow through? I mean, how many times have
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  we seen politicians not follow through? So we'll keep an
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  eye on this one like all the other ones, and
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  when we have some more information, we'll get it added
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  to the catalog. All the information that goes with this
• 13:31
  episode can be found in the description box.