Epstein Survivor Slams Trump And 'Those In Power' Over Slow Rollout Of Files

A survivor of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is criticising President Donald Trump and his administration over their failure to release all government documents related to Epstein’s case by December 19 — a deadline legally mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Danielle Bensky appeared on MS NOW to discuss the most recent developments, telling “The Beat” guest host Melissa Murray that the gradual and ongoing drip-release of files has “done a number” on her and every other survivor seeking justice.

“I think this rollout, first of all, was never meant to be a rollout,” she told Murray. “It was meant to be a hard deadline. But it’s done a number on all of us because it’s just been handled so sloppily, and names have not been redacted when they should have been.”

Bensky continued: “And then there are other names that we’re asking why the redactions are what they are. And so, it’s just incredibly frustrating to look through the files and, and not find what we’re looking for at times.”

She has said Epstein recruited and abused her while she was an aspiring teenage ballerina.

Epstein, who once called Trump his “closest friend,” was found dead behind bars in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

His death and known ties to powerful people fuelled theories of a “client list.” Trump has repeatedly called the case a “hoax.” And, in July, Trump’s FBI said there is no evidence of a “client list.”

While mounting pressure from his own base and bipartisan support for the transparency act led Trump to sign the bill into law, his administration has failed to meet the 30-day deadline, as only a fraction of the Epstein files have been released.

When asked Tuesday if this has felt like yet “another punishment” on top of the abuse she had already endured as a teenager, Bensky said it “does feel that way” because “those in power prey on the vulnerable” — a trait she concluded is “at the heart of all exploitation.”

Bensky went on to mention Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has stood with Epstein survivors in demanding full transparency and recently announced her resignation from Congress and her disillusionment with Trump.

Greene told The New York Times in a profile published on Monday that Trump yelled at her over the phone in September after she publicly declared that she would take to the House floor and “say every damn name” of men who abused women and girls alongside Epstein.

Greene said Trump told her his “friends will get hurt” if she does and said the president “angrily” turned down her idea to host Epstein survivors at the Oval Office because they’ve “done nothing to merit the honour.”

“It feels like, you know, he’s talking to Marjorie Taylor Greene about that we don’t have the merit to be in the people’s house, which, by the way, it’s the people’s house,” Bensky told Murray. “This is not a country club with his name on the side of it. There’s no monogram.”

“It’s just wild to me,” Bensky added about his dismissal of an Oval Office invite.

She continued: “There’s a statistic out there that there are 1 in 4 women who have been assaulted or abused, so when you think about that number across the U.S., it’s absolutely staggering. So when we say ‘the people’s house,’ you’re talking about survivors. They make up a huge portion of our country. It’s not just about this one case.”

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.