'I am one story of a thousand'
Epstein survivors share their message: We are together now
By: Sarah D. Wire
and Erin Mansfield
UAS Today
..... Jeffrey Epstein victimized at least 1,000 women and children, according to the Department of Justice. His survivors don't want that to be forgotten.
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"I am one story of a thousand," said Danielle Bensky, whose id she was 17 when she meant Epstein in 2004. "think of that number, 1,000."
..... "We are a representation of women across America," she said at a November 18 [2025] news conference. "We come from different backgrounds, we have different religions, we are different races, different creeds, different ethnicities, we have different political affiliations."
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Between a federal indictment, a police investigation, civil lawsuits and public allegations, Epstein is accused of running an international sex trafficking ring that recruited more than 1,000 girls as young as 14 to participate in sex with him, his associate Ghislanie Maxwell and other men.
..... Women have said they were abused in many locations - California, Florida, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, the United Kingdom and the Virgin Islands - often under the guise of providing message services to earn extra money or getting help with their modeling careers from a well-connected man.
..... Some of the accusers say they contacted the FBI and local police in the 1990s but weren't taken seriously.
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Six years after Epstein's death, humdrums of women, who call themselves Survivor Sisters, became the driving force behind the renewed public pressure to identify Epstein associates they say assaulted them or participated in his trafficking ring.
..... Their advocacy pushed the house and Senate to vote to demand the release of the Department of Justice's investigative files into Epstein, but in the months leading up to the vote, the topic increasingly turned into a political bludgeon and partisan blame game.
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President Donald Trump pressured Republicans not to join the effort to produce the documents, calling it the "Epstein hoax" and calling a Republican who wanted to release them a "traitor." He abruptly turned to support the measure when it was clear it would pass. Trump signed it late on November 19. [2025]
..... "None of us here signed up for this political warfare. We never asked to be dragged into battle between people who never protected us in the first place," Wendy Avis said during a news conference before the November 18 [2025] votes.
..... Only a few dozen accusers have spoken publicly about their experiences, and they say fears of retribution and attacks on there careers and families had kept them from doing so before.
..... But more women are coming forward by the day, and they have told their stories publicly in a effort to get the files released. That includes an emotional public service video released shortly before the House and Senate vote, urging Americans to call on their representatives to release the Epstein files.
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Marina Lacerda, who said she was 14 when she met Epstein, told her story for the first time outside the Capitol on September 3. [2025] Lara Blum McGee, who said she was lured into Epstein's world through modeling, said at the November 18 [2025] news conference that it was her first time speaking publicly.
..... In a July [2025] memo, the FBI said its review of the files found that Epstein harmed over 1,000 victims.
..... Gloria Ailred, an attorney representing some of the survivors, said November 17 [2025] that accusers ant the files released, in part, because they don;t have the whole picture of what happened.
..... "I'm not sure if anybody knows the exact number (of victims)," she said.
..... Survivors who came forward in the 1990s were often ignored, threatened with damage to their careers and encouraged to file police reports, testimonials and evidence suggest.
..... Annie Farmer, who was 16 when she met Epstein, said her older sister Maria Farmer, who was also a victim of Epstein, was dismissed by the FBI when she called in 1996. "they hung up the phone on her and there was no follow up of any kind," she said.
..... Maria Farmer has an ongoing lawsuit against the FBI seeking to hold the agency accountable for not investigating her claim more thoroughly.
..... The Palm Beach Police Department in Florida first started investigating Epstein in 2006, an effort that ended in a 2008 sweetheart non-prosecution agreement that exempted Epstein form being charged with the most severe allegations against him.
..... Virginia Roberts Giufre, who said Epstein raped and trafficked her between 2000 and 2002, was the most outspoken person to tell her story. She sued Epstein in civil court in 2009 under a pseudonym and shared her name publicly in 2011. Before her death by suicide in April, [2025] she had taken Maxwell and the former Prince Andrew to civil court.
..... Teresa J. Helm told USA Today she hopes the files proved new information on the people who were engaged in sex trafficking with Epstein and Maxwell, as we as the people who profited or benefited form it in some way. She says she was assaulted by Epstein in 2002 at what she through was a job interview.
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"I do think it;s important for people to know, because ... knowing what the did is knowing what everyone else did alongside of him,' Helm said.
..... Too many powerful people involved are living with impunity, she said.
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The survivors are still finding one another, Helm said. "Fro 17 years I thought I was the only one."
..... Lisa Phillips, who said at a previous news conference that survivors would compile heir won list of people involved with Epstein if the administration does not release the files, said November 18 [2025] they've begun working on it and have been approached by women across the country.
..... "More survivors across the country and around the world have reached out, texts, emails, DMs, first-hand accounts and evidence," she said. "Many are still terrified to speak publicly, because the men involved are powerful. They're connected and as we know, they are protected.
..... Ashley Rubright, who met Epstein when she was 16, said she hadn't planned to speak at the November 18 [2025] news conference, but stepped in when another accuser who has repeatedly told her story said she couldn't come because of threats she has received.
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"When you threaten one of us, you're threatening all of us. We are together now, and that's never going to change," Rubright said.
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"Individually, our voices were whispers. Together they've become impossible to ignore."