By Robert Weiner and Lily Roberti
Originally published in the Palm Beach Post.
Royal Palm Beach High School was "ground zero," according to reporting in the Post and elsewhere for Jeffrey Epstein recruiting young victims like 16-year-old Michelle Licata and even allegedly paying them off.
Justice is yet to be served, and a vital question fails to be asked: Why are elected officials like [former U.S. Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene not doing what they promised and naming perpetrators? How was she seemingly scared away from "hurting" Trump's "friends" after just being so dedicated to the cause?
Members of Congress must protect and serve the survivors from Palm Beach County and elsewhere by exposing Epstein perpetrators on the floor of the House, as they pledged and as congressional privilege allows.
Alex Acosta, former U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida, oversaw the 2008 investigation that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement. After granting immunity to both Epstein and potential co-conspirators, Acosta was promoted by President Trump to U.S. Secretary of Labor in 2017- coincidence?
This plea deal gave no justice to Palm Beach County survivors; Acosta even failed to inform them of its establishment in the first place. Eventually, a 2020 DOJ report determined that he used "poor judgement," in doing so, creating a "misimpression that the Department intentionally sought to silence the victims."
Is it truly a misimpression when these crimes remain unredressed so many years later? "I am not afraid to name names," Greene said six months ago. "I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor, and I'll say every damn name that abused these women. I can do that for them."
But Greene didn't follow through. Though her rhetoric has been applauded by some victims, her lack of action, even armed with protected speech under the Constitution's Speech and Debate Clause, speaks louder.
Greene reported that, on her last call to Trump following their falling out, he said to her, "My friends will get hurt," as a reason against releasing the files. Why did this statement not drive Greene further to expose those names as soon as possible? That should not have been a motive to cave, but to act.
So what are these officials doing now? Every congressmember has the right to give a one-minute speech on the House floor at the start or end of every session. Why can't Republicans Lauren Boebert, Thomas Massie, Nancy Mace or Democrat Ro Khanna expose the Epstein perpetrators?
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has refused to investigate anything and kept disgracefully silent. South Florida knows that Trump's foundation gave $25,000 to a PAC supporting her re-election, on which he was forced to pay a fine after the IRS determined it a violation. Victims deserve better from the systems supposedly designed to protect them.
The primary reason that victims are afraid to come forward is fear of retaliation. Nearly Epstein's entire network allegedly consisted of powerful figures, increasing this perceived risk to an unimaginable degree. Virginia Guiffre is one notable victim who decided to speak publicly and later took her own life. Her family's statement read, "In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight."
The fault of not speaking out does not belong to the victims. Of course it belongs to the perpetrators- but it also belongs to the people elected to protect and serve our citizens. More attention must be brought to the stories of congressmembers who promised specifically to help, have not done it concretely, and still can.
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