Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) stood alongside fellow lawmakers and victims of Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday to condemn those who opposed a congressional vote to release the Epstein files, saving their strongest criticisms for the vote’s strongest opponent: President Donald Trump.
“I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually, six years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free,” Greene said during a press conference outside the Capitol. “I’ve never owed him anything, but I fought for him, for the policies and for America first, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Other members of the press conference included Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), along with several survivors of the late sex offender, who died in prison in 2019. Many of them eviscerated Trump for brushing the story aside, saying the issue transcended politics.
“I beg you, President Trump, please stop making this political,” victim Jena-Lisa-Jones said. “It is not about you, President Trump. You are our president. Please start acting like it. Show some class, show some real leadership, show that you actually care about the people other than yourself. I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment.”
Victim Marina Lacerda, who met Epstein when she was 14, also tore into Megyn Kelly’s comments last week that suggested Epstein couldn’t be a pedophile for simply being into the “barely legal” type — 15-year-old girls.
“I also want to address a troubling statement made by a prominent figure on a major platform who suggested that a 14-year-old should not be considered a victim of pedophilia,” Lacerda said. “This is a dangerous and incorrect notion. When we talk about how children at 14 should still be treated as children, I ask you to look at the young people around you. Remember when you were that age? Do you think you should have been responsible for being groomed? Put yourselves in our position when we were young.”
The House is set to vote on a discharge petition to force the government to release all of its files on Epstein. Trump has repeatedly derided all stories related to Epstein as a “hoax,” but he said over the weekend Republicans should join the vote.
But such a demand also came as Trump ordered the Department of Justice to examine Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and former Harvard President Larry Summers. The Democrats have denied wrongdoing, but Attorney General Pam Bondi has assigned the case to Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Massie acknowledged that such an investigation could allow the DOJ to hold back some of the files due to an “active investigation,” but he said the department could not hide behind an investigation forever.
“Those investigations will eventually end, and in the meantime, there’s not enough investigations to cover up 1,000 different crimes, 1,000 different rapes, 1,000 different sex trafficking instances,” he said.
Greene also characterized the Epstein saga as a referendum on Trump’s MAGA movement, calling the episode “destructive.”
“Watching the man that we supported early on, three elections, for people that stood hours, slept in their cars to go to rallies, to have fought for truth and transparency and to hold what we consider a corrupt government accountable,” Greene said. “Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart, and the only thing that will speak to the powerful, courageous women behind me is when action is actually taken to release these files and the American people won’t tolerate any other bulls–t.”
