‘Watch us get away with it’: Epstein files fallout sends bleak message to survivors

The Trump administration’s release of millions of documents related to sex predator Jeffrey Epstein “feels like a final taunt” to his victims.

For 30 years, victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have come forward to tell of the unspeakable horrors they endured at the hands of the late financier and his powerful accomplices.

Maria Farmer was the first: in 1996, the then-25-year-old reported to the New York Police Department and the FBI that she had been violently groped by Epstein and his girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. It was later revealed that her sister Annie, then just 16, had also been violated by the couple. Yet their allegations fell on deaf ears, and the abuse continued.

So began a familiar pattern – one young woman after another speaking out against Epstein – and, often, against Maxwell, the only accomplice of his to ever be charged with any crime – in the hope of receiving the justice that three decades on continues to elude them.

The US Justice Department’s publication of millions of documents, photos and videos related to the convicted sex offender – whose 2019 death in a New York jail cell was ruled a suicide – has only added insult to injury.

Despite the Trump administration’s insistence it “has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have”, the women’s voices and experiences are still being ignored.

“Once again, survivors are having their names and identifying information exposed, while the men who abused us remain hidden and protected,” a letter signed by 20 of Epstein’s victims read, after the final trove of documents was made public.

They had been “scrutinised and re-traumatised”, the women wrote, “while Epstein’s enablers continue to benefit from society”.

Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer representing multiple Epstein victims, has called the DOJ release “a mess from the start, filled with … ham-fisted redactions, while exposing the identities of survivors”. Another legal representative, Brad Edwards, said there had been “literally thousands of mistakes”.

“The way these files were released – particularly with ‘errors’ that exposed or risked exposing the victims – sends a grim message: survivor safety remains secondary to spectacle,” Sarah Rosenberg told news.com.au.

Ms Rosenberg is the executive director and co-founder of With You We Can, a national online resource that demystifies – and works to improve – the police and legal systems for victims of sexual violence in Australia.

“In the case of Epstein, whose crimes have revealed how easily power can eclipse accountability, this ‘misstep’ feels like an accident and more like a continuation of a long pattern,” Ms Rosenberg said.

“Survivors are discussed and referenced – but not protected.”

There is “a deep irony here”, Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy (RASARA) chief executive Dr Rachael Burgin said, given the outcome – or lack thereof – of a law literally named the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

“Transparency without accountability protects powerful institutions and powerful people, not victims or survivors,” Dr Burgin, a senior lecturer in criminal justice and criminology at Melbourne’s Swinburne University, told news.com.au.

“Survivors were, once again, secondary to the institution. We need to reframe the notion of transparency so that survivors’ safety, needs and views are at the fore.”

The genuinely victim-centred approach called for by many – but never implemented – in the handling of Epstein’s crimes “would start by listening to survivors and protecting their dignity and their privacy, not treating their safety as collateral damage”, Dr Burgin said.

So-called transparency efforts in the case of Epstein have left “powerful figures insulated while survivors absorb the fallout”, Ms Rosenberg said, adding that “when transparency is selective, it looks less like justice and more like theatre”.

Among the most insulated has been Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who in 2022 settled a civil sexual assault case from one of Epstein’s most well-known victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, without an admission of liability. It took until last year for King Charles III to strip the former Duke of York of his titles and for, months later, Andrew to leave his royal residence.

“Sadly it is not shocking that powerful (alleged) perpetrators of abuse are still being protected,” RMIT Professor of Family and Sexual Violence, Anastasia Powell, told news.com.au.

“Our global society has an appalling track record of taking sexual violence seriously, and of holding abusers to account. Money and power certainly make it easier for perpetrators to cover the evidence, and to protect themselves.

“But we need to hold a mirror to our wider community and ask ourselves: what will it take for us to really hold abusers responsible for sexual violence?”

In a shock development on Friday – Andrew’s 66th birthday – plain-clothes police descended on his Sandringham home and arrested him on suspicion of misconduct in public office over his links to Epstein and concerns that he leaked confidential government during his time as trade envoy.

“What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities,” the King said in a statement, expressing “the deepest concern” about the charges against his younger brother.

“In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation.

“Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.

“As this process continues, it would not be right for me to comment further on this matter. Meanwhile, my family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all.” s

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The ongoing Epstein fallout and associated administrative failures have not only been overshadowed survivor welfare, Ms Rosenberg said, but “reinforce a perception many already hold – that the system is structurally better at protecting itself than the people it claims to serve”.

“Right now, the exercise feels like a final taunt: a staggering display of wrongdoing without consequence,” she said.

“‘Look just how much harm we did, watch us get away with it.’ And if this doesn’t lead to protection, accountability, or change … what was the point?”