A field hearing conducted by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Palm Beach, Florida, has come to a close after several Epstein survivors described how they’ve been retraumatized by the Justice Department’s handling of investigative files related to the case.
One, Dani Bensky, said during the three-hour hearing that the department released information it should not have about her and other survivors under the terms of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, while withholding information about alleged wrongdoers that she said should have been released.
“I am just one of the hundreds of survivors exposed like this,” Bensky said, and while she’d previously gone public with her identity, “these documents hold disturbing and yet incomplete accounts of my abuse, and they were viewable, not only by the entire world, but by my child, my students, my students’ parents, my friends, my employers, my colleagues, my family.” Â
Another, who gave her name only as Roza, said she’d never gone public before her name was released by the DOJ. “I kept my identity protected as Jane Doe. I woke up one day with my name mentioned over 500 times,” she said.
“While the rich and powerful remain protected by reduction, my name was exposed to the world,” she said. “I cannot live without looking over my shoulder. I can only imagine the long-term impact this mistake will have on my life.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in March that “mistakes were made” in the redacting process while scrambling to release the files, but “we took pains to protect victims.”
“When someone identified that there was a victim, we immediately pulled that document down, fixed it and put it back up,” he said then. “We don’t ever want to do anything to revictimize anybody that was victimized by the horrible crimes of Mr. Epstein.”