A host of victims of Jeffrey Epstein appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to deliver a simple message to Congress: Force the Trump administration to release all the files it has on the late financier and convicted sex offender.

In a dramatic press conference just steps from the Capitol, the survivors of Epstein’s decades-long abuse offered emotional testimony about their experiences, hammered the government for keeping the files under wraps, and accused those lawmakers opposing the release of shielding a group of rich and powerful people from accountability. 

One of the victims also highlighted the ties between Epstein and President Trump, who had associated in the same social circles in Florida and New York years ago, saying Epstein frequently bragged about the intimacy of that relationship.

“Jeffrey and Ghislaine were always very boastful about their friends, their famous or powerful friends, and his biggest brag, forever, was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump,” Chauntae Davies said. “He had an 8×10 picture of him on his desk, with the two of them. They were very close.” 

The victims are pushing lawmakers to pass a resolution, sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), requiring the administration to release virtually all the files related to the federal investigation of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors.

That legislation is opposed by Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has offered an alternative proposal designed to bolster an Epstein investigation already underway in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Supporters of the Massie-Khanna approach, including the victims who appeared at the Capitol on Wednesday, have rejected Johnson’s alternative bill, saying it lacks the teeth to compel the Justice Department to release documents the administration doesn’t want revealed. 

“Their resolution doesn’t really do anything, and that’s the oldest trick in the swamp,” Massie said. “When you want to kill the momentum, … you release a placebo — a different bill that does nothing — and then try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people. That’s not going to happen this time.”  

Even as they spoke, Trump dismissed the outcry over the Epstein files as “a hoax,” concocted by Democrats, to harm him politically. 

“It’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

The Epstein victims pushed back hard against Trump’s characterization. One of them, Haley Robson, said she’s a registered Republican and challenged Trump to meet with her on the 

“There is no hoax,” she said. “The abuse was real.”

Developing.