Share and Follow
During a private session with the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Nancy Mace abruptly left after hearing traumatic accounts from Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. She appeared visibly upset and emotional, attributing her reaction to experiencing a “full-blown panic attack.”
Footage shows the South Carolina representative, who has previously recounted her own sexual assault experience, wiping away tears and hastily moving past a corridor crowded with journalists.
The lawmaker refused to answer questions but later took to X, where she described hyperventilating during the meeting.
Later, she took to X to express her ordeal, stating, “Having recently survived an assault (less than 2 years ago), I struggled to hear their narratives. Full-blown panic attack. Sweating. Hyperventilating. Shaking. I felt like I couldn’t breathe,” noting that she had to exit the meeting prematurely for her well-being.
“I feel the immense pain of how hard all victims are fighting for themselves because we know absolutely no one will fight for us. GOD BLESS ALL SURVIVORS,” she added.
Six of Epstein’s accusers met with members of the Oversight Committee, including Chairman James Comer and House Speaker Mike Johnson, on Tuesday for two hours as its probe into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein case continues.
House lawmakers said they learned “additional names” of persons of interest who could provide further information about the convicted pedophile, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
“There was outrage. It was both — I would describe it as heartbreaking and infuriating. That justice has been delayed so long,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting.
Mace made an explosive House speech in February in which she accused her ex-fiancé and three other men of committing “depraved” sexual crimes against herself and a dozen other women, including minors.
She came forward with the shocking allegations of rape, voyeurism and other sexual abuse after uncovering a trove of more than 10,000 videos and other photographic evidence contained on the phone of her former husband-to-be Patrick Bryant, who along with the three other men have denied the allegations.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have cosponsored a discharge petition to have all of the government files on Epstein publicly released.
The petition requires 218 signatures to force a house vote on a bill that would require the DOJ to release the files.
Mace is now one of four Republicans who has signed the petition, according to The Hill. Other GOP lawmakers who have signed are Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).