Robert De Niro and Rosie O’Donnell joined survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes in Washington Square Park on Monday evening to call for the release of more unredacted files and to vote for change in the upcoming midterms.
A truck touring the country carrying printouts of the Epstein Files stopped at the landmark Manhattan greenspace on Oct. 5, inviting the public to read page after page, book after book, depicting horrors from the crimes of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.
For many of the survivors who appeared at Monday’s event, the Epstein Files represent more than a political scandal or just stories on a page — they are a documentation of trauma that they must live with every day.
“I was sexually abused and trafficked as a young girl. Those are really difficult words to say, but I refuse to whisper them. I refuse to hide them, and I refuse to be ashamed of what someone else did to me,” Epstein survivor Sharlene Rochard said.
The truck holds 3.5 million files — the Epstein record, micro-printed and bound. It is named the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile; the president, a known associate of Epstein who was repeatedly named in the files, has been accused by De Niro and other critics of protecting Epstein by not releasing additional files.
“The abuse of children is a crime that belongs in the lowest circle of hell, reviled only by the vermin who protect them. They sicken me. The three-and-a-half million files in the Trump Epstein bookmobile tell only half the story. One man is standing in the way of releasing the rest, Donald Trump. What is he hiding?” De Niro asked. “In the entire New Testament, there are just under 1,000 mentions of Jesus. In the first half of the Epstein files, there are 38,000 mentions of Trump, his family, and the private club. 38,000. What is he hiding?”
While many of the survivors strove to point out that the demand for more accountability regarding the alleged abusers and the further release of files is not a Republican or Democrat issue, they did ask for the public to make that demand by voting for those who support their cause.
This was a sentiment echoed by prominent Trump critic O’Donnell.
“On Nov. 3, democracy itself is on the ballot,” O’Donnell railed. “It’s not that the fascists are coming; the fascists are here, ladies and gentlemen. They are here, and this is an emergency. Hold the lever, break the glass, sound the alarms. Do not stand for this. I will stand with these women until it is all finished, and the powerful men end up in prison where they belong, including our president Donald J. Trump.”
While the survivors say they brave the cameras in order to raise awareness for their plight and the harm others have faced, they also say it is no easy task.
Alva Johnson, a former Trump campaign staffer who accused the president of sexual misconduct, broke down into tears as she spoke and stood alongside the Epstein victims.
“I am standing here to represent my sisterhood of women, many of whom warned all of you before the 2016 election that a serial sexual assaulter was on the ballot, and yet and still, he was still elected,” Johnson said while weeping. “Women, we are not here to audition for your humanity. We are owed our humanity because we exist. And when you elect a rapist into the highest office in the land, what do you expect? You expect the protection of perverts, of predators.”
