Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein‘s abuse have called on the Donald Trump administration and Congress to release the full extent of the records linked to the late financier. Addressing the issue of delayed justice, the victims continue to speak out about the dire need for transparency in the case.

On Monday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released tens of thousands of Justice Department records related to the convicted sex offender. Republicans and Democrats alike have voiced their criticism about almost the entirety of the released documents already having been public, with the only new information relating to the Epstein’s flight logs, as per Rep Robert Garcia, a ranking member of the committee.

Consequently, a two-hour news conference organised by US lawmakers followed on Wednesday, allowing Epstein accusers the space to open up about their traumatic experiences.

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Epstein victims says they will release the ‘client list’

One of the women in the group, Lisa Phillips, foregrounded that while many victims feared the potential consequences of them publicly divulging names of all those associated with the convicted financier, they were ready to put together a list of alleged culprits. “We will confidently compile the name we all know were regularly in the Epstein world,” she said. “It will be done by survivors, and for survivors.”

Liz Stein, who hit Epstein and his ex-girlfriend and associate Ghislaine Maxwell with a lawsuit, further shared with the BBC that emphasised the need for survivors to be humanised at the Capitol rally. “It’s really important for us all to remember that this is a crime. It’s a crime of sex trafficking. This isn’t a political issue, but it’s being politicised because of the people involved,” she said.

Yet another survivor named Chauntae Davies pressed that Epstein’s “biggest brag forever was that he was very good friends with Donald Trump.” She even insisted that a framed pictured of the two of them sat on the sex offender’s desk.

Trump’s Epstein links back in focus – Is the US president out of incriminating danger?

The US president hasn’t formally been accused of any wrongdoing associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Nonetheless, the pair was believed to be on good terms in the early days, with their multiple united outings documented in archival photos and footage. While such evens reportedly dated back to the 1980s, the American personalities “had a falling out” in the the mid-2000s, according to the Washington Post.

In August, the transcript and audio recording of an interview conducted by DOJ’s Todd Blanche revealed convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s responses at the time. The longtime Epstein associate claimed during the interaction that she never actually witnessed the president “in any type of massage setting,” or an “inappropriate setting in any way.” She also added Trump “was never inappropriate with anybody.”

Speaking further on Trump’s ties with Epstein, Ghislaine said, “I don’t know how they met, and I don’t know how they became friends. I certainly saw them together and I remember the few times I observed them together, but they were friendly. I mean, they seemed friendly.” Furthermore, she remarked that the two weren’t possible “close friends,” as she never saw the Republican leader in Epstein’s house, and they seemed more friendly as people in social settings.

On the same note, even a group of Epstein victims didn’t see or hear of the MAGA leader engaging in anything inappropriate relating to the financier, according to an NBC panel discussion on Tuesday. Similarly, Brad Edwards, an attorney backing Epstein survivors said in an interview with ABC News that additional documents yet to be released are unlikely to posit Trump in a bad light in light of his clients’ accounts.

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“Not a single victim has ever said he abused,” the attorney said. “We’ve seen a lot of the information in the files, and there’s no reason why he shouldn’t just be transparent and allow it to come out.”

Back in July, the Justice Department and FBI insisted that there was no so-called ‘client list’ tied to Epstein. That same month, emerging reports alleged that Attorney General Pam Bondi told the US president that he was among the names mentioned in the DOJ documents. A White House spokesman subsequently slammed the claims, calling the Wall Street Journal article “a fake news story.”

Republicans will be redacted from Epstein list: DOJ acting chief deputy

Amid all the chaos, another bombshell development caught the Justice Department’s acting deputy chief Joseph Schnitt on a hidden camera saying that every Republican name would be potentially redacted from an Epstein client list. Far-right media organisation O’Keefe Media Group secretly ended up recording the official in a video published Wednesday.

“They’ll redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people,” he said in the video. The same recording also caught Schnitt calling Pam Bondi a “yes person,” as she “wants whatever Trump wants.”

In the wake of the video going public on social media, the DOJ acting director issued a statement, as shared by Axios. Therein, he claimed that his comments were more about what he had “learned in the media” and not official remarks based on his work at the government agency.

He also said that he had no idea that he was being recorded when he caught up with the undercover reporter on dating platform Hinge. “Had I a clue, the first date would have ended immediately and there never would have been a second one,” he added.

Denouncing the video and comments made therein, the Justice Department also pushed a statement, saying “comments in this video have absolutely zero bearing with reality and reflect a total lack of knowledge of the DOJ’s review process.”