The Epstein Files Transparency Act provided the media with new evidence to cover the extent of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation. However, coverage continues to center on the perpetrators, instead of the survivors and their experiences.

One of these survivors was Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Giuffre bravely spoke out against Human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein by sharing her truth and story with the world, despite facing incredible resistance from various people in power.

Giuffre tragically took her own life on April 25th, 2025, as the weight of her trauma grew too heavy to bear. Though she is no longer here, her testimony continues to expose Epstein’s sins. 

When Giuffre was 17, she had been trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell and sexually assaulted by Prince Andrew. Within her Memoir, Nobody’s Girl,  she describes her experiences with enduring an unconsensual, sedated abortion. 

After being released from the hospital, Giuffre began to “piece things together,” noticing very minor things. 

“…tiny incision near my belly button, which one of the other girls in the house told me was consistent with a laparoscopic surgery for an ectopic pregnancy,” Giuffre said in their memoir. 

Epstein had deliberately deceived Virginia, telling her that she had suffered a miscarriage, demonstrating the extent of control he had over his victims’ bodies and autonomy. 

When the Department of Justice released the Epstein files, it revealed a largely overlooked media issue: through the media’s framing of the story, which focused on the perpetrators and not the crimes committed against the victims, the media further reinforced harm to the women and girls involved.

Why are these women the afterthought in one of the most compelling human trafficking cases of our generation?

The media has labeled political figures as the primary subjects in the news, rather than highlighting justice for the victims themselves. Major journalistic resources such as The Miami Herald, The New York Times, and The Washington Post had misfocused their stories, overlooking the critical point. 

Even after Giuffre’s story, the media neglected the toll Epstein and his affiliates’ endeavors had on his victims. Instead, it devolved into a frenzy of accusations, doxxing of victims, redactions, and never truly talking about the crimes that took place within this operation. 

For almost 20 years, Jeffrey Epstein maintained, oversaw, and participated in a sex-trafficking network, in which he subjected young women and minors to unconsensual exploitation. While the UN describes these  “crimes against humanity”  as life-altering for the victims, the aftermath of the Epstein Files Transparency Act demonstrated how the justice system can actually create further harm. 

The documents released by the DOJ contained 2000 videos, 180,000 images, text messages and email chains, news articles, private investigation notes, horrifying descriptions of the abuses committed, and reports of Epstein and Maxwell’s “breeding program” and forced abortions. 

The release of three million files detailing one of the most atrocious sex-trafficking operations was supposed to empower the victims, provide transparency to the public, and finally deliver evidence of the horrible accounts described by victims.  

But instead, the main focus was on who was guilty and who was on the island.

The released files share so much evidence about all the forced abortions that occurred. Why isn’t conservative media covering this? Epstein exploited reproductive autonomy for his own purposes, and yet Pro-choice advocates on the left remain silent. Where was your anger when Epstein stripped the victims of their choice? 

Not enough pundits in the mainstream media are focused on asking political demagogues these questions. 

The sheer lack of anger from both sides, over the crimes against the victims, inadvertently demonstrates that reproductive outrage is really just about political lobbying and control. The lack of discussion about the abuses is another consequence of the government’s restrictions on women’s autonomy. 

While survivors have emphasized the significance of sharing their stories, many of their identities have been exposed. In the media, safeguarding the identities of sexual assault victims, unless explicitly permitted to do otherwise, is essential in ensuring the safety of the victims.

But we didn’t forget to redact the identities of many of the alleged perpetrators, did we? 

The Department of Justice’s duty is to ensure that justice is served, while the media’s job is to ensure that harm is minimized; both have failed to do either. 

I will not allow Giuffre’s voice, and the countless other women’s testimonies, to be dismissed by the accounts the media sees fit to tell, and you certainly shouldn’t. We must shift the narrative back to what really matters: amplifying the survivors’ experiences–as justice will never be served by simply centering the perpetrators.