Democrats in Congress have joined forces with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse on Capitol Hill to introduce legislation to end the statute of limitations and limitations on jurisdiction in civil sexual assault cases.
The move came less than two weeks before the Justice Department Released 3.5m pages of heavily redacted documents related to Epstein, as mandated by the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“When the truth about Jeffrey Epstein starts to come out, when the world finally starts hearing their stories, often the laws on the books say, ‘Sorry, it’s too late. The deadline to bring your case has passed,'” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said as he introduced the legislation on the Senate floor Tuesday. He added The bill — dubbed the Virginia Act in honor of one of Epstein’s most famous accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre — “changes that, because victims of abuse don’t have a deadline for justice”.
In September 2022, Congress A law was passed Removing the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse, previously set at 28 years or 10 years after the incident, but the change does not apply to crimes committed before that date.
Schumer and Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez, who are sponsoring the bill in the House, joined the Giuffre family at the US Capitol, an anti-human trafficking coalition. A world without exploitation and attorney Sigrid McCawley, who represented Giuffre and other survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
In addition to ending the statute of limitations, Leger Fernandez said, the Virginia law “makes it clear that traffickers cannot escape accountability by committing abuse in another jurisdiction. You can’t escape prosecution by relegating predators and victims to a private island or a New Mexico mansion in Florida”. Leger Fernandez represents New Mexico, where Epstein Has a ranch of 10,000 acres Outside of Santa Fe.
The notorious sex offender financier died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The lawmakers were joined by Skye and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Giuffre, who died by suicide last year.
“Virginia’s dream is to inspire and empower survivors to come forward,” Skye Roberts said through tears. In response to a question at a press conference, he called on Andrew Mountbatten Windsor to “answer the questions before our Congress”. Schumer said he agreed.
Survivor advocates say that trafficking survivors often need years to come forward about the abuse they suffered.
Although the Justice Department has released millions of pages of documents related to Epstein, lawmakers, including Schumer, have called for the release of more files, which Schumer says number in the millions.
