As President Donald Trump delivered one of the longest-ever State of the Union speech on Tuesday, February 24, he faced sharp criticism over his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Democratic lawmakers invited survivors of the late sex offender to the U.S. Capitol, sending a strong message to the president.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse attended Trump’s speech wearing badges that read, “Stand with survivors. Release the files.” The word before “files” appeared covered with a black redaction box, symbolizing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) decision to block out large parts of the released documents.
“Today, the world will see Donald Trump face these survivors right there.”
Democrats invited survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring to attend President Trump’s State of the Union address in Congress.
Earlier today, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee accused… pic.twitter.com/WCLQRk8tS8
— TRT World (@trtworld) February 25, 2026
During the event, Trump spoke for 108 minutes, making it one of the longest State of the Union speeches in recent history. However, he refrained from speaking about the Epstein files. Throughout the speech, the president neither spoke about the convicted sex offender, the files, nor the survivors present.
According to The Washington Post, more than a dozen of Epstein’s survivors had planned to attend as guests of Democratic members of Congress. Lawmakers said their presence was meant to remind the president that the abuse was real and it wasn’t what he tried to dismiss as a Democratic “hoax”.
Their attendance was supposed to show the world the reality of Epstein’s abuse, and what became of the people he harmed. The disgraced financier was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He later reportedly ended his life at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, while awaiting trial.
Attending the State of the Union event, a few of the survivors and their supporters held a press conference ahead of Trump’s speech. Therein, they demanded that the president and the DOJ release the remaining files and slammed the decision to redact information from the same. Dani Bensky, an Epstein accuser, asked, “Where are the rest of the files?”
A number of Jeffrey Epstein survivors plan to attend President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill Tuesday night as guests of members of Congress, @mj_lee reports.
Survivor Dani Bensky plans to attend as a guest of Sen. Chuck Schumer; Sharlene Rochard as a…
— Kristen Holmes (@KristenhCNN) February 20, 2026
Bensky added, “Why are there no investigations when there are plenty of people to investigate? Have you read them?” Moreover, she called out Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel for partying with the U.S. men’s hockey team, saying, “Why is the FBI director out there partying like a college kid when he should be investigating the vast criminal enterprise?”
Amanda Roberts, who is the sister-in-law of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most well-known victims, was an attendee at the event. Roberts spoke at the press conference before the speech, stating that despite the president’s desire to dismiss the Epstein files, survivors would not stay silent.
“Today we are saying we will not move on, and the world is not moving on,” Roberts asserted. Her comment comes after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill that required the full release of Epstein-related documents, in 2025. However, Trump reportedly tried to dissuade Republicans from voting for the bill.
Meanwhile, NPR published a report on the same day suggesting that the DOJ may have withheld dozens of documents connected to Epstein.
