They came to Capitol Hill expecting, if not catharsis, then at least the basic courtesy of being seen.
Instead, the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein say they watched the United States' top law-enforcement official sit yards away and refuse the one gesture that would have cost her nothing: to turn around, look them in the eye, and apologise—directly—for what they describe as the Justice Department's mishandling of information that should have protected them.
For Marina Lacerda, the feeling curdled into anger. 'We expected more,' she said afterwards, adding that Pam Bondi 'really dehumanized us today' and had 'become a circus act.' It's a brutal line, the kind that lands because it doesn't sound rehearsed; it sounds like somebody who has spent too long being treated as collateral damage in other people's reputations.
Bondi's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee was billed as oversight. What it became—at least for those women standing behind her—was a lesson in how quickly a hearing can turn into theatre, and how often the people at the centre of the harm are left to play silent extras.
The flashpoint came when Rep. Pramila Jayapal pressed Bondi to face the survivors and apologise for the 'absolutely unacceptable release' of material that exposed victims' personal information. Bondi declined.
When Jayapal asked again, Bondi brushed it off as 'theatrics'—a choice of word that tells you a lot about what happens when lawyers begin to confuse compassion with concession.
In her opening remarks, she did offer a general expression of being 'deeply sorry' for what victims had endured at the hands of Epstein, whom she called a 'monster'. But the survivors in the room weren't asking for a broad statement into the air; they were asking for accountability that felt human, not procedural.
Afterwards, Lacerda told NewsNation that standing there, waiting for an apology that never came, felt humiliating. She said the room 'pretty much [laughed]' and described Bondi as a 'circus act'—not simply as an insult, but as an accusation that the hearing had slipped into performance while their pain was treated as set dressing.
Another survivor, speaking to NBC News, described the experience as 'degraded' and marked by a 'lack of empathy.' Lacerda's own story underlines why these moments matter: NBC News reported she said she was 14 when she met Epstein, lured by the promise of money for massages—an old, grim pattern that does not soften with time.
One of Epstein's victims talks about how she was groomed since the age of 13 after he and Maxwell walked by with their dog and started asking personal questions. They told her mom that they offer scholarships and then took her on a flight to New York when she was 14 to see a…pic.twitter.com/nu8bb7mcrF
Source: International Business Times UK
