(WASHINGTON) — Danielle Bensky, a survivor of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said the push by members of Congress and, now, President Donald Trump, to release investigative files has led to a “moment of vulnerability” for herself and other survivors.
Bensky said on Monday in Washington that pending legislation amounted to a noticeable movement towards accountability for Epstein survivors. She called the moment “hopeful,” saying that it also felt like “unprecedented waters.”
“This is a moment of vulnerability,” Bensky said. “This is a moment, as you can see, when we are tapping into those youngest parts of ourselves and saying we’re doing it for that little person that used to exist. We’re doing it for women.”
ABC News spoke with Bensky, who goes by Dani, a day ahead of the long-awaited vote by the House to release the Epstein files. The House is expected to vote Tuesday, after Trump called on Republicans to release all the files, reversing his stance.
The House vote is just step one, though. If it passes as expected, Senate Majority Leader John Thune would then need to bring it up for a vote in the Senate. Passage in the Senate would then send it to Trump’s desk for possible signing.
House Democrats last week released emails subpoenaed from the Epstein estate that mentioned Trump by name multiple times. In one email, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and he told accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with Trump.
Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in more than a decade after having a falling out. The president on Monday said he would sign a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating to Epstein if it reaches his desk.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that emails related to convicted sex offender Epstein released by House Democrats “prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.” Trump has denied all wrongdoing and denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Bensky has claimed she was recruited in 2004 when she was an aspiring ballerina in New York City. She alleges she was sexually exploited by Epstein for more than a year.
Bensky was among a group of survivors of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted accomplice, holding a demonstration Monday evening at the National Gallery of Art — a couple of blocks from the Capitol — at which they displayed a looped video of several survivors holding pictures of themselves at the age they met Epstein.
Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor. She is serving 20 years in prison.
Bensky said that being there at the National Gallery of Art gave her a bigger sense of meaning to “make the world safer” for the young kids and teenagers she works with as a dance choreographer.
Rachel Foster, co-founder and executive council chair of World Without Exploitation, an anti-sex trafficking coalition, described on Monday the fight to release the files as “truly bipartisan.”
“Truly a bipartisan effort. It’s not political,” Foster said. “This is about transparency, and this is a moment, if there’s any moment for people from both sides of the aisle to come together and say that victims who have sexual abuse need to have justice, and we all need transparency when it comes to either standing with victims, standing with women and children who have been abused or you’re protecting perpetrators.”
ABC News James Hill contributed to this report.
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