After Forcing Subpoena, Rep. Summer Lee Joins Pressley, Oversight Dems to Uplift Voices of Epstein Survivors
PITTSBURGH, PA – AUGUST 7, 2025 — Today, Congresswoman Summer L. Lee (PA-12) joined Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) and fellow House Oversight Democrats in calling for a Congressional hearing to prioritize and uplift the voices of survivors of the horrific abuse carried out by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their network of co-conspirators. In a letter to Chairman James Comer, lawmakers demanded that any credible investigation must center the firsthand accounts of survivors whose stories may not be reflected in the Department of Justice’s records.
This latest call to center survivors builds on Rep. Lee’s continued leadership in the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Epstein and his enablers. In July, Rep. Lee, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, successfully introduced and passed a motion to subpoena the full Epstein files, breaking through partisan gridlock and forcing House Republicans to act after months of inaction. This week, that motion culminated in the formal issuance of a subpoena to the Department of Justice, giving the agency 14 days to turn over the full, unredacted Epstein files. In a joint statement, Ranking Members Summer Lee and Robert Garcia emphasized that this is just the beginning, declaring that “we must continue putting pressure on the Department of Justice until we actually receive every document.”
In their letter to Chairman James Comer, Rep. Lee and her colleagues detailed Epstein’s history exploiting and trafficking young women and girls, leaving them with deep, lasting trauma. The lawmakers argued that these individuals should have their stories heard and their healing centered in Congressional efforts to achieve transparency and accountability.
“If we are to hold powerful people to account, our investigation must center the voices they tried to silence,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter. “To ensure that our investigation is comprehensive and credible, we urge the Committee to allow survivors the opportunity to provide their testimony if they wish to do so.”
“If the Committee is to conduct credible oversight, it must hear directly from survivors, or their representatives, who volunteer to advance our investigation on their own terms,” the lawmakers continued. “Some survivors have expressed a clear willingness and desire to come before Congress, and the Committee cannot meet their strength and bravery with inaction.”
The lawmakers made the case that releasing the full, unredacted Epstein files will not tell the full story, and that hearing testimony from Maxwell, an unreliable and untrustworthy co-conspirator, while ignoring those who were abused, will only contribute to more pain for survivors and more misinformation for the public.
“For too long, powerful abusers and their enablers have been shielded by institutions more interested in protecting predators than centering survivors,” the lawmakers continued. “The Committee now has an opportunity to break that cycle. A public hearing focused on survivors who wish to speak out would be a meaningful step towards transparency, accountability, and healing.”
Joining Rep. Lee and Rep. Pressley on the letter are Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Representatives Eleanor Holmes Norton, Stephen F. Lynch, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Kweisi Mfume, Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Emily Randall, Suhas Subramanyam, Yassamin Ansari, Lateefah Simon, Dave Min, and Rashida Tlaib.
To view the full letter, click HERE.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.