Democrats tore into government’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein abuse scandal on Tuesday – revealing new details of the scale of his international sex-trafficking ring, and warning Donald Trump not to grant a presidential pardon to the late sex offender’s sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell.

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gave tearful testimony at a congressional field hearing in Florida of their experiences as teenagers in his orbit. Some spoke of being retraumatized after they were “outed” by the justice department’s failure to redact their names from the so-called Epstein files.

Democratic members of the US House oversight committee said they held Tuesday’s event in Palm Beach, where the president lives, and where Epstein had a residence, because it was “the scene of the crime”.

“We’re here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location,” the California Democrat Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, told a press conference after the hearing.

“We know that the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted.”

Garcia began the hearing by unveiling a new report called The Price of Non-Prosecution that he said revealed how Epstein was able to build a substantial and lucrative international sex-trafficking ring following his infamous “sweetheart deal” with Florida prosecutors in 2008.

After dodging serious charges and serving only 13 months in prison for a solicitation of prostitution conviction, he said, Epstein and his associates gamed the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.

“[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta’s sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse,” Garcia said.

“This report is just the beginning of numerous reports and information that we intend to put out over the course of the months ahead.”

One survivor, Dani Bensky, testified how she was groomed and recruited into Epstein’s circle – and how victims were encouraged to recruit friends of their own.

“I had two recruiters,” she said. “One was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old, just trying to escape her own abuse.”

Multiple others were recruited from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, allegedly during the many years of friendship between the now-president and Epstein.

They included Virginia Giuffre, who worked as a spa attendant at the age of 16 in 2000, when she said she was recruited by Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and “fixer”. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Giuffre was one of the most prominent voices in exposing Epstein, and appeared in an infamous March 2001 photograph with Maxwell and the discredited British former royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whose arm is around the then 17-year-old’s waist.

Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, cried on Tuesday as he spoke of his sister’s determination to expose Epstein’s crimes before she took her life in April 2025.

“She was only 16 years old, a child who had just finished 10th grade, when she began being trafficked,” Roberts said. “Before her passing, Virginia gave sworn testimony exposing this for what it truly was, a global sex-trafficking operation, enabled, protected and funded by powerful people.

“Many survivors stay silent because many of these individuals still hold power, wealth and influence in our society. No survivor should have to risk their own safety just to be believed. But Virginia, she did it anyway. She stood up when others were afraid, told the truth under oath, and faced people she knew were powerful.”

Some panel members focused on the Trump administration’s response to the scandal, which has dogged Trump’s second presidency. One Epstein email released in November stated “of course [Trump] knew about the girls” procured for his sex-trafficking ring, and another that said Trump “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the activities of Epstein, who he said he dropped as a friend years earlier.

“The [justice department], this administration, the president, and the attorney general, made it clear that this investigation, in their opinion, was a hoax, was a lie, and there was nothing else to do or to move forward,” Garcia said. “They want to close it down.

“It is alive and well, and moving forward. And we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

The Trump administration, he said, continued to “break the law” by withholding what he said was half of the documents required by the Epstein Transparency Act.

Conversely, one survivor, a model who identified herself as Roza, said she was retraumatized by finding her name unredacted hundreds of times in the documents the justice department had released.

“My name was exposed to the world,” she said. “Now reporters from across the globe contact me. I cannot live without looking over my shoulder. I can only imagine the long-term impact this ‘mistake’ will have on my life.”

Democrats said they looked forward to the testimony of Pam Bondi, Trump’s former attorney general, at a House oversight hearing on 29 May looking in to the government’s handling of the files – and the wider scandal.

Minority members filed a civil contempt resolution against Bondi in April after the administration argued she was not required to respond to a subpoena to appear because she had left her job.

Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democratic congressman for Illinois, meanwhile, warned Trump against clemency for Maxwell, a move some Republicans support arguing that it could free her to cooperate with the Epstein investigation.

“Maxwell hasn’t shown any guilt, hasn’t shown any remorse, hasn’t shown any ounce of accountability for what she did,” he said, noting he introduced a House resolution in August condemning a push for clemency.

“I hope everyone here will join me, because we have to do everything in our power to block a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.”