‘We’re nonetheless strolling down the path you blazed for us, Virginia. I am unable to wait so that you can see how far we go.’
The Epstein information present how highly effective programs undermine victims
When Claire Wilmot reviewed the Epstein information, she discovered persistent efforts to undermine the credibility of sexual abuse victims.
The next letter was written for USA TODAY by Maria Farmer to her finest good friend and hero, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 41, who died by suicide on April 25, 2025. When you or somebody is struggling or in disaster, assist is accessible. Name, textual content 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
Virginia,
I’ve missed you every single day. It’s been a year the place you’ve modified every thing. Your love can be everlasting, and you’d be so deeply pleased with your loved ones for persevering with your very important legacy.
Your loved ones and survivors are lastly being heard. My sister, Annie Farmer, helped go a regulation to pressure the Division of Justice to launch the Epstein information. Predators comparable to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are lastly being held accountable for what they did to you, and a video that included you was projected onto Windsor Castle’s wall. You probably did one thing nobody else did. And every single day, your sister survivors work tirelessly across the clock to make sure this nightmare doesn’t occur once more.
Generally it’s exhausting to imagine that any of this has really occurred. We each know that speaking about one thing, saying it out loud, might be the motion that makes an occasion really really feel actual. For thus a few years, you have been the one who listened. You witnessed my life, and that meant it was actual, and actuality. It was a uncommon reward for somebody who’s spent so a few years ignored and unheard.
In 1996, I contacted the New York Metropolis Police Division and FBI to inform the identical story that’s being informed at present: In the mid-90s, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell lied to my household, lured me to remoted places, and sexually abused and assaulted me. Then they threatened my life and well-being if I have been to ever report what had occurred.
I simply needed to guard my little sisters, and the opposite youngsters on the market being deceived and destroyed by Epstein and Maxwell’s darkish net of trafficking and abuse ‒ I needed to guard you, Virginia, even earlier than I knew you. So I did what everyone seems to be informed to do: I went to the FBI, hoping for assist from these meant to maintain us secure from hurt. As a substitute, they hung up on me. For a decade, I lived below threats of violence and destruction below Maxwell.
A decade later, in 2006, the FBI contacted me once more. The officers got here to our houses, interviewed us and instructed us to testify within the federal trial in Florida. They promised that Epstein, Maxwell and their accomplices could be held accountable. Then they deserted us.
We felt duped once more. I can’t think about telling that model of myself all we might obtain within the subsequent 20 years. I believe she would have been pleased with us. I believe she would have been so grateful and relieved to know I discovered a good friend such as you alongside this deeply painful highway.
I wouldn’t have made it this far with out your friendship and your religion. You’re the cause I’m surviving most cancers. It’s the energy you gave me that saved me transferring ahead when it felt a lot simpler to give up. It may possibly make you are feeling loopy, having so many individuals ignore you, or disbelieve you, or just not care about what occurred to you in any respect. However I had you, Annie and different survivors like Marijke Chartouni, who at all times understood the reality.
That braveness retains me going at present. I’m certain it received’t shock you to know that we nonetheless have a protracted option to go. With your loved ones and pals by my facet, something is feasible.
Although extra information have been released, numerous others have been unjustly kept out of the general public eye ‒ together with my full 1996 FBI report. These which have been made accessible are redacted inconsistently and ineffectively, placing survivors in danger whereas prioritizing the safety of highly effective predators.
Throughout the ocean, Prince Andrew has been stripped of his title and evicted from his royal residence, and former British Ambassador Peter Mandelson has been arrested. However in the US, billionaires like Les Wexner face no penalties.
The FBI continues to disregard the voices of survivors, to shirk its most important duty to the American individuals, together with our kids. There are nonetheless days once I marvel if anyone is listening.
Your book is a bestseller. Tens of millions of actual individuals picked it up as a result of they needed to hearken to your story. You might be lastly being heard. You’ll at all times be remembered as a champion for safeguarding weak younger youngsters like your self.
You and I typically questioned what would have occurred to the numerous individuals Epstein and Maxwell victimized had the FBI taken us significantly all these years in the past. What number of would have lived regular, glad lives and by no means recognized the humiliation and terror of their abuse? The devastation Epstein and Maxwell prompted was not inevitable. It was a choice made every single day for many years.
You promised your daughter she would develop up in a greater world than the one you and I inherited. By means of your relentless activism and highly effective voice, that promise has come true. One the place criminals are held to account and saved far-off from the levers of energy. One the place kids are protected like our most respected sources, as a result of they’re. We’re nonetheless strolling down the path you blazed for us, Virginia. I can’t wait so that you can see how far we go.
This by no means will get simpler. Or possibly it simply hasn’t but. However each time I’ve known as on my braveness, you delivered it proper to my doorstep. I need to thanks for at all times doing that, even nonetheless.
I miss you. I really like you.
— Maria
Editor’s Notice: Neither Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, previously often known as Prince Andrew, nor former British Ambassador Peter Mandelson has been charged with any crime. Businessman Lex Wexner was sued by Epstein victims in a civil swimsuit alleging that he enabled Jeffrey Epstein financially. All three males have denied any wrongdoing.
