A woman who claims she was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein has told US lawmakers that her abuse continued even after the financier’s 2008 arrest, when she was under house arrest. Sources confirm the testimony was given in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday, part of an ongoing investigation into judicial and law enforcement failures in the Epstein case.
The survivor, identified only as ‘Jane Doe’, alleged that Epstein used his Palm Beach mansion as a base of operations while serving a controversial plea deal. She told the House Judiciary Committee that guards assigned to monitor him facilitated further abuse, effectively turning his home arrest into a continuation of his crimes.
“I was brought there multiple times,” she said, according to a source with direct knowledge of the testimony. “The ankle monitor was a joke. He had parties. He had visitors. No one stopped him.”
The hearing comes as lawmakers push to reopen the federal investigation into Epstein’s network and examine why senior officials accepted a non-prosecution agreement that shielded him from federal charges in 2008. Uncovered documents from that period show that Alexander Acosta, then US attorney in Miami, personally approved the deal. Acosta later served as Trump’s labour secretary before resigning in 2019 after the Miami Herald’s investigation exposed the leniency of the terms.
Jane Doe’s account aligns with what I’ve reported before: Epstein’s house arrest was barely enforceable. Multiple sources have confirmed that guards were instructed not to interfere with his guests. One former guard, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told me the atmosphere was “more like a resort than a prison.”
The survivor’s testimony also contained new details about the scale of the operation. She claimed that Epstein used hidden cameras throughout the mansion, recording interactions that he later used to blackmail powerful individuals.
“There were tapes. He showed me some,” she said. “He said they were insurance.”
The hearing is likely to intensify calls for a full inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the case. Internal probes have been repeatedly blocked by senior officials who fear it would expose a culture of deference towards wealthy defendants.
I have obtained a memo from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that admits “errors in judgement” but stops short of assigning blame. Sources inside the department say the memo was deliberately vague to protect career officials.
But Jane Doe’s testimony, backed by previously sealed court filings, paints a picture of systemic failure. A 2012 FBI audit found that field agents had documented numerous violations of Epstein’s house arrest terms, but supervisors declined to take action. The audit was buried.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed outrage after the hearing. Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee chairman, said he would seek a subpoena for the full Epstein investigation files. “This is not just a failure of one man. This is a failure of the system,” he told reporters.
The survivor’s attorney said the testimony was the first step towards accountability. “For decades, these women have been silenced. Now they are speaking, and we will not stop until every enabler is held responsible.”
Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Conspiracy theories continue to swirl about his death, but the focus of this hearing is unambiguously on the living.
Jane Doe’s testimony provides the clearest evidence yet that Epstein’s network operated with impunity, not in spite of his house arrest, but because of it. The question now is whether the justice system will finally treat survivors as credible witnesses instead of collateral damage.
I will continue to follow this story as more details emerge from the sealed testimony.
