Maria Farmer, #1
Tuesday, May 12, 2026, at West Palm Beach City Hall, a group of Epstein sexual assault survivors gave testimony regarding their abuse and the government's response. I listened to this hearing, which lasted about three hours, while I was out on a long walk.
This morning, I was searching news sites for more information on the hearing and was surprised at how little was out there. I had ample opportunities to read about all fifty plus Drumpf media posts from yesterday and could have spent hours reviewing pundits’ takes on the nutcase’s latest insane ramblings. But this earth-shattering stuff about billionaire sexual assaults, massive government failure, and the women who survived it and are speaking truth to power took some serious time to find.
Under one video, someone posted. “This is awful. Why aren’t we hearing more about this?” My exact thoughts. Rather than get mad, or rather madder, I decided to get to work.
I went back and listened again to the hearings. Because I was now sitting at a table and not navigating roads, I was able to watch them too. I took notes and am doing my best to summarize and condense, one survivor at a time.
I’m not including any thoughts of my own. The point of this exercise is to share what they said. This is my attempt to help get the word out.
Each survivor spoke for eight to ten minutes. My notes should take just a minute or two to skim, if you’re so inclined. Please watch the video too and correct me if I need correcting. It’s important to get this right.
This post is a summary of the words of Maria Farmer, the first survivor to speak.
Her eight-minute video call begins at 16:44 (cut and paste link):
She is not present at the hearing because she is ill and was only recently released from the hospital. She says that in the last month alone she spent 23 nights in the hospital and several of those nights were in the Intensive Care Unit. She is at her home, sitting in an upholstered chair with her feet up and wearing what appear to be pajamas. She is swathed in a blanket. Her voice is strong though trembles a bit when she speaks of her own and her sister’s traumas. She is focused.
She calls herself the original whistle blower, who reported Epstein, Maxwell, Les Wexner and others 30 years ago in 1996. Says she carried weight no survivor should have to bear.
In 1996 she reported sexual assaults by Epstein, Maxwell, Les Wexner, and others who she does not name, in “real time” while she was living in New York City, to NYC precinct. Says she was told by NYC police to report these assaults to the FBI because these crimes took place in other states in addition to NY.
The FBI asked her many questions, giving her “every reason to believe they would respond.”
Decade of FBI inaction resulted in Epstein and company continuing to commit all kinds of crimes against girls and women. She listed half dozen survivor names to prove her point.
The FBI tracked her down in 2006, ten years after her initial reporting, and asked her to testify in a federal criminal trial to bring Epstein and company to justice. “I trusted them again. Relied upon them again.”
Instead of going to jail, Epstein was offered a sweetheart deal and shielded powerful individuals from accountability. The FBI persists in granting special treatment to certain people to this day, she says. She doesn’t name these people.
Farmer says she constantly received death threats from Maxwell and her associates, who in one instance threatened to burn down her apartment. Threats continue today. Farmer says she’s in real danger from “internet instigators, trolls, and more.”
She has suffered harassment: “vicious challenges to my truthfulness.”
She has filed numerous times for release of her 1996 FBI report and has had her efforts rejected or ignored every time.
In 2023, she wrote letter to Inspector General’s office. An initial response said that the office was busy with other matters, and that the office would get back to her. The office did not.
Farmer said she also filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests for her 1996 files. Her most recent request was in January 2025. Estimated date for her to get that information is November 2027, nearly three years from her latest request.
She has since filed an administrative complaint against the government.
After passage of Epstein Files Transparency Act, an FD 71 form was released to her, for the first time, confirming “just a small part” of her 1996 whistleblower report and “vindicating some of what I’ve said for years.” However, a large part is missing, so the partial release of the Epstein files “provides only partial relief for me.”
“Where is the evidence I provided of my sexual assault and that of my sister Annie?”
“Why won’t the FBI release my full report?”
“The failures of those sworn to protect us have overwhelmed me.”
“The stress of the trauma and of the government refusing to turn over written confirmation, along with ongoing harassment and death threats, contributed to me developing serious health issues, including Hodgkins Lymphoma, a brain tumor, Addison’s Disease.”
Along with her health, the sexual assaults and subsequent government inaction have also robbed her of her career. In 1996, she was fresh out of graduate school, living a life she’d dreamed of and creating and selling art in NYC. Then she was assaulted, threatened, and held captive. Her career was halted and the “trajectory” of her life was thrown off course.
“We are still walking down the trail that Virginia (Giuffre) blazed for us.”
“The Federal government owes us explanations, accountability for injuries caused, and a promise of systemic change when crimes against children are reported. Accountability should start with the government’s acknowledgement of responsibility for their repeated failures to act in response to my 1996 report. . . the government needs to start telling the truth” . . . and be held accountable to her and all others who’ve been harmed.
If the FBI had done its job, “thirty years of child sex abuse and trauma could have been avoided.”
Farmer demanded her FBI file, including her 1996 and 2006 reports, and including her art. She demanded investigations of every lead in this case and of everyone responsible, emphasizing both men AND women, including officials who gave Epstein the 2008 sweetheart deal and anyone currently shielding anyone from justice.
She demanded that there be no pardoning, no commuting of sentences like for Maxwell “who sexually abused me, my sister” and so many girls and other young women “and personally threatened to kill me.”
“As the Epstein whistleblower, I have waited three decades for justice. It’s a miracle I’m still fighting."
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