Took a long break from reporting survivor testimony. But the recent news that the president of the United States on June 29 lost his appeal of the $5 million E. Jean Carroll verdict reminded me that when it comes to speaking truth to power, there’s no time like the present.
We live in a country where:
Half the country elected an adjudicated rapist who also has more than two dozen credible sexual harassment/ assault accusations lodged against him. Here’s a partial listing of his accusers, as of September 2020, if you care to check that out: https://abcnews.com/Politics/list-trumps-accusers-allegations-sexual-misconduct/story?id=51956410.
This week, billionaire businessman Steve Witkoff, a Trump-appointed US Envoy with no diplomatic experience and no experience whatsoever in mediating between warring nations, who has massive economic ties and business interests in the Middle East, yelled at and cut the microphone of Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-PA) during a congressional briefing call on the Iran ceasefire deal. Per Dean, he called her questions “smart-assed” and “stupid” after she asked questions about the terms of the memorandum of understanding and asked Witkoff about his business interests in the region. A special envoy muted a Congresswoman’s microphone.
He called her names because he didn’t like her questions. Apparently, this is how we treat women now, which makes complete sense because our role model misogynist president regularly blasts female reporters on their looks and intelligence. Piggies everywhere.
So given these latest insults to women everywhere, it felt like a good time to revisit the West Palm hearings, and share more words from the women, young girls at the time of the abuse and barely teens some of them, whose lives were changed forever, by our president’s dear friend, Jeffrey Epstein – with whom Trump shared many “wonderful secrets.” (Per the birthday card Trump says he didn’t send to Epstein.)
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.
The next morning, I was searching news sites for more information on the hearing and was surprised at how little was out there. This earth-shattering stuff about billionaire sexual assaults, massive government failure, and the stories of the women who survived all of this 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.
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 trying to avoid editorializing. It’s not my place. The point of this exercise is to share what the survivors said. This is my attempt to help get the word out.
Each survivor speaks 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.
Link to hearing video:
https://www.youtube.com/live/fHntY5BVY90?si=ag85yR9MrzXJaI5V
Dani Bensky’s talk begins at 47:10 and continues for about five minutes.
Epstein abused her in 2004 and 2005, eight years after Maria Farmer first reported Jeffrey Epstein to the FBI.
She was seventeen.
She lives with PTSD because of the trauma she experienced.
Was trafficked “only” to Jeffrey, “which unfortunately is not the case for so many others.”
Was recruited by two other young women, one in late teens, one only 13 who was trying to escape Epstein’s abuse by bringing him new girls.
Epstein weaponized her “aspirations and dreams” by weaponizing the language of the dance community – she was a dancer -- and making false promises.
Shortly before meeting Epstein, Bensky’s mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Bensky saw Epstein’s name on a donor wall and contacted him, thinking he was a medical expert and could use his pull to help her mother.
Instead, he sexually abused her. Then he “used her mother’s brain scans against her” and told her she needed to either recruit more girls for him or do more for him.
She recruited no one, “just endured the abuse.”
In May 2005, mom had successful tumor removal and Bensky was able to “escape Jeffrey’s web.”
To keep her from reporting him to authorities, Epstein threatened her friend and told Bensky she would be arrested for prostitution if she went to police.
The Epstein reports that have so far been released have shown Bensky’s name multiple times, her address, her employer at the time, where she was studying, “and other identifying information.”
In one document, her nickname was redacted, but just a few line later, her entire legal name was not.
“I am just one of hundreds of survivors exposed like this.”
She learned a few weeks before the hearing that her name appeared yet again in a newly-released third batch consisting of only twenty documents.
These results are available to “the whole world. . . my child, my students, my students’ parents, my friends, my employers, my colleagues, my family. I am public.”
This outing of survivor names does real, irrevocable damage.
For Bensky, accountability looks like: removing perpetrators from power, seeing arrests made, and laws passed that further protect victim’s rights.
“When systems protect the powerful rather than the victim, abuse becomes normalized. “
