Epstein survivor pushes for release of files in wake of new emails: ‘It will bring us closure’ | Jeffrey Epstein
When Marina Lacerda woke up Wednesday to learn that thousands of documents about Jeffrey Epstein had been released by House Republicans, she braced herself for a new round of revelations.
Before deciding to waive her anonymity in September, Lacerda was known as “Little Victim-1” for years; another teenager groomed and abused by an unknown, unheard of, pedophile financier.
What did not surprise the 37-year-old man was that the scandal, which emerged in an email sent by Epstein suggesting he believed Trump was aware of his behavior, was once again dismissed by Donald Trump as a “hoax”.
“Donald Trump, thank you so much for calling us a scam, because now you’ve empowered us and now you’ve made people listen to us even more. That actually helped us,” Lacerda said, while urging the president to release the rest of the Epstein files.
“We care about transparency, about the Epstein files coming out, but also about bringing all the guys to justice… Everything is a mess right now, all because of these files [Trump’s] he stands back and she ‘has nothing to do with it’. Why don’t you take them out? … It makes him look really bad.”
Lacerda, a key witness in the 2019 indictment against Epstein, first spoke publicly outside the U.S. Capitol in September to encourage other abuse victims to come forward.
She was just 14 years old when she was hired to give massages to Epstein at his palatial mansion in New York in 2002. At the time, she was a vulnerable teenager who had been subjected to sexual and physical abuse, and was working to support her family who had immigrated from Brazil to New York.
“It was a very, very sad time in my life,” Lacerda said in an interview with the Guardian.
The friend who introduced her to Epstein said she would earn $300 for taking off her blouse and giving him a half-hour massage. But Lacerda’s first encounter with the disgraced financier left him devastated.
“It was definitely different from what I expected. When I got there, I took off my blouse and he wanted to touch me, so I told him no. He respected that, but then he started touching himself,” she recalls.
“Then she asked us to take off our bras and I was so embarrassed. I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere… So I was so scared so I did what the other girl did and took off my shirt and she touched herself until she climaxed. Then she gave me the money. She said she wanted to see me again.”
The abuse quickly escalated as Epstein used Lacerda’s financial and immigration problems against him. Lacerda said he feared the control over himself and also those in positions of power.
He recalled that his office was filled with photos of Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and former prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. She also heard him bragging about getting a massage on the phone.
Lacerda said: “He always told me that he owned the state, he owned the banks, he owned everything and was in power. He had power over everyone. This scared us and the other victims. He abused me from the age of 14 and raped me until I was 17 (almost 18) and took full advantage of it. He threatened me in different ways, not directly, but he always told me: ‘Be careful who you talk to, because if you talk too much, things might happen.”
Lacerda was also forced to recruit other girls by Epstein, who threatened that otherwise he would not help her with immigration paperwork. The harassment only ended when Lacerda turned 17 and started wearing make-up.
“He told me that I wasn’t fun anymore, that I was getting old for him and that I was going to have to kind of fade away,” she said.
Years later, in 2008, FBI agents knocked on Lacerda’s door to ask questions about Epstein. In shock, she called Epstein, who provided her with a lawyer. But because Epstein signed a controversial plea deal, he could not speak before the grand jury.
FBI agents showed up at his door for a second time in 2019, after New York prosecutors filed charges against Epstein. It was stated that the evidence provided by Lacerda was very important in bringing a case against Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Lacerda is proud of his contributions to the cause, but still struggles with feelings of shame. “I’m still trying to understand and grasp the fact that it wasn’t my fault and that the abuse will continue whether I take the stand in 2008 or not,” he said. “It was only after I broke my silence that I began to realize that I was truly a victim.”
He was inspired to speak out publicly after attending a memorial service for Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly named Epstein, his partner Ghislaine Maxwell and Mountbatten-Windsor as her abusers before killing herself in April.
“We continue on this journey for him,” Lacerda said. “He has done so much, advocated and done so much with his speech and his voice, that it is now our job to continue the throne that he established for us.”
He pointed out that Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of her royal titles following the publication of Giuffre’s posthumous memoir. The former prince has always denied allegations that he had sex with Giuffre when she was 17. Lacerda said he will continue to speak out and fight for the release of the Epstein files so that others can be held accountable.
Trump has pressed congressional Republicans to oppose releasing the full Justice Department files on Epstein before a key House vote on the issue next week.
Lacerda was disappointed that the issue had become a political battleground, with Republicans and Democrats blaming each other for delays in releasing the files. “We don’t care whose fault it is. We just want these Epstein files to be released to the public and to us because that will give us closure. Because so many of us are traumatized.”
