WATCH: 'I was called a traitor' by Trump but Epstein survivors are patriots, Taylor Greene says

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., hailed the courage of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse survivors and pushed back on President Donald Trump’s personal attacks for her advocacy of the release of more Justice Department files.

“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight, and they did it by banding together and never giving up,” Greene said Tuesday. “And that's what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today.”

Greene spoke during a news conference on Capitol Hill alongside Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., as well as survivors and their loved ones.

The House overwhelmingly voted to pass a measure that would force the Justice Department to release its case files on Epstein. The measure now moves to the Senate.

Trump, a onetime friend of the late financier and convicted sex offender, has called the controversy a “hoax.” On Sunday, he reversed his position on the legislation to release the files and called on House Republicans to support the bill. The president has also criticized Greene, a longtime ally, calling her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene.”

Standing with survivors, the congresswoman fired back at the president.

“I've never owed him anything, but I fought for him, for the policies and for America first,” she said. “He called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition.”

She added that the “real test” would be whether the DOJ and other institutions actually release their Epstein files after the vote.

Greene also thanked her fellow lawmakers, Khanna and Massie, for “doing something that is much needed in America: crossing the political aisle that has become bigger than the Grand Canyon.”

Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app

Find more from PBS NewsHour at

Subscribe to our YouTube channel

X (formerly Twitter)

Subscribe:

PBS NewsHour podcasts

Newsletters