Top Republican Rep. Nancy Mace dramatically exited a meeting with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse in tears.
The South Carolina Republican had been attending a private meeting between lawmakers and the abuse survivors before leaving early on Tuesday.
Photos of her leaving the session show Mace, 47, in tears, visibly upset with what had transpired behind the closed doors.
She later took to social media to address why she left the meeting early.
‘Since it’s already being reported – Yes I left the Oversight briefing with Epstein victims early,’ she wrote on X.
‘As a recent survivor (not 2 years in), I had a very difficult time listening to their stories. Full blown panic attack. Sweating. Hyperventilating. Shaking. I can’t breathe,’ the Republican continued.
‘I feel the immense pain of how hard all victims are fighting for themselves because we know absolutely no one will fight for us. God bless all survivors.’
The survivors were meeting with investigators on the House Oversight Committee, who are currently probing the late financier, his crimes and his network. The survivors are taking to Capitol Hill to share their experiences and to advocate for trafficking victims.
Epstein survivors Teresa Helm and Jess Michaels were among the survivors expected to appear on Capitol Hill this week, though it was unclear if they were in Tuesday’s meeting.
The women are pushing for Congress to address Epstein-related issues and child sex trafficking reforms.
‘What we’re looking for with all of these meetings is courage on the part of Republican representatives, because this is, most importantly, a bipartisan issue,’ Michaels said on MSNBC over the weekend.
‘This is not something that anyone, anyone on any side of the aisle should be for,’ she continued. ‘No one should be for child sex trafficking and allowing perpetrators to escape justice, and no one should be for systems failing to prosecute over decades.’
The survivors are scheduled to have a press conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday alongside Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who began an effort Tuesday to pass legislation to release the Epstein files.
Up to 10 survivors are expected to speak, and Khanna has shared that the revelations will be ‘explosive.’
If their discharge petition to release the files garners 218 signatures, the lawmaker duo could force the House of Representatives to vote on releasing the files.
Massie and Khanna have already received bipartisan support for their measure from Democrat Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The gambit could cause headaches for GOP leadership, who may be powerless to stop the vote on releasing Epstein’s files.
Mace has herself opened up about the abuse she has faced, even delivering a speech in Congress naming her alleged abusers.
In February, the congresswoman accused several men of being ‘predators’ during an astonishing speech on the House floor in Congress, where she’s shielded from legal action by the Constitution’s ‘speech and debate’ clause.
She accused Eric Bowman, her ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant, and two of his associates, John Osborne and Brian Musgrave, of ‘rape, illegal filming of women, photographing of women, and sex trafficking.’
Bryant and the other men have all strongly denied and pushed back on the allegations.
Last week, a judge affirmed that the Constitution protects the South Carolina lawmaker’s remarks in Congress and tossed Musgrave’s case against Mace.
Musgrave, despite losing his case, also vehemently denies wrongdoing.
But the judge’s ruling did not address whether Musgrave was defamed; instead, he noted how members of Congress are shielded from libel cases.
‘Congress has weighed the risks and benefits …. and concluded that libel and related claims against federal officials acting within the scope of their employment are barred under federal law,’ U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel wrote.