Dani Bensky wasn’t old enough to vote when Jeffery Epstein sexually exploited her. Neither was Sharlene Rochard.
More than 20 years later, the women stood before a truck packed-full with more than 3 million pages of the Epstein files in Kansas City, Kansas, with a plea: vote for people who will hold sex offenders accountable.
“We really are in this to save the next generation, to be honest,” Rochard said, “because if we don't do it, who else is going to do it?”
The outside of the truck shows a timeline of President Donald Trump and Epstein’s relationship — their photos together, the birthday card, Epstein’s ban from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
However, appearing in the files is not a guarantee of criminal wrongdoing.
NPR found that the Department of Justice withheld or removed some of the files related to Trump — including allegations that he sexually abused a minor.
The survivors want the DOJ to investigate the people mentioned in the files, but the department has said there isn’t enough evidence.
“Our goal is to really spread awareness of the files,” Bensky said. “We’ve heard a lot that there’s nothing to investigate, when clearly that is untrue when we have 3.5 million files full of investigative leads.”
The Trump-Epstein Bookmobile is headed on a cross-country tour. Bensky said Washington D.C. felt like an echo chamber, so she enjoys being on the road. The survivors have been asking to meet with the federal officials for months, and when the meeting happened Bensky said it felt like "a mere 'check-the-box' exercise.”
“To actually hear people’s real life survivor stories and say ‘listen, when we say that we are here for all survivors we actually really mean it,’” Bensky said. “We do want to see change and make it safer for survivors in our country.”
The survivors appeared alongside Democratic nominee for governor, state Sen. Cindy Holscher. She brought up similarities between the Epstein case and the former Kansas City, Kansas, Police Detective Roger Golubski, who was set to go on trail for decades of alleged sexual abuse before he died by suicide.
Bensky said it’s not a political issue for the survivors. They see it as a human rights issue.
“Voters need to really pay attention to the core issues, and vote based on an issue not based on a partisan line,” Bensky said.
The survivors applauded Holscher’s efforts to extend the time frame for prosecution on childhood sex abuse cases. Holscher said she narrowly avoided being sexually abused as a child, something she came to terms with after speaking with survivors.
Lesa Patterson-Kinsey is a Kansan who survived sexual abuse in the 1970s. She said after her experience, she had nowhere to go — but that things are different now, in large part due to people like the Epstein survivors speaking up.
“This is momentum that we need,” Patterson-Kinsey said. “Stick with it, (accountability) will come.”
Candidates’ approaches
The bill upping the statute of limitations for alleged childhood sexual abuse cases passed unanimously, which means Republican nominee for governor, Senate President Ty Masterson, also voted in favor of it.
Garrett Henson, a spokesperson for Masterson’s campaign, said “Ty will make sure anyone who preys on a child in Kansas has nowhere to hide."
He pointed to the 2023 law that proponents — like Masterson — said would deter human smuggling. The law increased the penalties for smuggling a person into Kansas while knowing that person is undocumented for financial gain or exploitation.
Democrats and immigration activists worried the law may lead to racial profiling. Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed it, and said it was “rushed” and invasive.
“As Senate President, (Masterson) led the veto override to make it a felony to smuggle people into Kansas for exploitation, with the harshest penalties reserved for anyone whose victim ends up trafficked or forced into prostitution,” Henson said.
Masterson is endorsed by Trump, whose involvement with Epstein has been a focal point for survivors. But after the primary, where an endorsement from a president that won Kansas easily likely holds significant sway, Masterson’s relationship with Trump has been dialed down on his campaign site. It now focuses on more Kansas-centered issues.
A state governor has limited power over what happens with the Epstein files, aside from setting a precedent on how seriously the state takes sex crimes.
Many decisions on the files are decided on the Congressional level. While Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, who’s up for reelection, originally said the Epstein files were “not his focus,” he helped pass the bill to compel the release of the files.
Marshall’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this report. After a political action committee supporting Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton put out an ad condemning Marshall’s response to the Epstein files, Marshall’s campaign doubled down on accusations that Hamilton is too “woke.”
Glynnis Harvey, a spokesperson for Hamilton’s campaign, said Hamilton met with Epstein survivors. Harvey said that if elected, Hamilton would vote in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act II, which would force the DOJ to release the rest of the files, and Virginia’s Law, which aims to make it easier for survivors to pursue justice.
Virginia’s law is named after Virginia Giuffre, an Epstein survivors who died by suicide. Giuffre originally worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, and Trump said that Epstein “stole” her as an employee.
“Adam was honored to meet with these survivors as they bravely share their stories and tour the country,” Harvey said. “Adam stands with them and believes fighting for accountability should not be a partisan issue.”
Hamilton’s opponent for the Democratic nominee for Senate state Sen. Patrick Schmidt — who garnered about 6% of the primary votes — alleged that Hamilton helped cover up a child sex abuse scandal at his church camps.
There were two instances where the same church volunteer attempted to assault campers, in 2005 and 2006.
Hamilton told Kansas Reflector there was no attempt at a cover-up, but he’d approach the first incident differently today by going directly to law enforcement.
After the 2005 incident, the church conducted an internal investigation — but after the victim couldn’t identify the perpetrator, it was inconclusive. In 2006 church leaders told law enforcement after the same perpetrator acted again and was identified.
Grace Hills reports on politics for the Kansas News Service.
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