Maria Farmer, one of the many women assaulted by deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein in her youth as part of his trafficking operation, spoke out about how all of the explosion of controversy around the case is re-traumatizing her in an interview with MSNBC's Jen Psaki on Thursday — and she called out those trying to rehabilitate Epstein's convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell for political purposes.
In recent days, as Trump's Justice Department interviews Maxwell in prison to try to deflect from the anger from their own base over the lack of transparency, some right-wing commentators have begun to push a narrative that Maxwell might have been railroaded, with Newsmax's Greg Kelly suggesting she might even be a victim herself.
"Let me start by asking you, I mean, this — this nightmare has followed you for a very, very long time, I mean, decades. And I'm sure that Jeffrey Epstein's re-emergence, I mean, all over the news, has been incredibly painful," said Psaki. "How are you? How are you doing? How are you, how are you digesting all of this?"
"Thank you for asking that," said Farmer. "That's very thoughtful, because a lot of people aren't aware of every time his picture is on one of their podcasts or, you know, and I've asked several people, can you please not just flash this picture everywhere or Maxwell's and not glamorize them? But thank you for asking that, because a lot of people aren't aware that that retraumatizes victims."
"Every time we have to see his face, and it's a case that has just never gone away," Farmer continued. "It just — it just won't go away. And I need your audience to understand that, you know, I reported this almost three decades ago. So a lot of people will say, 'Oh, why is she just coming forward now?' And they think it's political and it's not. It's something I've been working on pretty much — I dedicated all of my youth to this. And so I'm doing it not just for me, but for the victims who are now deceased and the victims that are very much alive. And I want to get justice for all of them."
"I feel that for my little sister to have gone through what she went through and to have had to testify against Maxwell and then have to suffer," she added. "And there are others that I love very much who are suffering this right now about Maxwell. It's completely unacceptable. Why would Maxwell be given a voice when she is a convicted pedophile? I just — it's been very difficult and I appreciate the question. I appreciate you asking."
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