PALM BEACH — Democratic members of the US House Oversight Committee held a field hearing in Palm Beach on Tuesday to examine the Justice Department's handling of Jeffrey Epstein case files and hear testimony from survivors. Several survivors gave tearful testimony recounting their experiences as teenagers in Epstein's circle.

"We're here because so much of this investigation brings us back to this location," said Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. "We know that the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the horrible things that happened to so many women and girls, totaling 1,200 could have been stopped and halted."

Garcia unveiled a report titled "The Price of Non-Prosecution" at the hearing. The report described how Epstein built an international sex trafficking ring after his 2008 plea deal with Florida prosecutors, under which he served 13 months in prison following a solicitation of prostitution conviction. Epstein and his associates used the US immigration system to obtain visas to traffic women into the country from overseas.

"[Our] report uses evidence obtained by our investigation, including and most importantly bank records, that show how [prosecutor] Alex Acosta's sweetheart deal let Epstein build a global network using enablers to bring in women who he could then exploit and abuse," he said. Garcia also said: "This report is just the beginning of numerous reports and information that we intend to put out over the course of the months ahead."

Dani Bensky testified that she was groomed and recruited into Epstein's circle and that victims were encouraged to recruit friends. "I had two recruiters. One was a late teen, and the other was only 15 years old, just trying to escape her own abuse," Bensky said. Some survivors testified that other victims were recruited from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club.

Roza, a model, said she was retraumatized after finding her name unredacted hundreds of times in documents released by the Justice Department. "My name was exposed to the world," she said. "Now reporters from across the globe contact me. I cannot live without looking over my shoulder."

Garcia said the Trump administration had withheld half of the documents required by the Epstein Transparency Act. "The [justice department], this administration, the president, and the attorney general, made it clear that this investigation, in their opinion, was a hoax, was a lie, and there was nothing else to do or to move forward," he said. "They want to close it down. It is alive and well, and moving forward. And we have a lot of work ahead of us."

Trump has said he dropped Epstein as a friend years earlier and denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein's activities. Pam Bondi is scheduled to testify at a House Oversight Committee hearing on May 29 regarding the government's handling of the Epstein files. In April, minority members filed a civil contempt resolution against Bondi after the administration argued she was not required to respond to a subpoena because she had left her job.