On Thursday, a woman named Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit against the federal government that begins with a paragraph both familiar and chilling: “For nearly a quarter of a century,” Farmer charges, Jeffrey Epstein got away with a “wide-ranging sex trafficking venture” in which she was one of hundreds of victims. And worse, Farmer alleges, the high-profile financier was able to do so because the FBI, Justice Department and United States Attorneys’ offices “failed to listen to or protect his sex-trafficked, sexually abused, and sexually exploited victims.”
Indeed, Farmer alleges that she first reported to the FBI that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his partner Ghislaine Maxwell in 1996, that she told the agent that Epstein had also committed “multiple serious sex crimes” against other girls and young women, including one of her minor sisters; that Epstein had stolen and transported across state lines nude and partially nude pictures of both of her minor sisters; and that, with others, Epstein was producing and distributing content that could constitute child pornography. (In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a jury convicted her of multiple sex trafficking-related charges; she is currently serving her sentence in a Tallahassee, Florida, federal prison and recently asked the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.)
Nonetheless, Farmer alleges, the FBI agent hung up on her and never followed up, leaving Epstein to “exponentially” multiply his abuse and trafficking of girls and young women over the ensuing decades. (The FBI declined NBC News’ request for comment on the lawsuit, citing its standard practice of not commenting on litigation.)
The existence of Farmer’s and others’ suits, and the plaintiffs’ collective demand that the FBI right its wrongs, demands our attention.
In some respects, Farmer’s lawsuit is not news. That she and her sisters were both victimized by Epstein and allegedly ignored by federal authorities has been reported for years. Nor is she the first Epstein victim to sue the federal government for its alleged failure to protect them from his manipulation, abuse and threats. Another similar suit now features 28 plaintiffs who accuse the FBI of “gross negligence and reckless indifference” to Epstein and his associates’ sexual abuse and trafficking of them and others for two decades. These lawsuits also seem unlikely to succeed for several reasons, including but not limited to the plaintiffs’ sheer delay in bringing them.
But the existence of Farmer’s and others’ suits, and the plaintiffs’ collective demand that the FBI right its wrongs, demands our attention. That’s especially true because what the victims seem to most want from the FBI — accountability for their ongoing trauma and internal reform to ensure something like the Epstein saga never recurs — contrasts with the growing MAGA-world hunger for more information about Epstein’s crimes, his co-conspirators and his suicide, which many in Trump-world have baselessly alleged was actually a murder.
That pressure has been escalating since February, when Attorney General Pam Bondi released a couple hundred pages of documents, most of which had already been disclosed publicly.
The February release spurred many — including Bondi herself — to angrily accuse the FBI of concealing relevant records and/or to continue speculating about which famous or otherwise distinguished Americans were complicit in Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. Republicans were not the only disappointed audience; Rep. Dan Goldman, a prominent New York Democrat and Donald Trump critic, characterized the release as “a ham-handed attempt to gaslight the American people” while asking whether Trump, who knew and socialized with Epstein long before entering political life, “intervened to prevent the public release of the Epstein files in order to hide his own embarrassing and potentially criminal conduct.”
From the victims’ perspective, of course, how Epstein died, much less how he lived, is a secondary, if not needlessly salacious, detail.
In early May, Bondi told reporters that the FBI was “diligently” going through “tens of thousands of videos of Epstein with children or child porn” involving “hundreds of victims” whose identities would need to be protected in any release of such materials. Yet Bondi remains under scrutiny by other Trump allies who either doubt that she has such records, including because of a belief that prior Justice Department officials have destroyed them, or because they’re simply impatient to learn whether Epstein had ties to the U.S. government or “specific intelligence agencies.”
And in the meantime, to apparently relieve some of the Epstein-related anxiety, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino himself pledged last week to release surveillance video from the Manhattan federal jail where Epstein died, which both Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel now say demonstrate that Epstein was alone in his cell that night and therefore died of suicide. But from the victims’ perspective, of course, how Epstein died, much less how he lived, is a secondary, if not needlessly salacious, detail. From their own experiences, they know what he did, to whom and with whom. What the victims deserve — beyond the continued privacy to which Bondi rightfully has said they are entitled — is not an “all hands on deck” review, redaction, and possible release of sickening videos or Epstein case file documents by agents who’ve been diverted from national security matters. What they deserve is a DOJ and an FBI willing to examine and reform their own procedures for handling sexual assault and trafficking reports. After all, it’s been more than two years since Farmer’s lawyer wrote the FBI and DOJ a 15-page letter asking for “a comprehensive investigation to determine why there was and remains such abject failure to timely investigate, expose, and prosecute this unprecedented, decades-long criminal conspiracy.” That kind of internal investigation and reform may not satiate those still poring over Epstein’s little black book — but it would get closer to real justice for his victims.
Lisa Rubin is an MS NOW legal correspondent and a former litigator. Previously, she was the off-air legal analyst for “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “Alex Wagner Tonight.” 
