Jeffrey Epstein may be dead, but his ghost continues to haunt American politics.

In the run-up to the midterms, candidates spent millions on campaign ads that attempted to tie candidates to sexual abuse, pedophilia or Epstein. Epstein’s survivors traveled the country with an exhibit containing Department of Justice files bound into thousands of physical volumes on the case. Several of them campaigned against members of Congress who failed, initially, to support the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

Polls, meanwhile, consistently show that roughly three quarters of Americans disapprove of the way the Epstein case is being handled by the Trump administration. Most Americans want all the government files released and believe that there should be accountability for others involved in Epstein’s crimes.

Now it’s the Democrats’ turn.

They have promised to make the Epstein case a major focus of inquiry after winning control of both the House and the Senate on Tuesday.

Rep. Robert Garcia, a California Democrat who will likely become chair of the House Oversight Committee – had two words for Republicans on the eve of the midterm elections — “lawyer up” — a signal that he intends to take on the Trump administration, and ramp up the Epstein investigation.

By winning control of Congress, the Democrats will be able to use their unilateral power to issue subpoenas, hold public hearings and release documents which the Trump administration has sought to keep sealed.

Ten days ago, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also formally called for an independent counsel to investigate Trump’s involvement with Epstein as well as the administration’s “cover up” of the Epstein files. The Committee released a 53-page report titled, “We Have Certain Things in Common, Jeffrey’: The Case Against Donald Trump Emerging in the Epstein Files and DOJ’s Desperate Efforts to Cover It Up.”

For Miami attorney and journalist Katie Phang, who filed a federal lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche for failing to release all the Justice Department’s files in violation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the election means that the Epstein investigation has just started.

Up until now, most of the witnesses called before the Republican-led House oversight committee have only sat for transcribed interviews — not sworn testimony. She is hopeful that Democrats will use their subpoena power to force witnesses to testify under oath.

Blanche should also have to comply with the law, and release the rest of the case files, she said.

“He should be held to account for what he has done with these files and what he has done with the Department of Justice,” Phang said. “We need more exposure and more justice about the people involved. For those people hiding behind their power and privilege, those days are over.”

In Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday, 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files organized into books on shelves sat on display in a food hall alongside a timeline of the deceased sex trafficker’s relationship with Donald Trump.

The event, known as “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room and Bookmobile” started in New York, and has traveled to 15 states, receiving tens of thousands of visitors — including some of the candidates who ran in Tuesday’s midterms.

Sharlene Rochard – who said she was abused by Epstein as a 17-year-old aspiring model – has given tours of the display to Rep. James Talarico in Texas, Rep. Amy Acton in Ohio and Rep. Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania, all of whom won on Tuesday. She asked them to continue to support Epstein survivors.

“They stood with us then,” she said. “We’re hoping they stand with us in January when they take office.”

Other survivors also expressed hope that Epstein’s crimes will be re-examined and that others involved will be held accountable, no matter what political party they are affiliated with.

“Clearly people are fed up, for whatever reason, and we saw Americans speak out and take power back,” said Epstein survivor Liz Stein. “We have that power back that we haven’t had in two years. This is an issue Americans really care about no matter what side of the aisle they are on.”

Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who will chair the Senate Finance Committee, intends to “follow the money” that was part of Epstein’s sex trafficking crimes. Wyden has claimed there is a “big” file of data about Epstein‘s suspicious bank transactions sitting in the Treasury Department.

He has previously urged the feds to scrutinize some 4,700 wire transfers totaling about $1.1 billion to and from an account the convicted sex trafficker kept with JP Morgan.

“I have a list of Wall Street bankers who need to answer questions about why they looked the other way while Epstein and his cronies sent millions of dollars through their institutions to facilitate sex trafficking women and girls. As Finance Committee chair, every tool will be on the table to get answers,” Wyden said in a statement Wednesday.

But it is President Trump’s ties to Epstein that Democrats intend to investigate even more closely.

The Judiciary Committee report listed five women who have “directly accused Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company or presence,” including a new sex allegation against Trump by a former Miss Switzerland contestant who told the Committee that Trump brutally raped her during one of his beauty pageants events in 1993.

Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes, and the White House slammed the report as politically motivated — as it was released almost a week before the midterms. A White House spokeswoman claimed the women’s accounts were false and that Trump had already been exonerated.

The American public is not so convinced that Epstein’s crimes, as Trump has long claimed, are a “hoax.”

Survivors deserve answers, and hopefully, Washington will be up to task, victim advocates say.

“There’s been so much outrage, and now it’s critical to turn outrage into action,” said Lauren Hersh, CEO of World Without Exploitation, an advocacy group for survivors of sex trafficking and sexual abuse. “We want (the House oversight committee) to investigate and follow the leads; we want the DOJ to examine the facts, bring cases and hold to account those who have operated with impunity for decades.”

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