Lisa Phillips

Also in the podcast... Epstein survivors react to First Lady Melania Trump's call for congressional hearings.

Lisa Phillips is a survivor of Jeffrey Epsteins abuse. She says if Melania wants to stand up for the survivors, she needs to act. Obviously it could just be some more political theatrics, what we've seen all year. So I wouldn't be surprised for that just to fall by the wayside.

What I would do is I would call her bluff and I would push her a little bit and say, okay, now that you've said that, what can you do? What can you do to help us and what can you do to move this along? For me, you can say something, but what goes next? What happens next?

So if the survivors say, okay, we want to do that, let's work with Congress, will we be able to? I'm not sure if she's aware, but we've already been to the Capitol three times and had press hearings. So she was saying, let's have a public press hearing, we've already done that. What's going to happen next? She wants us to stand there and tell our stories and tell testimony to Congress, but there's no protection in that.

Many survivors have NDAs and many are just scared to talk about their abusers, whereas the immunity in that, it's not something that can be easily done. I suggest having a private testimony hearing. I think that would be the smartest thing to do, but a public one is not going to happen. Lisa Phillips. And we have more on this story on the BBC News YouTube channel. Search for Global News Podcast in the podcast section.

A platform supporting survivors.

I want to thank all of my survivor sisters who came before me today.

I'll be very short.

In the year 2000, I was taken to Jeffrey Epstein's Island while on a photo shoot on a nearby island.

Who I saw and what I experienced there was a glimpse into a very dark and disturbing world.

For years after, I tried to avoid Jeffrey, but he had introduced me to Katie Ford, the owner of the Ford Modeling Agency.

Epstein's reach went to the very top of fashion, arts, and entertainment.

This did not just happen to underage girls in Florida.

In New York City, hundreds of young ambitious women were abused by him.

Epstein was not just a serial predator, he was an international human trafficker.

And many around him knew, many participated, and many profited.

And yet he was protected.

So I stand here today for every woman who has been silenced, exploited and dismissed.

We are not asking for pity.

We are here demanding accountability and I'm demanding justice.