A Republican sexual abuse survivor of Jeffrey Epstein — who voted for President Donald Trump but later publicly said retracted her support — will have a chance to be in the same room as the president Tuesday when she attends his State of the Union address.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced on Thursday evening that Haley Robson would be his guest when Trump delivers the annual joint address to Congress. Khanna served as the main Democratic sponsor of the discharge petition that forced the vote to release the Epstein files along with Republican Rep. Thomass Massie of Kentucky.
“Haley’s courageous fight is proof that this isn’t about politics, it’s about exposing America’s two-tiered system of justice and bringing accountability to the Epstein class involved in the horrific abuse of young girls,” Khanna said in a statement.
Robson is one of many survivors of the late convicted sex offender who came to Capitol Hill to advocate for the release of the files.
“I am no longer supporting this administration,” Robson told CNN in December. “I redact any support I’ve ever given to him, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel. I am so disgusted with this administration.”
Word of the invite comes hours after the arrest of former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who used to be known as “Prince” before having his royal titles stripped and who was arrested after police launched an investigation into claims that he shared sensitive information with Epstein while on official visits as the UK trade envoy.
“I’ve known for three weeks, maybe four, but I just kept it quiet because I just felt like it would be more impactful to have him announce it,” Robson told The Independent. Robson said Khanna reached out to her attorneys who then reached out to her.
Robson said she hopes to hold Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi accountable.
“I want to see Trump, and I want to look him in his eyes, whether I say anything to him,” she said. “Same with Bondi, because I need them to know that I’m not scared.”
Police documents named Robson as a “teen recruiter” for Epstein.
The legislation passed almost unanimously through the House of Representatives after Trump reversed his position on the legislation. The Senate then passed it by unanimous consent.
But survivors have said that the Justice Department has been slow to release the files.
In January, she sent a letter to Judge Richard Berman for the Southern District of New York to request a special master to the Epstein Files Transparency Act. “to intervene and require the Department of Justice to comply with the Epstein Transparency Act.”
Previously, Robson had told The Independent that she had voted for Trump but now regrets it. She has now called for him to be impeached.
In addition, many of the supporters of the initial legislation and Epstein’s survivors have criticized the redactions of names of Epstein’s supposed co-conspirators while also revealing the names of his victims in the files.
Trump has criticized the focus on the files related to the late convicted sex offender and trafficker of women. The president has called the focus on Epstein a “Democrat hoax.”
It also caused a split with Marjorie Taylor Greene, formerly his biggest defender in Congress, who co-signed the discharge petition to force a vote on the legislation. She would resign from Congress shortly after its passage.
Robson said she does not expect to hear Trump speak about the Epstein given how uncomfortable the whole subject is for him.
“I think it takes a lot of balls to tell survivors of a crime, and not just one, but thousands of survivors of the same man,” she said. “It takes lot of guts to go up there and call them a hoax and say that it’s not real.”
While Trump and Epstein knew each other for many years and the president’s name is listed in the files, there is no evidence of wrongdoing on the president’s behalf.
Epstein’s associate and facilitator Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking in a Texas Club Fed penitentiary, has requested that Trump offer her clemency in exchange for revealing details about Epstein.
The request caused even Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson to rebuff the idea.
