A clumsy interview this week with a Jeffrey Epstein survivor highlighted how difficult it’s for these ladies to return ahead.
On Wednesday’s episode of MS NOW’s “The Briefing With Jen Psaki,” Psaki interviewed Sharlene Rochard, a former mannequin who stated she frequented President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago membership when she was in her early teenagers.
Screenshot MS NOW by way of Snapstream
“How did you arrive at Mar-a-Lago?” Psaki requested Rochard, who stated she additionally visited Epstein’s island as a really younger teenager. “How did you end up going to Mar-a-Lago? Was he — did [Epstein] send you there? Were you told to go there? How did that happen?”
“There were a lot of model parties at the Mar-a-Lago,” Rochard defined. “Different people would set them up, different magazines, and the limo would come, and you’d jump in the limo and you’d go.”
Rochard clarified that nobody concerned with Epstein had informed her to go to the events at Mar-a-Lago.
“This is about so much more than one person, Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell or Donald Trump,” Psaki continued. “But because Donald Trump is a person who, of course, owns Mar-a-Lago, I just have to ask if you think he was aware of that arrangement?”
At this, Rochard took an extended pause.
“Um, I… I don’t know if he was aware. Um, actually, I can’t answer that. I’m sorry,” Rochard stated.
Psaki swooped in to remind her viewers that Rochard was in her teenagers when she met Epstein, after which pressed on.
“Let me ask you something else, because, again, it’s much bigger than a couple of people,” Psaki stated. “Were you trafficked to other people?”
At this query, Rochard took an excellent longer pause. She turned to Sky and Amanda Roberts — the brother and sister-in-law of the late Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre — who have been sitting along with her, and appeared uncertain whether or not it was OK to reply to the query.
After Amanda Roberts reassured Rochard that it was fantastic to “say yes, but you don’t have to name names,” Rochard turned to Psaki and apologized once more.
“You only share what you want to share,” Psaki informed Rochard. “You don’t have to be sorry for anything.”
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After one other beat, Rochard lastly stated, “Terrible things had happened to me within my time with… dealing with Jeffrey Epstein. I had encounters with people that I would rather not have.”
Psaki then requested Sky Roberts to elucidate why Rochard — and different Epstein survivors — are hesitant to call the individuals who abused them.
“It shouldn’t fall on the survivors’ shoulders,” he defined. “I think there’s a lot of people that just want them to release the names, like, ‘Well, you have the names, just do it.’”
“The problem with that,” he continued, “is that these rich and powerful men can, A, they can sue you into homelessness, [which] would be a big part of it. But B, it puts [a] serious threat on your life and your family’s life.”
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Roberts went on to say that there have been instances when his sister was “sitting across people” with “a lot of money and a lot of power” who “would push a picture of her own children in front of her, and essentially say, ‘I know where your kids go to school.’”
He added that he’s obtained threats, as nicely.
“There were still names, up until the very end, that she couldn’t name because these people could — I mean, they still can — come after these survivors,” he stated.
Giuffre, who was among the many first victims to talk out publicly towards Epstein, died by suicide in April at age 41 after she was hospitalized following a severe accident. She started working at Mar-a-Lago as a teen earlier than reportedly assembly Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime affiliate, who was discovered responsible of kid intercourse trafficking.
After assembly Maxwell, Giuffre stated, she started giving Epstein massages that morphed into years of sexual abuse. She alleged that she was “passed around like a platter of fruit” to Epstein’s highly effective associates, together with Prince Andrew, whom she met in 2001. The British royal denied Guiffre’s allegations, and so they settled a lawsuit out of courtroom.
In case you or somebody you understand wants assist, name or textual content 988 or chat 988lifeline.org for psychological well being help. Moreover, you will discover native psychological well being and disaster assets at dontcallthepolice.com. Exterior of the U.S., please go to the Worldwide Affiliation for Suicide Prevention.
