Lois Frankel

U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel said on Monday that a long-awaited congressional field hearing in Palm Beach County will focus on what she described as a historic failure of the justice system that allowed Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of young women to continue for years.

Frankel, a Democrat who represents Florida’s 22nd District, will join House Oversight Committee Democrats Tuesday at 10 a.m. for a field hearing examining the handling of Epstein’s case and the decisions that shielded him from accountability. Testimony is expected from survivors, the survivors' attorney, and a human rights advocate, with a press conference scheduled to follow.

“This is where Palm Beach County, I’m going to apologize, because there was a grave miscarriage of justice by our state attorney back there, Barry Krischer,” Frankel said in an interview after a $4 million federal funding announcement. She accused prosecutors at the time of minimizing victims and failing to pursue the case aggressively despite substantial evidence.

“They demeaned survivors,” Frankel said.

They treated survivors like prostitutes instead of victims of a heinous activity by Jeffrey Epstein.”

Epstein, a wealthy financier, was first investigated in Palm Beach County more than 20 years ago after young women came forward with allegations of sexual abuse. Despite police building a detailed case, Epstein ultimately received a secret plea deal that allowed him to serve limited jail time while avoiding federal prosecution, an agreement that later drew widespread condemnation.

Frankel said the way the case was handled locally had devastating consequences.

“For what reason, we don’t know yet,” she said, referring to how Epstein was treated by prosecutors. “But for some reason, they allowed a predator to go loose for many, many years.”

She said Palm Beach County was an appropriate location for the hearing because “this is really where the prosecution supposedly started” and where intervention could have stopped the abuse earlier.

"Probably hundreds of young women were sexually abused because of the way this case was handled,” Frankel said, adding that coconspirators were also allowed to escape scrutiny.

Unlike most congressional hearings, which are typically held in Washington, D.C., the House Oversight Committee opted to convene this hearing in West Palm Beach to spotlight the local origins of the case and give survivors an opportunity to be heard.

“This is an opportunity really to put some focus back where it started,” Frankel said. “Maybe to get some answers from some of the folks as to why this miscarriage of justice occurred.”

Frankel said her goals for the hearing extend beyond acknowledgment of past mistakes.

"If we can get to the bottom of why Jeffrey Epstein got his deal and who else was involved, I think that would be important moving forward,” she said.

There had to be other people. Their names have been shielded. We need to know who else was involved so that they can be prosecuted.”

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She also said she hopes Palm Beach County formally apologizes to survivors, but stressed that accountability matters more.

"More importantly, to try to get to the bottom of why was Jeffrey Epstein given a slap on the wrist for sexually abusing so many young women, and why was that activity allowed to go on,” she said. “I hope we can get some answer to that tomorrow.”

The hearing will include Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee, Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, and local Democratic members of Congress from Florida. Media access is controlled due to security requirements.

Palm Beach County is expected to draw national attention as lawmakers revisit a case that has come to symbolize institutional failures that protected a powerful predator instead of vulnerable young women and girls.