[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 89 (Tuesday, May 26, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TESTIMONY OF MS. DANI BENSKY, ``SURVIVORS FIGHT FOR JUSTICE: EXPOSING
EPSTEIN'S CRIMES IN PALM BEACH AND ACROSS THE WORLD''
______
HON. SUMMER L. LEE
of pennsylvania
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, on May 12, 2026, Oversight
Committee Democrats convened the first-ever hearing to solicit
testimony from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's
crimes. The hearing, ``Survivors Fight for Justice: Exposing Epstein's
Crimes in Palm Beach and Across the World,'' marked a critical step
forward in the fight for justice and accountability.
On behalf of all the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine
Maxwell's crimes, I rise to include in the Record the testimony offered
by Ms. Dani Bensky:
Hello, my name is Dani Bensky, I was abused by Jeffrey
Epstein in 2004-05. That was 8 years after the FBI was first
alerted.
Although my abuse is nowhere near ``easy'' to discuss and I
live with diagnosed PTSD from that experience, my story is
one of the safest to tell. The key abuser who caused me
physical harm is dead. It's imperative to understand that the
stories that you are hearing today are a tiny fraction of the
whole. I am one of more than 1,200 girls and women, and each
story is unique. I don't face the same level of threats of
defamation lawsuits and serious risks to my health and
physical safety as some of my survivor sisters do. The main
perpetrator in my story is no longer in a position of power.
While there are co-conspirators who need to be held
accountable for the parts they played in the operation of my
abuse, I was trafficked only to Epstein, which was
unfortunately not the case for so many others.
I'm here to tell you my story, which happens to fall in the
middle of the 30 years of the Epstein timeline. I was groomed
prior to meeting Jeffrey Epstein. I grew up in the dance
world. Perfectionism and body image issues ran rampant in a
world built on hierarchy and at times, secrecy. Older
teachers, artistic directors, and company members had unique
access to young dancers. I was accustomed to private lessons
with a ballet mistress that I was not allowed to tell anyone
about. The secrecy was because she hand selected dancers to
develop. I would go to her apartment, strip off my sweatpants
to my leotard and tights and have my body be criticized,
critiqued, and manipulated, not so different from what I
initially experienced with Jeffrey.
I was trafficked to Jeffrey. It happened in broad daylight
on Manhattan's Upper East Side. I had two recruiters, one was
a late teen, the other was only 15 years old and just trying
to escape her own abuse and make it for herself. There was a
process of systematic manipulation. Jeffrey weaponized my
aspirations and dreams by speaking the language of dance,
making false promises, and continuing to prey on my body
image issues. My mom had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. I
had seen the name ``Epstein'' listed on a donor wall and
believed that his wealth and power had come from the medical
profession. I brought him her scans. I was hoping to
understand her diagnosis. He told me that he could help
ensure the best doctors and care, or he could have it taken
away. He held my mother's brain scans over me, giving me an
ultimatum: either recruit more girls or do more for him. I
didn't recruit anyone and instead endured the abuse. In May
of 2005 my mother had a successful operation at Mount Sinai
to remove the tumor. Jeffrey was not in charge of her care,
nor did he provide financial support for her surgery. Once my
mother was rehabilitated, and I knew she would live, I
finally extricated myself from Jeffrey Epstein and his web.
The Epstein case demonstrates that institutional systems
have failed survivors time and time again. I was first
subpoenaed in 2008 for an interview. I was truly terrified
entering the FBI. I was just 20 years old and without a
victim's rights advocate or a lawyer; I didn't know I was
entitled to those protections. No one told me I was safe, and
many parts of the interview felt like an interrogation.
Jeffrey had already threatened my friend, and he had told me
that I would be charged with prostitution if I ever
interacted with law enforcement. That thought was pervasive,
it sat deep in me, haunting me. Shame cloaked in fear
prevented me from speaking out. To say that I feared for my
safety is an understatement. He made it clear that he held
the cards.
If authorities had listened to Maria Farmer in 1996, when
she first reported Jeffrey to the FBI, hundreds of girls,
including myself, might have had a completely different life
trajectory. Yet, time and time again, these systems have
failed survivors.
The systemic failures of survivors extend beyond the
victims of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislane Maxwell, as
documented by the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency
Act. Survivors from across the nation contacted their
congressional leaders and fueled this fight. Survivors,
advocates, and constituents across the country wanted to see
change. Yet, despite the Act's passage, a moment in which
survivors hoped and believed that we might see some
reckoning, we were met with yet another harsh disappointment.
Prior to the Transparency Act passing, we met with lawmakers
on both sides of the aisle where we made two things
abundantly clear. 1. We are not political, we are human. 2.
Protections for survivors are imperative, no redactions for
perpetrators. Out of an abundance of caution, my lawyer then
teamed up with another law firm representing survivors, and
together they submitted 350 victims' names to the DOJ as
names that needed to be redacted prior to the deadline on
December 19th.
In that first round of documents, I saw my name in two
places. Then in the January dump, there were more and the
redactions were far worse. Seeing my information exposed in
those documents triggers intense PTSD. There's a feeling that
shoots through my body like a hot flash on a bullet and a
nausea that lives in the deepest parts of my being. With
every exposure survivors are revictimized. I am just one of
hundreds of the survivors exposed. These files displayed my
name, phone number, old address, where I worked at the time,
where I was studying, and other identifying information.
What's important to understand is that these documents
weren't somehow just overlooked and not redacted at all, on
one document my nickname is redacted, while Danielle Hannah
Bensky is left completely unredacted.
A few weeks ago, a legal analyst reached out to share that
yet again, my name appeared in a 3rd batch of only 20
documents. After my lawyer continued to contact the DOJ on
multiple occasions for protection my name and information
remained attached. These documents hold disturbing, yet
incomplete accounts of my abuse, and they were viewable not
only by the entire world, but also by my child, my students,
my students' parents, my friends, my employers, my
colleagues, and my family. I'm public, however in my FBI 302,
a Jane Doe who has never wanted to be revealed was exposed.
She is someone I have tried to protect. This outing of
survivor names does real irrevocable damage.
The passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act was meant
to be a moment when survivors could regain their power and
finally obtain the truth, transparency, and justice they
deserve. It was a time for our institutions, created to
protect the American people, to, for once, side with
survivors. As survivors we have said time and time again this
is not political. This requires coming together and not
prioritizing political showmanship.
I recently had the opportunity to return to Jeffrey's
mansion on the Upper East Side. Normally, when you're a
child, everything feels massive, and when you revisit those
same places as an adult, they seem smaller. That was
certainly not the case here. Jeffrey's mansion on the Upper
East Side of Manhattan still felt immense, the doors towering
and the architecture looming, designed in a way to make you
feel small. This reflects something deeper. Our entrenched
systemic failures have allowed powerful people like Jeffrey
to make others feel small. When institutions prioritize
protecting the powerful and their enablers over protecting
victims, individuals like Jeffrey become normalized.
If we continue down this path, the question isn't whether
the abuse will happen again, but who? Who is the next Jeffrey
Epstein? What will be the next mansion used to exploit
privilege and enable the abuse of young girls? I'm always
asked ``what does accountability look like?'' Getting
perpetrators out of positions of power, seeing arrests be
made, and a complete culture shift to not only believe our
most vulnerable populations, but protect them.
This moment is critical. It is time to reform our system to
protect our survivors, not perpetrators, and to ensure the
truth can come to light.
____________________