{"id":201600,"date":"2026-05-25T00:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/201600\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T00:25:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T00:25:08","slug":"a-paper-city-new-york-library-hosts-3-5-million-pages-of-epstein-files-human-rights-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/201600\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A paper city\u2019: New York \u2018library\u2019 hosts 3.5 million pages of Epstein files | Human Rights News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mile from the Manhattan jail where convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in 2019<\/a>, an unassuming Tribeca gallery at 101 Reade Street has been transformed into a physical archive of the disgraced financier\u2019s many cases.<\/p>\n

More than 3.5 million pages of law enforcement documents published by the United States Department of Justice have been printed, bound and stacked across 3,437 volumes to line the walls of a room from floor to ceiling.<\/p>\n

The exhibition, titled \u201cThe Donald J Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room\u201d, was organised by the Institute for Primary Facts, a nonprofit that says it focuses on transparency and anti-corruption initiatives.<\/p>\n

Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2017 before hanging himself in his New York jail cell a month later, denying victims a chance at justice. The \u201creading room\u201d is an attempt to shed light on the many cases connected to Epstein that never went to trial.<\/p>\n

The shelves hold documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, alongside timelines, handwritten visitor notes, and a memorial space dedicated to survivors and victims.<\/p>\n

Since opening two weeks ago, the gallery has drawn a steady stream of visitors, including survivors of a string of offences linked to Epstein.<\/p>\n

Lara Blume McGee, who was only 17 when she was abused by Epstein, visited the reading room last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found something brutally human in the Trump-Epstein reading room,\u201d Blume McGee told Al Jazeera. \u201cProof that our lives mattered enough to be gathered, cataloged, and finally seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

She described entering the room as walking into a \u201cpaper city\u201d, with three and a half million pages on display, a sight that hit her \u201clike a physical blow\u201d. What she remembers most vividly is the silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe silence was thick with memory,\u201d she said. \u201cRow after row, each bound volume a life, a name, a day that should never have happened if the US government had acted when he was reported to the FBI in 1996.\u201d<\/p>\n

The overwhelming scale of the archive is intentional. Organisers say the physicality of the documents forces visitors to confront not only the extent of Epstein\u2019s crimes, but also the number of lives affected by them.<\/p>\n

Thousands of victims have been identified in connection with Epstein\u2019s abuse network. One of the most prominent survivors, Virginia Giuffre, died by suicide in April 2025.<\/a><\/p>\n

David Garrett, a co-founder of the exhibition, said the project was built around survivors from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are centred around the victims and survivors more than anything,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cThe biggest thing is transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garrett described the exhibition as part of a broader effort to create \u201creal-life pop-up museums\u201d aimed at generating public pressure around corruption and institutional failure.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is how can we drive public outrage in order to put pressure on Congress and the Department of Justice to get full and real transparency and hopefully eventually accountability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The process of assembling the archive was itself chaotic. Garrett said organisers downloaded the files from the Department of Justice in March, believing they had received properly redacted documents. Only after printing the collection did they discover that many survivors\u2019 names remained visible in the files.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat seems to have happened is the Department of Justice modified its search function instead of actually redacting the names,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cThe names of survivors were left unredacted while the names of witnesses and co-conspirators were hidden. They brazenly broke the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding a venue also proved difficult. Garrett said several locations backed out after initially agreeing to host the exhibit, fearing controversy or retaliation. The Tribeca gallery ultimately became the fifth venue that organisers approached.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, survivors and advocates quickly embraced the project.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the gallery became the site of a 24-hour livestream reading of the files led by survivors, advocates and supporters.<\/p>\n

Dani Bensky, an Epstein survivor, opened the broadcast Monday afternoon, standing at a podium inside the dimly lit gallery with one of the thick white volumes in her hands.<\/p>\n

Her reading marked the beginning of a continuous public recitation of excerpts from the files \u2013 an attempt, organisers said, to ensure the documents are not quietly buried again.<\/p>\n

Throughout the gallery, visitors have left flowers, handwritten notes, and messages of grief and anger.<\/p>\n

Garrett recalled one woman who spent hours walking silently through the space before telling organisers she was herself a survivor of sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said this helped her realise that she felt seen,\u201d Garrett said. \u201cThat meant a lot to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Blume McGee, that feeling of visibility carries both relief and frustration.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor years we were told to be quiet, to accept settlements, to move on,\u201d she told Al Jazeera. \u201cSeeing our truths preserved in a public archive felt like a long-overdue acknowledgment of our pain, our abuse and our reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she warned that documentation alone is not justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exhibition gives real hope because the record is now undeniable,\u201d Blume McGee said. \u201cFinally, there is action: documentation, visibility, proof. But those same files map systemic failure \u2014 how many doors stayed shut, how many people escaped scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVisibility without consequence only prolongs the wound,\u201d she added. \u201cWe need both: the files on the table and the government to act \u2014 investigate, prosecute, reform \u2014 so that being \u2018finally seen\u2019 becomes finally safe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mile from the Manhattan jail where convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in 2019, an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[991,27953,810,139,128,130,129,66,1480],"class_list":["post-201600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-features","tag-human-rights","tag-human-trafficking","tag-news","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-united-states","tag-us-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}