'There's a special place in Hell for these individuals': Nancy Mace promises to expose all Epstein co-conspirators

"Who is she still protecting and why?" South Carolina Nancy Mace had scathingly said about Ghislaine Maxwell's decision to invoke her Fifth and remain silent when asked about the "powerful people" and predators who participated in Jeffrey Epstein's network. The Republican representative's sentiment had echoed through the questions Democratic lawmakers posed to Attorney General Pam Bondi during her hearing on February 11.

Congresswoman Mace, claiming that some women listed in the Epstein Files trafficked other women and girls, said that those involved will be exposed and held accountable. Mace is referring to specific findings from her review of the unredacted Epstein Files at the Department of Justice (DoJ). On February 9, Mace released an official statement following the virtual deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell before the House Oversight Committee. 

"Today was Ghislaine Maxwell's opportunity to answer the questions the American people deserve to be answered. She refused. She's already serving twenty years for sex trafficking children. So the question is simple: who is she still protecting and why? She's shielding powerful people who participated in Jeffrey Epstein's network of child abuse and predators," Mace said in the official statement. Now, following Bondi's explosive oversight hearing, she reiterated her statement, asserting that the women responsible for trafficking other women will also "be exposed."

Since then, Mace has escalated from questioning Maxwell's silence to accusing the DoJ of a systemic cover-up. She has publicly stated that her review of the files has allowed her to compile a "list of individuals" that she intends to subpoena for the House Oversight Committee, while expressing her lack of confidence in Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice (DoJ). She has, on several occasions, expressed the belief that the DOJ will not charge any further co-conspirators.

"I'm vetting the list of names I've put together 'cause I want to make sure I'm not accidentally including any victims, but I'm going to request that the oversight committee bring many of these people in to testify because I don't have confidence or faith in the justice system that anybody else will be charged...And it's going to be up to us in a bipartisan manner in Congress to have the courage and the bravery to bring these people before America and let them answer for what actually happened," Mace told NPR's Steve Inskeep this week. 

Mace's claims are based on what she said were direct conversations with Epstein survivors. In a presser on February 11, she said the survivors' accounts of a wider, multi-person network (including female recruiters) match the unredacted information she viewed at the DOJ. During her review of the unredacted Epstein Files, at the DoJ "reading room", she claimed to have uncovered "significant gaps" where co-conspirator documents were missing, and identified specific names, whom she alleges were active traffickers and recruiters rather than just passive witnesses or victims. 

The White House, however, has maintained that the government has met its obligations under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed by President Trump in November 2025. During a February 10 briefing, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt asserted that the Department of Justice and the FBI have already conducted a "very comprehensive document identification and review process."