There’s so much going on that I have grown mute (I know, right?). I know many of you will find that unbelievable but truly, it’s hard to filter my way through all the chaos that is the Trump administration.

For weeks I’ve been wanting to tell you that I finished reading Nobody’s Girl and to speak to you about the depths of evil that pervades the Epstein/Trump/Maxwell cover-up. The surprising thing wasn’t that Virginia died but that she held on for as long as she did. The sheer volume of abuse she suffered as a result of being sex trafficked by Epstein/Maxwell is alarming. Even to someone like me who was sexually assaulted by complete strangers before I reached the age of eight. Multiple times. As Giuffre notes in her memoir: The world is a dangerous place for girls.

I couldn’t help but think as I read Virginia’s words that her story represents the stories of thousands of girls abused by Epstein//Maxwell and many other powerful men. The most vile was the prime minister who violently raped her. While she doesn’t name him in the book he was named in previous court filings as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who, naturally denies it, just as Prince Andrew denied it, even as his family paid out millions in damages to her.

Denial is the way for sex abusers like Trump, like Epstein, like Maxwell. Dozens of women have testified that Trump abused them. Trump has been convicted of that sex abuse. If you remain skeptical of his attacks on women, on young girls, it is simply because you can’t handle the truth.

Some years ago, I read the affidavit of a woman who said she was brutally raped by both Epstein and Trump, when she was 13-years-old. As someone who has been in the courtroom reporting on abused children, I’ve never been able to get out of mind the many details the woman reportedly remembered. Her story has never been validated in a courtroom, although Trump has been found guilty of sex abuse, and even bragged about his propensity for it.

Many remain skeptical of Trump’s involvement in trafficking young girls although it’s clear he and Pam Bondi and Kash Patel are engaged in a cover-up. There can be no question about that. Everyday that the Epstein files are not released to the public is a day the Trump administration is breaking the law. And the redactions that do exist in the 1% of the files that have been released is further proof of their cover-up. Trump is protecting pedophiles and perhaps the one he is most concerned with protecting is himself.

Sex abuse breaks its victims. It derails their lives. They can rise above it, as Virginia did so valiantly at times, but the visuals of that abuse are an ever-present darkness across their lives and this country.