On a quiet block in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, an Epstein-focused “reading room” is set to open to the public on May 8. Part public art exhibit, part “library,” it houses more than 3,400 physical volumes that together contain every document published by the Justice Department in response to the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The sheer immensity of the release is evident as soon as you walk in; it’s a powerful visual that is all but lost by virtue of the fact that the millions of documents were released online and mostly live there. It is not known if there is any other public place where every page of the release has been compiled.
The space also features a symbolic tribute to survivors and detailed timelines that cover an entire wall.
At a time when the Epstein files are no longer dominating the news cycle, the sponsoring organization, a newly formed and mysterious nonprofit called the Institute for Primary Facts, is hoping that despite the volume of the files in their physical form, they will remind public that the transparency and accountability long promised to survivors has yet to be delivered.
Yet for most visitors, the exhibit won’t enable greater transparency. That’s because the Institute for Primary Facts has decided that only certain people — namely, survivors, their lawyers, law enforcement, media and members of Congress — can peruse the bound volumes. Whether members of these groups will visit, much less page through the books, remains to be seen.
MS NOW, along with other news organizations and content creators, was invited to tour the reading room ahead of its scheduled opening.
During our visit, spokesperson David Garrett explained that he — and some unnamed friends — devised the reading room around the time of the DOJ’s Jan. 30 document production. “We didn’t think there was enough attention on this issue,” he said.
He has daughters, he added, and said that when he thinks of the “more than 1,000 victims and survivors, I don’t think that there’s any limit to what the accountability should be.”
If the project’s funding sources and organizers remain unknown, their feelings on where that accountability should land certainly does not. Despite the lack of proof that President Donald Trump sexually assaulted or abused any Epstein survivors, his name, likeness and prior history with Epstein are featured prominently throughout the installation, including in the name of the exhibit (“The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room”) as well as a large photo as you enter the gallery. Information about the exhibit and how to visit is also now available on a website for “The Trumpsonian,” which bills itself as “A Fake Museum of Real Truth.”
Trump repeatedly has said he ended his association with Epstein decades ago and denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
But for Garrett, the point is to keep any association between Trump and Epstein top of mind.
He says that Trump is trying to distract from his own felony conviction and a jury’s finding him liable for sexual abuse “by attaching his name to great American institutions like the Kennedy Center or our passports or money or battleships. I think it’s clear that Donald Trump has more in common with Jeffrey Epstein than he does with John F. Kennedy.”
Garrett is neither an artist nor a nonprofit leader and says the donors to the project remain private because they are concerned about retribution. On its website, the Institute for Primary Facts describes itself as “a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit advancing civic literacy and fostering a deeper public understanding of America’s democratic institutions”; it also states that it aims to advance civic literacy by developing and operating “immersive, traveling museum exhibits designed to provide accessible, fact-based explorations of the foundational elements of American democracy.”
Yet that same website lists no staff or board members. And as a new nonprofit, the institute did not file the typical nonprofit tax return that can be examined by the public; rather, it filed its first tax return via postcard. IRS rules allow only small nonprofits with gross receipts of $50,000 or less to file in that manner.
But the public relations team that extended the media invitation may provide a small clue as to who may be behind the project. It is employed by a communications and public advocacy firm founded by seasoned Democratic campaign professionals.
And the chosen platform for online fundraising suggests that the “reading room” is a project as much about politics as it is about survivors. The Institute for Primary Facts is soliciting donations to bring the exhibit to other cities through a fundraising platform historically used by Democratic candidates and campaigns, as well as progressive nonprofits, and that describes itself as “creating technology to shape our democracy and fuel Democratic wins.”
That raises the question: Is the reading room legitimate public advocacy or is it a political stunt designed by those eager for Trump’s downfall?
Or, as with many things related to the Epstein saga, is it both?
Zeinab Diouf contributed to this reporting
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