Rep. Jeff Crank refused to meet with constituents related to Epstein survivor, family says

Family members of one of the most prominent survivors to speak out about late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein denounced U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank after he declined to meet with them.  

Sky and Amanda Roberts, brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, live in Colorado’s 5th Congressional District. They said at a press conference Monday in support of Crank’s Democratic challenger Jessica Killin that Crank, a Colorado Springs Republican, repeatedly ignored their requests to discuss the Epstein files and policy reforms to support survivors of human trafficking and sexual abuse.

“Leadership does not mean doing the right thing only after the pressure becomes too much to ignore,” Amanda said. “Leadership means standing up to what is hard when it is inconvenient, when it carries political risk, and when survivors are still waiting to be heard.”

The press conference came a day after Killin’s campaign released an ad that featured the Roberts family talking about their experience with Crank’s office.

Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025 in Australia, where she had been living for several years. Giuffre emerged as one of the most prominent victims after she challenged Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell and former British royal Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, alleging they participated in her trafficking and sexual abuse.

Amanda said Giuffre’s courage to speak about her experience “came at an enormous personal cost.” Survivors live with the results of elected leaders choosing to do nothing, Sky added. Their family’s advocacy seeks to protect future victims and hold perpetrators accountable. 

“When we ask Congressman Jeff Crank to stand with survivors, we are not asking for a favor,” Amanda said. “We are asking for representation. We were asking for leadership. We are asking him to listen to the people he was elected to serve.”

The family met with Crank’s district staff in September 2025, and all messages they sent after that received no answer, they said. Their request for Crank’s support came after they traveled to Washington, D.C., to push for the Epstein Files Transparency Act. They also told Crank’s office that they met with U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican, to thank her for signing a “discharge petition” to force a floor vote on the measure. 

After a year without a response, Amanda on Monday shared a screenshot that showed Dennis Hisey, Crank’s district director, laughed with a “ha ha” emoji at one of her messages from September 2025.

Crank did not sign discharge petitions earlier last year to force a floor vote, but he voted in November in support of the Epstein Files Transparency Act after President Donald Trump urged Congress to pass the measure. 

Trump had a well-documented relationship with Epstein. During his 2024 campaign he promised to release the Epstein files, but supporters of the president have criticized what they view as an incomplete process of releasing the documents under Trump. 

Killin said Crank “did not have the courage to do the right thing” until Trump gave Republicans the green light. 

“He knows he had multiple opportunities to release the files. That’s been made clear. There were multiple opportunities and multiple votes before, basically, the administration’s hand was forced,” Killin said. 

An unnamed campaign spokesperson for Crank said in a statement that “it is deeply unfortunate” that Killin “is preying on a grieving family.”  

“Congressman Crank voted to release the Epstein files in the only up or down vote on the floor of the House of Representatives,” the spokesperson said. “The statements contained in this ad are intentionally vague, and are purposefully so, because the fact pattern does not support desperate Lobbyist Jessica Killin’s desired political attack.”

Sky at the press conference rejected the notion that Killin took advantage of his family. He said he still has not heard Crank directly acknowledge what his sister and other victims experienced. 

“Jeff Crank diminishing the fact that we chose to come forward is an act against us,” Sky said. “When we came forward, we came forward by choice, not by force.”

Amanda said they chose to support Killin because she sat down “to have a human conversation and meet us where we are.”

Too many politicians cover up for Trump “rather than delivering justice,” Killin said, and Crank is part of that problem. Other Republican members of Congress met with Sky and Amanda, but Crank’s refusal to meet with his own constituents “is a complete abdication of his responsibilities.”

The election is Nov. 3.