Incident details
- Date of incident
- September 3, 2025
- Location
- Washington, District of Columbia
- Targets
- Michael Tracey (Independent)
- Government agency or public official involved
- Type of denial
- Government event
Denial of Access
Rep. Thomas Massie speaks at a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025, calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Journalist Michael Tracey was removed after he questioned an Epstein accuser’s credibility.
Independent journalist Michael Tracey says he was ejected from a Capitol Hill news conference in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 3, 2025, after he asked a question about the credibility of a Jeffrey Epstein accuser.
Tracey told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that the office of Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California, had invited him to attend the news conference. Tracey is based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes about U.S. politics on Substack. He said he confirmed that he would attend the event the day before.
The news conference, held outside the Capitol, aimed to pressure lawmakers to vote for the release of the files from the Justice Department’s Epstein investigation. Multiple U.S. representatives from both parties were joined by a group of Epstein’s accusers, who told of the sexual abuse they say they faced from the convicted sex offender, who took his own life in 2019 while in federal custody facing sex trafficking charges.
At the news conference, Tracey questioned attorney Bradley Edwards about his late client Virginia Giuffre, who had been one of the most vocal Epstein accusers before her death by suicide in April 2025. In 2022, Giuffre had dropped her allegations of sexual abuse against attorney Alan Dershowitz, saying she “may have made a mistake.” (Dershowitz had denied the allegations.)
“I asked Bradley Edwards, why should the public regard this person as having unimpeached credibility?” Tracey said. “You’re supposed to ask critical or skeptical questions.” Edwards did not answer the question, according to video of the encounter, and moved on to another journalist.
Khanna then interjected and addressed Tracey’s question. After the journalist asked a follow-up, Tracey said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, urged the U.S. Capitol Police to eject him.
Capitol Police officers obliged, Tracey said, and escorted him away. Neither Greene’s office nor the police responded to requests for comment.
“They threw me out. They threatened me with arrest,” said Tracey, who added that he did not resist. “I was ejected based on the content of the question.”
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
