Sarah Trone Garriott, the Democratic candidate challenging US Rep. Zach Nunn in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, toured the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Reading Room Tuesday, walking through thousands of bound volumes of released Epstein files collated alongside survivors and family members of one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.
The Reading Room holds a bound physical compendium of the roughly 3.5 million pages of DOJ-released Epstein files. The exhibit and its “bookmobile” have been touring battleground states ahead of the November midterms, with stops in Omaha, Des Moines, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids among them.
“It is overwhelming to see all this evidence of a massive criminal operation that was abusing children,” Trone Garriott told reporters after the tour. “To see what is still an active crime being committed against survivors who need to have accountability for those who abuse them. And it’s not happening.”
Walking through the exhibit, she said, makes the scale of the material impossible to ignore. “You can just see the tragedy that took place over decades,” Trone Garriott said, pointing to redacted pages along the edges of the volumes. “Entire pages are just black because what’s in them is so awful.”
Trone Garriott toured the exhibit with Sharlene Rochard, who said she was abused by Epstein in New York, Miami and on his infamous private island, and with Sky and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, the Epstein accuser who became one of the most prominent public faces of his victims before her death by suicide last year.
Amanda Roberts said Nunn had the same opportunity to meet with the group and didn’t take it. “Representative Nunn has not met with us,” she said. “Did not come here to do the same thing that Sarah has done with us.”
What is Zach Nunn’s record on the files?
While Nunn did eventually vote to release the files, he voted against several earlier efforts to release the Epstein files.
In July 2025, Nunn voted for a motion that blocked US Rep. Ro Khanna’s amendment that would have required the DOJ to release the files, 211-210, meaning it came down to one vote. Two days later, Nunn joined House Republicans in blocking a Democratic effort to force the Attorney General to release the files. That September, Nunn supported a House Oversight committee inquiry into Epstein that simultaneously tabled a rule requiring the release of the Epstein Files.
Nunn also has not signed onto either of two bipartisan discharge petitions. These petitions are a mechanism members can use to force a floor vote without leadership’s approval. So far both, Democratic and Republican members have tried using a petition to compel votes on releasing the files. Four Republicans had signed the current petition. Nunn was not among them.
Trone Garriott’s campaign has also pointed to campaign contributions Nunn has received from individuals named in the Epstein Files, including Steven Schwarzman, Howard Lutnick, Peter Thiel and John Paulson, totaling more than $50,000.
Nunn ultimately voted to release the files when the House brought the matter to the floor for a direct vote; the chamber passed that measure 427-1 last November.
A national issue reaching Iowa
Polling suggests the issue carries real weight with voters heading into the midterms. A Courier/Reckoning Action poll found justice for Epstein’s victims ranked higher among voters surveyed than healthcare, affordability, or the war in Iran. A separate survey from March by Lincoln Park Strategies found 60% of Americans say a candidate’s stance on the Epstein Files will factor into their vote.
Iowa’s 3rd District is among the most competitive in the country. The seat hasn’t been held by any incumbent for more than two terms since 2010.
