On Thursday morning, a former taco truck cruised into the parking lot of a Tampa Heights shuffleboard bar. One side read “The Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Bookmobile,” alongside a red-lettered call to “Release all the files.”

The other side of the truck featured a timeline of an alleged relationship between the president and Epstein stretching across decades.

The truck’s back doors swung open to reveal a strange collection of 400-something volumes of bound books of printed reproductions of millions of pages of Epstein-related digital records released by the Justice Department. Epstein is the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in a New York jail seven years ago.

The bookmobile is organized by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofits The Institute for Primary Facts, which said it builds in-person experiences that put “unfiltered” primary records directly in front of the public, and Defiance.org, an anti-Trump organization founded by former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor. It has made more than 100 stops across the country.

Within minutes, dozens of people were lined up waiting to take their turn inside, viewing artwork painted by an Epstein survivor and thumbing through a few of the books they were allowed to touch – specifically the 53 red-colored ones containing files with references to Trump. Some were skipping work to be there. Others said they’d traveled from hours away.

Many the Tampa Bay Times spoke to said they were dismayed that the release of the files had not brought more criminal charges.

More symbol than actual reference library, the bookmobile is meant to provide a real, physical display of files most have only seen on a screen. They contain some 2,500 pounds of paper, meant to illustrate the sheer volume of evidence gathered in the case and to pressure the federal government to release any documents still being withheld.

Some who showed up, like Patsy “Resistance Kitty” Evans, had spent lots of time with the Epstein files. Evans is a “field commander” for Epstein Wiki, an online research project that analyzes and investigates the Epstein files. She’d left her job as a sex therapist, she said, in order to work on Epstein Wiki full time.

“Uncovering Zampolli? That was all us,” she said, referring to Paolo Zampolli, a businessman and former modeling agent whom Democratic staff on the House Judiciary Committee alleged this week may have conspired with Trump and Epstein to traffic and sexually abuse young women in the 1990s.

Epstein Wiki’s work is spread between volunteers working across the U.S. and beyond. To that end, Evans recently had gone to Zorro Ranch, a sprawling property in New Mexico once owned by Epstein, where she believes bodies are buried.

But there aren’t many opportunities, she said, to engage with the files and others interested in them in person, like the bookmobile.

“I do this full time. I’ve become very desensitized,” she said, stepping off the truck, her face more somber after taking her turn. “I think it’s different when you can smell them.”

Many entered the truck unsure exactly what to expect, then fought back tears as they wrote messages of support to Epstein’s survivors and for the project on note cards provided at a folding table nearby.

“You deserve truth, justice and accountability,” Debbi Shaffer wrote on hers, before taping it to the truck alongside others reading “Dead pedos don’t re-offend” and “Fight for women” and “Keep showing these criminals you are stronger than them.”

“I believe one of my relatives is in those files, and I want to find out more,” Shaffer said, her voice cracking. “I’m a survivor myself.”

Most of the people in line were women. Some had come with friends, spouses or their daughters. Others had come alone.

Some who’d shown up described themselves as Democrats and liberals. Some said they were really more in the center of the political spectrum. Tristan Forgus, 58, said he’d donated to John McCain in 2008, but voted for Barack Obama in 2012.

“As Republicans like to say themselves, ‘character counts,’” Forgus said. He’d driven from Sarasota on his day off from working as a chef. “I’m a never Trumper, Lincoln Project kind of guy.”

Others who came to tour the truck were campaigning.

“I was proud to support the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” said Kathy Castor, the Tampa Democrat who has represented the area in Congress since 2007 and is running for re-election. “But they problem is they haven’t released all the files and they’re full of redactions.”

Castor voted last year to require the Justice Department to release its Epstein records and joined a call in January for an investigation into the department’s handling of the disclosures. Castor also said that Florida should change the statute of limitations on reporting sex abuse.

Nearby, 37-year-old Jena-Lisa Jones, who said she’d been abused by Epstein at age 14 in Palm Beach, chatted with people awaiting their turn in the truck.

“The statute of limitations is five years in Florida,” Jones said. “That means I was expected to speak up when I was only 19. I was just barely beginning to pull my life together. We have to change that.”

Farther down the line, someone asked another Epstein survivor, Marina Lacerda, who said she’d been abused in New York at 14, what needed to be changed. Society, she said.

“It starts with love and compassion,” she said. “We have to let women know that they can tell someone, that they can expect help if they turn to a friend or a neighbor or a family member.”

Waiting in line, Denise Larracuenta, called out: “We believe you.”

Jones said that the dozens of women who have felt comfortable sharing their own survivor stories with her at bookmobile events — she has been at a handful of the truck’s more than 100 stops across the U.S. — is difficult but also “healing”

A day earlier, CBS News reported finding evidence of classified material and significant gaps in the millions of pages of Epstein records released by the Justice Department, drawing criticism about whether the government had disclosed everything it is legally required to. The department has maintained that the remaining records are duplicates, privileged or unrelated to Epstein, and that nothing has been withheld.

Three days earlier, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called for an independent special counsel to investigate Trump’s relationship with Epstein. In a 53-page report, Democratic staffers compiled accounts involving 11 women, including five who have accused Trump of rape or sexual assault in Epstein’s company. The White House rejected the allegations as false and politically motivated ahead of next week’s elections.

Trump has admitted to knowing Epstein, but has said they had a falling out many years before Epstein’s death. The president has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein and has not been charged with any crime related to him.

Larracuenta, an Army combat veteran who said she’d also survived abuse, finished her time inside the truck and wrote out her note. She taped it to the truck and stepped back. It read, “I hope all these motherf—kers get locked up.”

The bookmobile is scheduled to stop at 2355 Central Ave. in St. Petersburg on Friday.

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