WASHINGTON – During a nationally televised news conference where accusers urged Congress to release the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking files, a military flyover of the U.S. Capitol drowned out some of their remarks.

Was it a coincidence?

The White House said the fighter jets were participating in maneuvers to honor a fallen Polish army pilot killed recently in a training exercise − and to "celebrate the special relationship between our two countries."

The noisy honorific occurred shortly before 11:30 a.m. while President Donald Trump was meeting at the White House with newly elected Polish President Karol Nawrocki, the White House said in several X posts showing video of the flyover.

The U.S. Capitol Police even issued an alert saying that at approximately 11:00 a.m., the aircraft – four F-35 Lightning II and four F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft – would be conducting an authorized flight near the U.S. Capitol Complex.

“The aircraft will fly at a low altitude and be noticeable to personnel on the ground,” the Capitol Police alert said, noting that its Command Center “will monitor the flight in its entirety and maintain full situational awareness throughout this event.”

The timing of the flyover was just half an hour after the scheduled start of the news conference in which Epstein accusers gathered from around the world to tell their stories. Some of them were stepping forward for the first time, to ratchet up pressure on Republican leadership in Congress to make public the mammoth trove of previously unreleased Epstein files.

When the jets roared overhead many of the event attendees looked skyward. Some of the women publicly accusing the disgraced late financier of horrific acts shook their head in disbelief.

“It’s difficult to overstate how disrespectful this flyover was, given this press conference was known about by the admin,” one of the attendees, Amber Woods, said in a post on X.

“My heart broke standing next to these brave women, some who were already in tears, or shaking,” Woods said. “No security provided to them for this conference. I wanted to wrap my arms around them all.”

One of the two speakers interrupted by the flights, Anouska De Georgiou, stopped mid-sentence as the jet noise drowned out her voice. She raised her arm skyward and waited several seconds before resuming speaking.

Another Epstein accuser looked up, startled, to see where the deafening sound was coming from.

The White House confirmed that it ordered the flyover in emails to USA TODAY, and said Sept. 4 that Trump personally issued the order.

A White House statement said only that the "spectacular flyover will honor the memory of a brave Polish fighter pilot whose life was tragically taken too soon and capture the special relationship between our two countries."

A White House video posted by the White House shows Trump and Nawrocki standing outside the White House and looking up at the jets, which performed what’s known as a “missing man formation” in which one jet breaks off from the others to represent the fallen pilot.

“Trump spends oodles of $$ for an absurd military flyover to silence victims of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s awful crimes as he protects the perpetrators of those crimes,” Rep. Daniel Goldman, D-N.Y., posted on X in a reply to a video showing De Georgiou being drowned out by the jets.

Some observers raised questions about the timing of the flyover.

“Who authorized fighter jets to fly by the capitol at that very moment?!” asked former U.S. counterterrorism official Malcolm Nance in an X post.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Epstein accusers interrupted by Trump-ordered White House flyover. Was it a coincidence?

Reporting by Josh Meyer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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