Critics are hammering acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for agreeing to meet with Jeffrey Epstein’s survivors only after a Republican senator threatened to tank his confirmation.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday morning that he would not vote to confirm Blanche until the acting attorney general sat down with the survivors.
Within hours, the Department of Justice announced a 4:30 p.m. meeting at DOJ headquarters, The Hill reported. Earlier Thursday, Blanche had told reporters on Capitol Hill that a meeting “didn’t work out,” MS NOW reported.
“If only Blanche had been willing to meet with Epstein survivors for the right reasons, instead of doing it to protect his potential AG nomination,” Democratic communications operative Kendra Barkoff Lamy wrote on X.
At a Senate hearing in May, Blanche said “absolutely” when asked whether he would meet with survivors if senators connected him with them, according to a letter from Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Patty Murray (D-WA).
Nearly two months passed with no meeting, the senators wrote.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Blanche claimed he was legally prohibited from meeting with survivors who had lawyers — a rule that bars attorneys from contacting someone else’s client directly. He also told the committee he had already met with survivors and their lawyers.
Eighteen survivors immediately disputed that claim, the New Republic reported, saying Blanche had never met with any of them.
On Thursday, Epstein survivor Dani Bensky testified against the nomination before the committee, Mediaite reported.
“According to public reporting, Mr. Blanche spent approximately nine hours meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell,” Bensky told the committee. “He did not even spend nine minutes meeting with a survivor.”
“He’s had ample time to meet with them,” civil rights attorney Preston Mitchum pointed out on X.
“He wants that confirmation vote,” Rev. Dr. Marvin Tiller Jr., senior pastor of Temple Baptist Church, wrote on X. “Y’all set the bar so low for him. Have him release the files.”
“He spent 9 hours with Ghislaine Maxwell,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) noted in a post on X. “How long will he give to survivors?”
CNBC reported that Tillis is not the only Republican whose vote is in doubt. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) also remains undecided, with the committee set to vote on Blanche’s nomination in two weeks.
“Todd Blanche has been at the helm of the release of nude images of survivors, the outing of ‘Jane Does’ and the exposure of more than a hundred victims’ identifying information and documents describing horrific acts of abuse, including my own,” Bensky said.