Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse Thursday, prompted by comments from senators during his confirmation hearing to lead the Justice Department.
The meeting, held at the Justice Department at about 4:30 p.m., came after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) warned during the hearing that he expected Blanche to meet with survivors before he would vote to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
On Thursday evening, Tillis said in a social media post that he commended Blanche for holding the meeting. “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them,” he wrote.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also encouraged the meeting. The two senators are the committee’s only Republicans who haven’t committed to voting for Blanche, who faces a narrow path to confirmation.
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One of the survivors who met with Blanche, Dani Bensky, expressed disappointment with the meeting, saying Blanche had treated it as “a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.”
“He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust,” she said in a statement. “He did not adequately account for the release of materials that exposed survivors’ identifying information and images, and he offered no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability beyond Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,” Epstein’s accomplice.
Bensky said she had left Thursday’s confirmation hearing hopeful about Tillis’ demand, but was ultimately let down. She said she hoped Tillis “will recognize that this meeting was insufficient.”
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement Thursday night that Blanche and the survivors had a “productive, initial discussion.” Other department officials, FBI special agents and victim-services representatives also attended.
“Acting AG Blanche answered questions and walked through what is needed for investigations to proceed,” the spokesperson said. “While some victims said that they had not reached out to the FBI under this administration, he encouraged victims to meet with FBI investigators as the next step, and attendees spoke with agents after the meeting about scheduling interviews.”
Over the two days of the confirmation hearing, Blanche faced incisive questions and emotional testimony about his handling of the release of the late sex offender’s case files. Advocates and lawmakers from both parties have criticized the Justice Department and Blanche for failing to redact the names and personal information of some victims, causing them to relive trauma and exposing them to harassment.
The meeting appeared to mark the first time that Blanche has met with survivors, some of whom say he ignored repeated requests for a sit-down as he oversaw the release of documents from the investigation.
It also represented an abrupt reversal for Blanche, who a day prior had resisted calls from Democrats to arrange such a meeting before suggesting he might be open to talking in person with survivors and their lawyers.
A group of about 10 survivors attended both days of the committee’s hearing on Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, which concluded midday Thursday. Among them was Bensky, who testified Thursday against Blanche’s confirmation, accusing him of prioritizing the reputation of President Donald Trump’s administration over their interests.
The meeting seemed to come together haphazardly, arranged shortly after Tillis threatened to hold back his vote.
Blanche, who testified Wednesday, had offered to connect survivors with a Justice Department staffer who, he said, was the head of a human trafficking unit and had extensive experience in prosecuting sex crimes. The survivors called on Blanche to meet with them directly.
Blanche had returned to the Hill earlier Thursday afternoon to meet privately with senators, according to a Justice Department spokesperson. While there, he offered to meet with the group of survivors, “as everyone was in the same location,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
“Unfortunately, after heading to the meeting room, the acting AG was informed that the victims were unable to attend,” so the meeting was pushed to later in the day, the spokesperson said.
Bensky told lawmakers at Thursday’s hearing that she and other survivors had gone through “multiple channels” to try to meet with Blanche as he presided over the release of the Epstein files, but to no avail. His offer Wednesday was the first time he’d ever floated the possibility of a meeting, she said.
“He simply ignored us for the past eight months,” she said.
Adding to their anguish, she said, Blanche spent two days last year interviewing Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, before the Justice Department transferred Maxwell to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas known for its lax conditions. Blanche, she said, had treated the situation as a “political crisis.”
“Todd Blanche,” she said, “has never attempted to listen to us, the crime victims.”
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