Todd Blanche, President Trump’s nominee for attorney general, was pulled into a tense face-to-face meeting with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday evening, capping a volatile confirmation hearing that threatened to derail his path to the Justice Department.
Blanche, selected by Trump to take over the Justice Department after Pam Bondi was fired in part over the troubled rollout of the Epstein files, is now trying to salvage his nomination in a closely divided Senate following two bruising days of testimony.
The hastily arranged meeting came just hours after Sen. Thom Tillis, one of two Republican holdouts on the Senate Judiciary Committee, made clear that his support depended on Blanche sitting down with the Epstein survivors.
Throughout the hearing, Blanche was pressed sharply by senators over the Justice Department’s handling of the Epstein investigation, including the accidental release of information identifying victims.
The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham has added another layer of uncertainty, leaving the committee with an extremely narrow Republican majority of eleven members. In that environment, a single GOP defection could be enough to sink Blanche’s confirmation.
At least two Republicans remain potential no votes: Tillis and outgoing Texas Sen. John Cornyn.
Tillis’s demand for a meeting with Epstein survivors quickly triggered action, and within hours the group was seated across from the man Trump wants to become the nation’s top law enforcement official.
What happened inside the room, however, is already a matter of dispute.
Epstein survivor Dani Bensky speaks on Capitol Hill during Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing
Blanche is seen before the start of his Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on Wednesday
Epstein survivors and family members embrace Jeffrey Epstein survivor Dani Bensky after she finished testifying during Blanche’s confirmation hearing
Blanche talks with reporters after attending a meeting related to survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Sen. Dick Durbin gives remarks during a press conference with Epstein survivors in the US Capitol
Survivors said the long-awaited sit-down was underwhelming.
One attendee called it ‘demoralizing’ and said it was clearly only held to help Blanche win confirmation from the GOP-led Senate Judiciary Committee.
‘It had absolutely nothing to do with us, and it had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he can get a promotion,’ Liz Stein told MS Now after the sit-down.
‘I don’t think that we had high expectations going into this meeting. I certainly did not. But I didn’t expect to walk out of the meeting feeling the way that we feel right now. It was demoralizing, to say the very least.’
Stein added that he ‘talked around questions’ and claimed that he didn’t ‘give transparent answers.’
Another victim, Annie Farmer, said in a statement that she found him ‘abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors.’
A spokesperson for the Justice Department told the Daily Mail on Friday that the meeting was a ‘productive, initial’ discussion.
‘Acting AG Blanche answered questions and walked through what is needed for investigations to proceed,’ the DOJ spokesperson added.
‘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.’
Republican Senator Thom Tillis boards an elevator after a Senate vote at the US Capitol
Blanche arrives to testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing
President Donald Trump and then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche speak to the media during a press conference at the White House
Family members of Blanche are seen during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
The delta between the two characterizations is in many ways indicative of the broader issues that have sharply divided members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in the run-up to Blanche’s confirmation vote.
The two-day hearing played out, at times, like a study in contrasts.
Democrats grilled Blanche on the departures of more than 1,000 Justice Department officials since the start of Trump’s second term, its handling of the Epstein probe, and details of a currently scuttled anti-weaponization fund.
Witnesses included Epstein survivor Dani Bensky, who told the panel that Blanche for months had ignored the group and declined repeated requests for a meeting.
For Tillis, an outgoing Republican senator, Blanche’s milquetoast overture to the survivors seemed to be good enough.
Tillis praised Blanche after the meeting for ‘doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did: meet with the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrific crimes.
‘I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them,’ Tillis said on social media after the meeting ended.
Blanche has previously acknowledged DOJ’s botched handling of sensitive materials, including materials that revealed victim information.
‘Any time we release a victim’s name that shouldn’t be released, we have failed as a Department of Justice,’ Blanche told Senate Appropriations Committee members earlier this year – a point he echoed this week.
‘I hear your anger,’ he said of the victims’ frustrations.
