Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche meets with several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein under a condition tied to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’s support for Blanche’s confirmation. Multiple outlets report that the meeting occurs after Tillis signals that his vote depends on Blanche meeting Epstein’s victims. Survivors describe the encounter as largely disappointing and lacking substantive responses. Jess Michaels, for example, says she left the meeting “disappointed, disturbed and undaunted.” Dani Bensky and other survivors tell outlets that Blanche spent substantially more time previously meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell and provided little or no engagement with survivors, including failing to address investigative leads they believe are relevant to Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes. Survivors also raise concerns about Maxwell’s subsequent transfer and about redactions in released Epstein-related materials, saying Blanche did not provide clear explanations. They further characterize the meeting as demoralizing and noncommittal, with Blanche refusing assurances about follow-up on potential leads. Tillis, however, publicly expresses satisfaction with Blanche’s efforts, saying Blanche met with victims and listened. Blanche also indicates he cannot meet directly with survivors if they have lawyers, but says he will talk to victims.
Epstein survivors describe meeting with acting AG Todd Blanche as unsatisfactory
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche meets with several survivors of Jeffrey Epstein under a condition tied to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis’s support for Blanche’s confirmation. Multiple outlets report...
- Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche meets with multiple Epstein survivors amid the Senate confirmation process.
- Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says his vote depends on Blanche meeting Epstein victims, and he later expresses satisfaction with the meeting.
- Several survivors say Blanche’s meeting was disappointing and did not address their questions or investigative concerns.
- Survivors cite past meetings Blanche had with Ghislaine Maxwell and contrast them with what they describe as limited time with survivors.
- Survivors raise concerns about explanations for Maxwell’s prison transfer and about redactions in Epstein-related materials.
Epstein survivor Jess Michaels said Friday that she left a meeting with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche this week “disappointed, disturbed and undaunted.” Blanche agreed to meet with survivors of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein under pressure from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (N.C.). The lawmaker holds a key vote in Blanche’s confirmation process...
22 hours agoActing Attorney General Todd Blanche’s meeting with several Epstein survivors was a major bust. The Thursday meeting was an obvious gambit for Senate support for Blanche’s potential promotion to permanent A.G. The encounter was arranged hours after Republican Senator Thom Tillis said that his vote for Blanche’s confirmation would be predicated on whether the acting attorney general met with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.During the second day of Blanche’s committee confirmation hearing, Epstein victim Dani Bensky warned the Senate Judiciary Committee that Blanche had dodged her and other victims for months, yet showed a sudden willingness to talk shop once he needed them to advance his Senate confirmation.By 4 p.m., the meeting was a go, as several survivors were spotted filing into the Justice Department. Two hours later, however, they reappeared outside the building, looking “distraught and emotional,” according to MS NOW. Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Virginia Giuffre, informed reporters outside the Justice Department: “I think we have a little ways to go here.”“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,” Epstein victim and anti-human trafficking educator Elizabeth Stein told the network. “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,” she added.Stein recalled that Blanche was completely unwilling to provide the group with anything substantial, actively dodging questions and refusing to provide assurances that his department would follow up on potential investigative leads. She noted that he could not provide a concrete explanation for Ghislaine Maxwell’s cushy prison transfer to a low-security prison camp, and wouldn’t clarify the improper redactions rampant throughout the released Epstein files.“It just felt like more political posturing and using survivors the way that we’ve been used as political pawns,” Stein continued. “We’re victims of the crime of sex trafficking. And the fact that our Department of Justice will not take that seriously is beyond concerning not just to us, but should be concerning to Americans all across this country.”Epstein survivor Annie Farmer told ABC News she is “even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States’ Attorney General” after finally meeting Blanche face-to-face.“I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors—a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing,” said Farmer, who served as a key witness for the government during Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial.Tillis did not feel the same way: the North Carolina senator indicated over social media Thursday evening that he was satisfied by Blanche’s efforts. “I commend Todd Blanche for doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did: meet with the victims of Jeffery Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Tillis wrote. “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”
1 day agoA survivor of sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein testified at Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing on Thursday, hammering the acting attorney general for meeting with Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell for nine hours while refusing to give Epstein survivors even one minute of his time.“According to public reporting, Mr. Blanche spent approximately nine hours meeting with Ghislane Maxwell. He did not even spend nine minutes meeting with a survivor,” said survivor Dani Bensky. “Afterwards, Maxwell was transferred to what many have described as a ‘summer camp prison.’ We learned all of this through the news. Imagine what that feels like as a survivor—to sit there—if you are exploited by Ghislaine Maxwell and you’re hearing this for the first time with no explanation, no outreach, no transparency from your government.”Bensky is referring to Maxwell’s transfer from a federal prison camp to a cushier, more open prison with unlimited toilet paper, technology access, and a pass to use prison facilities late at night, following her meeting with Blanche last July. That, along with Blanche’s highly consistent redactions, has made his handling of the Epstein files particularly questionable, Bensky noted. She also brought up Blanche’s presence in the Situation Room last year while the Trump administration was deciding how to handle its bungling of the files.“To add insult to injury, the information that Todd Blanche gathered in the White House Situation Room last summer to curb the political fallout from the Epstein files was absolutely abhorrent. Instead of following investigative leads, our government treated … this as a political crisis that needs to be managed,” Bensky continued. “In our nation, everyone deserves equal protection under the law. Todd Blanche has been unwilling to protect Epstein survivors’ personal information, and he has been resistant to investigate the people who helped Epstein and Maxwell commit those crimes. We need an attorney general committed to ensuring that everyone who facilitated Epstein’s crimes is held accountable. Please, I implore you. Please.”Epstein survivor Dani Bensky: "Todd Blanche spent approximately nine hours meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, he did not even spend nine minutes meeting with a survivor…We need an AG committed to ensuring that everyone who facilitated Epstein's crimes is held accountable." pic.twitter.com/YH23EBLRUL— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) July 16, 2026“The survivors in this room know there are investigative leads because they are our stories,” Bensky said. “Mr. Blanche knows it too. Yet he has chosen not to pursue them.”Blanche offered pretty mixed signals on whether he’d actually meet with any survivors during his own testimony on Wednesday, telling Senator Dick Durbin that “we will never, never not talk to victims,” while in the same breath stating “if they have lawyers, as you know. I’m prohibited from meeting directly with them.”Bensky was a 17-year-old aspiring ballerina when she was first recruited to give massages to Epstein in his penthouse. She and at least 18 other victims have come out against Blanche’s nomination for attorney general.
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