Epstein victims blast Trump attorney general nominee Todd Blanche after meeting

Victims of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein blasted Todd Blanche after meeting with the acting attorney general at the Department of Justice, a sit-down Sen. Thom Tillis urged Blanche to have as he seeks Senate confirmation as the permanent U.S. attorney general.

Those victims called Blanche condescending and evasive, saying he seemed motivated to talk to them face-to-face Thursday afternoon solely to get his nomination by President Donald Trump advanced by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"After meeting with Todd Blanche, I feel even more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States' Attorney General," Annie Farmer, one of those victims, said in a statement Thursday night.

"I found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors — a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing," Farmer said. "While quick to point to the failures of previous administrations, he refused to take accountability for mistakes made under his own leadership."

But Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, said that he appreciated Blanche's participation, potentially clearing the way for Tillis to vote for his nomination.

Tillis earlier Thursday had warned that he was not willing to vote to advance the nomination to the full Senate until Blanche met with Epstein victims.

"I expect that meeting to occur before I'm willing to vote out of the committee," Tillis said Thursday morning.

If Tillis or another one of the 11 Republicans on the Judiciary Committee votes against Blanche, it could kill his chance of being confirmed because all 10 Democrats on the panel are expected to vote against him. The death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last weekend left a Republican vacancy on the committee.

Blanche could continue serving as acting AG if the Senate does not confirm him.

The DOJ said Friday morning that Blanche had a "productive, initial discussion" with the small group of victims.

But Blanche told reporters on Thursday after the meeting, "It wasn't all cordial."

"Because there's something that they want that I don't think I can give them, which is some form of justice," Blanche said, according to The Associated Press. "And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point."

"I don't know," he added.

Some victims have criticized Blanche and the DOJ for a botched release of documents about Epstein, which included personally identifying information about survivors, as well as for refusing to meet with them previously.

Blanche was nominated as attorney general after Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi in April over her handling of the Epstein files.

Another Epstein survivor, Liz Stein, in an interview with MS NOW's "The Weeknight," called the meeting with Blanche "demoralizing."

"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," Stein said.

Dani Bensky, who testified earlier Thursday against Blanche's nomination to the Judiciary Committee, in a statement said, "Unfortunately, Todd Blanche treated the meeting 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," Bensky said.

Bensky criticized Blanche for not adequately accounting for why the DOJ "exposed victims' identifying information and images" in its initial releases of Epstein files.

"And he offered no credible plan to investigate and pursue accountability beyond Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," Epstein's convicted accomplice, she said.

"I hope Senator Tillis will recognize that this meeting was insufficient," Bensky said. "Todd Blanche is not qualified to serve as attorney general."

Amanda Roberts, the sister-in-law of the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, told CNN in an interview that "it felt like he only had it because his hand was forced."

But Tillis, in a post on X after the meeting, wrote, "I commend Todd Blanche for doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did: meet with the victims of ... Epstein's horrific crimes."

"I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them," Tillis wrote.

A DOJ spokesperson, in an email to CNBC on Friday, said: "Acting Attorney General Blanche, senior DOJ officials, FBI special agents, and victim services representatives met with Epstein victims [Thursday] and had a productive, initial discussion." 

"Acting AG Blanche answered questions and walked through what is needed for investigations to proceed," the statement 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," the spokesperson said. "The Justice Department is determined to bring justice for all victims of human trafficking and sex crimes."  

It remains to be seen whether Tillis will vote for Blanche out of the Judiciary Committee.

Both he and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a fellow Republican on the panel, have also separately raised concerns about the creation of the DOJ's $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization" fund under Blanche.

That fund, which would have compensated purported victims of prosecutorial overreach by the DOJ, was set up as part of the controversial settlement of a lawsuit by Trump against the Internal Revenue Service over the illegal leak of his tax records by an IRS contractor.

Backlash from Republican senators and others led to Blanche telling a House subcommittee in June that the fund was dead.

However, Tillis, Cornyn and other critics of the fund have raised concerns that the Trump administration could resurrect it.