![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5ad1344a67ec0dca685b7f8f7f2b3393a5-blanche-meeting.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Acting U.S. attorney general Todd Blanche on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
\n Photo: Sha Hanting\/China News Service\/Getty Images\n <\/p>\n
At first glance, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche<\/a>, appeared to emerge from his confirmation hearing Wednesday relatively unscathed. For five hours, he contended with the expected adversarial questioning from Senate Democrats and largely friendly treatment from Republicans.<\/p>\n But a potential (though unlikely) Republican holdout on the Senate Judiciary Committee \u2014 North Carolina senator Thom Tillis<\/a> \u2014 signaled that his support for Blanche\u2019s promotion was contingent upon one thing: Blanche finally meeting with survivors of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>.<\/p>\n The meeting took place on Thursday as Blanche met with a group of Epstein accusers for more than an hour at the Justice Department headquarters. Initial accounts suggest that the sit-down went poorly.<\/p>\n One survivor, Annie Farmer, said in a statement that finally meeting with Blanche made her \u201ceven more confident in urging senators to vote against his confirmation as the United States\u2019 Attorney General.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI found him abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors \u2014 a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing. While quick to point to the failures of previous administrations, he refused to take accountability for mistakes made under his own leadership,\u201d Farmer wrote.<\/p>\n Farmer, who testified in 2019<\/a> that Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sexually assaulted her at Epstein\u2019s New Mexico ranch, said Blanche \u201cwould not commit\u201d to an investigation into why her sister Maria Farmer\u2019s 1996 report to the FBI about Epstein was never addressed. \u201cHis evasiveness felt like a deliberate attempt to claim the Attorney General\u2019s office is powerless in this matter. By passing the buck once again, he is leaving survivors trapped in the same endless loop of searching for answers and receiving none,\u201d she said in the statement.<\/p>\n Liz Stein, another Epstein survivor, had similar takeaways from the meeting. \u201cIt had absolutely nothing to do with us, and it had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he could get a promotion,\u201d she told MS NOW<\/a> in an interview. \u201cIt was demoralizing, to say the least.\u201d<\/p>\n Stein continued, \u201cIf he offered almost anything, I think that we would have been happy that he just offered us something. But he completely talked around questions. He didn\u2019t give transparent answers. He didn\u2019t give us any promises as far as following up on investigative leads. He had no real answers for the Ghislaine Maxwell transfer and no real explanation for the improper redactions.\u201d<\/p>\n The family of Virginia Giuffre<\/a>, one of Epstein\u2019s most prominent accusers, who died by suicide last year, told CNN<\/a> they went into the meeting with the intentions of trying to work with Blanche. Sky Roberts, Giuffre\u2019s brother, said he asked Blanche what he needed to find investigative leads and raised his sister\u2019s accusations against Andrew Mountbatten Windsor<\/a>, the member of the British royal family.<\/p>\n \u201cVirginia provided testimony and she provided evidence. Is that not an investigative lead? He said, \u2018Well, he won\u2019t cooperate with me.\u2019 And he also said that, \u2018Virginia\u2019s not here, so I can\u2019t use that testimony.\u2019 And so, it just felt like he wasn\u2019t willing to work with us,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters, Blanche acknowledged the tense nature of the meeting. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t all cordial,\u201d Blanche said, per the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cBecause there\u2019s something that they want that I don\u2019t think I can give them, which is some form of justice. And I want to be able to give justice in the form of prosecutions, and maybe we can do a prosecution at some point.\u201d<\/p>\n But even as Epstein survivors appear dissatisfied with Blanche, it doesn\u2019t appear likely that the meeting will derail his nomination to become President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s next permanent attorney general. Tillis, whose vote will be crucial for Blanche to advance through committee, seemed pleased that Blanche took the meeting, even despite the reports that followed.<\/p>\n \u201cI commend Todd Blanche for doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did: meet with the victims of Jeffery Epstein\u2019s horrific crimes. I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them,\u201d Tillis said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Republican senator John Cornyn of Texas, who has expressed a hesitancy in voting for Blanche, still appeared undecided after his questioning of the nominee on Wednesday due to concerns over whether the Justice Department\u2019s controversial weaponization fund is truly dead. \u201cI continue to have some concerns, but I\u2019m not going to make any decisions at this point. I\u2019m going to wait until we actually vote on a confirmation in a week or so,\u201d he told CNN<\/a>. But, over the years, Cornyn has largely been a reliable vote for Trump-backed legislation and nominees.<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n