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Meeting Demand After Hearing
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche is scheduled to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein and their lawyers at the U.S. Justice Department on Thursday as he faces a contentious vote on his nomination in the U.S. Senate.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said he would not vote to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general unless Blanche agreed to meet with Epstein victims and their lawyers, adding, "I expect that meeting to occur before I'm willing to vote out of this committee."
The pressure follows the second day of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where survivor Dani Bensky testified that her personal information from the Epstein files remains online.
Bensky told the committee that "Crime victims deserve better from the nation's highest level of law enforcement officials," and said she and other survivors had not yet heard from the Justice Department about a possible meeting.
Survivor Criticism and Apologies
During the confirmation hearings, Dani Bensky testified that the release of Epstein files under the Epstein Transparency Act led to widespread errors, and she said Blanche had been "at the helm of the release of nude images of survivors" and the exposure of identifying information.
Bensky also told the panel not to confirm the nominee, while Blanche, according to the reporting, admitted that "mistakes were made" in the release of the files and said the department was prepared to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct by anyone else associated with Epstein.
On Wednesday, Blanche apologized on Capitol Hill for Epstein files "mistakes," saying, "I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made," and adding, "I very much apologise."
The hearings also included questions about whether Blanche would meet survivors directly, with Tillis pressing that he expected the meeting to occur before he would vote out of the committee.
Votes, Funds, and What’s at Risk
Blanche’s nomination hinges on Republican support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Republicans hold an 11-10 advantage after the death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and where Democrats have pledged to uniformly oppose Blanche.
“WASHINGTON — Senators confronted Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the Trump administration’s controversial “Anti-Weaponization Fund” and his handling of the Epstein files during his confirmation hearing Wednesday”
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said he was still considering his vote, telling MS NOW, "I am still considering it," while CNBC reported that Cornyn and Tillis hedged on whether they would confirm Blanche.
The hearings also centered on the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” with NPR describing the fund as “dead” but noting that a federal judge blasted the DOJ over the settlement and especially the anti-weaponization fund.
NPR further reported that Cornyn said the fund was still a concern, quoting Cornyn: "yup, yup," as senators pressed whether the so-called weaponization fund would continue despite Blanche’s claims.
