Republican Hits Trump’s AG Pick With Epstein Ultimatum
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis has revealed what it will take for him to vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney to be the country’s chief law enforcement officer.
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Tillis, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says he will only vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general if he meets with victims of Jeffrey Epstein first.
“Mr. Blanche said very quickly yesterday that he would meet with the victims, the Epstein victims, today if it could be arranged,” Tillis said on Thursday. “Because it seemed to me that Mr. Blanche was willing to say that he would meet with them and counsel, I understand the restriction that counsel has to be present; I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee.”
Tillis noted that Blanche has about two weeks to meet with Epstein victims before senators vote on his confirmation.
Tillis’ comment came after multiple Epstein survivors slammed Blanche for claiming he could not meet with them on Wednesday, before amending that he could not meet with them without their lawyers.
One of those survivors, Dani Bensky, slammed Blanche’s claims when she appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday for day two of his confirmation hearing.
“We are not activists; we are crime victims. For us, this has never been about politics,” Bensky said through tears. “It has been about getting justice for the crimes committed against us.”
“Todd Blanche has never attempted to listen to us, the crime victims. Survivors in this room repeatedly asked to meet with Todd Blanche through multiple channels; he never responded,” Bensky said.
“Yesterday, he said he would meet with us with our attorneys if they were present, but let’s be clear, that was the first time that was ever communicated to us. Before yesterday, he simply ignored us,” Bensky continued. “For the last eight months, he’s been radio silent, and the silence was deafening.”
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When Blanche appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, he was repeatedly grilled about whether he would meet with the survivors of the late pedophile while some of the survivors were in the room.
Ranking Member Dick Durbin noted that 10 survivors were at the confirmation hearing and asked Blanche, under oath, whether he would sit down with them personally and hear their cases within the next 30 days.
The acting attorney general first tried to pass the task off to a person in his office in charge of the task force investigating human trafficking.
“Will you meet with these ten survivors?” Durbin pressed.
“If they have lawyers. As you know, I’m prohibited from meeting directly with them. I have met with the counsel for survivors, as has many people in the Department of Justice,” Blanche claimed. “If they are represented by counsel, we will work with their counsel. If they don’t have a lawyer, I will certainly make arrangements to make sure the right people at the Department of Justice meet.”
In that same confirmation hearing, Blanche turned heads when he also referred to himself as Trump’s lawyer before correcting himself and claiming he was the president’s former lawyer. Blanche previously worked as his personal criminal defense attorney before joining the administration.
Trump has repeatedly blasted the continued focus on Epstein, his former known associate, as a “hoax” by Democrats, even as his own vice president, JD Vance, admitted in a podcast interview released on Wednesday that the administration mishandled the release of Epstein documents.
“Would you say that Mr. Blanche exhibits a dismissive attitude toward all of you and then the Epstein crimes?” Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono asked Bensky on Thursday as she appeared before the committee.
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“1,000 percent, yes,” Bensky said.
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