{"id":8878,"date":"2026-07-17T19:35:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8878"},"modified":"2026-07-17T19:35:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T14:35:27","slug":"epstein-survivors-pan-blanche-meeting-as-dismissive-demoralizing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=8878","title":{"rendered":"Epstein survivors pan Blanche meeting as dismissive, &quot;demoralizing&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/JjwSwcDYw1557Uhdii1R8KrMJE0=\/0x0:6000x3375\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/17\/1784294536871.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Multiple survivors of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/epstein-files\" target=\"_blank\">Jeffrey Epstein&#8217;s<\/a> abuse said a long-awaited meeting with attorney general nominee <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/15\/todd-blanche-federal-agents-polling-places-voters-ice\" target=\"_blank\">Todd Blanche<\/a> felt more like an obligatory box to check than a substantive conversation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture: <\/strong>For Blanche, the meeting was a necessary step to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/16\/tillis-withholds-blanche-support-esptein\" target=\"_blank\">unlock a crucial vote<\/a> for his confirmation to be the nation&#8217;s chief law enforcement officer. For survivors, it was a historic first in their lengthy trek for justice.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>Blanche met with Epstein&#8217;s victims on Thursday, after retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) signaled a sit-down with survivors was necessary before he would vote to advance the acting attorney general&#8217;s nomination to the full Senate.<\/li>\n<li>A single Republican &#8220;no&#8221; vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where Tillis serves, would halt Blanche&#8217;s nomination.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they&#8217;re saying: <\/strong>Annie Farmer, an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/15\/epstein-investigation-new-mexico-justice-department-us-doj\" target=\"_blank\">accuser of Epstein<\/a> and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell said she found Blanche &#8220;abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors \u2014 a marked contrast to his public testimony during his confirmation hearing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>She alleged in a statement that Blanche&#8217;s explanations for his interview with Maxwell and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/08\/01\/ghislaine-maxwell-moved-minimum-security-prison-camp\" target=\"_blank\">her transfer<\/a> to a minimum security prison camp were &#8220;wholly dissatisfactory and contrived.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Dani Bensky, a survivor who testified against Blanche to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Acyn\/status\/2077947833349710060\" target=\"_blank\">said<\/a> in an interview with MS NOW that while she previously felt &#8220;a small glimmer of hope,&#8221; the meeting was not &#8220;substantive&#8221; or &#8220;productive.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It had absolutely nothing to do with us,&#8221; survivor Elizabeth Stein said, echoing her fellow survivors in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oaNmGNpNOGI\" target=\"_blank\">interview<\/a>. &#8220;It had everything to do with Blanche checking a box so that he can get a promotion.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Stein said it was &#8220;demoralizing, to say the very least.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side: <\/strong>A DOJ spokesperson, however, described the meeting as a &#8220;productive, initial discussion&#8221; that was attended by Blanche, survivors, senior DOJ officials, FBI special agents and victim services representatives.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Acting AG Blanche answered questions and walked through what is needed for investigations to\u00a0proceed,&#8221; the spokesperson said in a statement provided to Axios, adding that Blanche encouraged victims to meet with FBI investigators &#8220;as the next step.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Catch up quick:<\/strong> &#8220;When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never, not talk to victims,&#8221; Blanche said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>But Blanche also said he was &#8220;prohibited from meeting directly with&#8221; survivors, saying that he and others in the DOJ had met with attorneys representing them.<\/li>\n<li>But Benksy, who said the DOJ <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/justice-department-epstein-files-trump-036f169b672bcbe0a9b5516e109b6af0\" target=\"_blank\">failed<\/a> to redact her and other survivors&#8217; personal information in the released files, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/watch-epstein-survivor-dani-bensky-says-blanche-has-never-responded-to-them-in-opening-statement\" target=\"_blank\">alleged<\/a> during her testimony that Blanche had never responded to victims&#8217; requests to meet via multiple channels.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Todd Blanche has never attempted to listen to us,&#8221; she said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Axios&#8217; Josephine Walker contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Go deeper: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/12\/22\/trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-letter-congress-survivors\" target=\"_blank\">Epstein survivors criticize DOJ for failure to release all files<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Multiple survivors of Jeffrey Epstein&#8217;s abuse said a long-awaited meeting with attorney general nominee Todd Blanche felt more like an obligatory box to check than a substantive conversation. The big picture: For Blanche, the meeting was a necessary step to unlock a crucial vote for his confirmation to be the nation&#8217;s chief law enforcement officer&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/JjwSwcDYw1557Uhdii1R8KrMJE0=\/0x0:6000x3375\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/17\/1784294536871.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}