Todd Blanche not fit to serve as U.S. attorney general, Epstein survivor tells Senate panel

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, a key vote on the Senate’s judiciary committee, said Thursday he would not vote to advance U.S. President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Todd Blanche, unless Blanche agreed to meet with victims of Jeffrey Epstein and their lawyers.

Blanche likely cannot advance to a full Senate vote without Tillis’s approval.

“I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee,” Tillis said during the second day of Blanche’s confirmation hearing to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer. “I’m trying to get to yes, but this is a very important part of getting yes.”

Dani Bensky testified on Thursday that a group of Epstein survivors had not yet heard from the Justice Department about a possible meeting.

“Crime victims deserve better from the nation’s highest level of law enforcement officials,” she said. “We deserve to be heard directly, not dismissed and ignored.”

Blanche said Wednesday a deputy could meet with lawyers for Epstein survivors as soon as “today,” but said he could not meet with them directly.

Bensky also shared the pain Epstein survivors have felt as the release of files legally mandated by the Epstein Transparency Act led to widespread errors.

“Todd Blanche has been at the helm of the release of nude images of survivors, the outing of Jane Does, and the exposure of more than 100 victims’ identifying information and documents describing horrific acts of abuse, including my own,” she said, telling the panel not to confirm the nominee.

Bensky has told U.S. media outlets that she was sexually abused by Epstein at his New York City townhouse beginning at the age of 17, periodically over the course of about a year. She told Reuters earlier this year that she met Epstein in 2004 after being recruited to give the financier a massage.

Bensky, now a teacher, went public with her Epstein allegations in 2021. But she said it wasn’t until the Justice Department began releasing the Epstein files, with unredacted documents identifying her contact information, that she began receiving violent threats on social media from several men across the country.

Blanche on Wednesday admitted “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, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“If we ⁠learn today, if we learn next week, if we learn next month that there’s an individual that we can investigate, indict and prosecute out of the Epstein files, you better believe we will,” ⁠Blanche said Wednesday.

Tillis, Cornyn key votes

Blanche, nominated by Trump to succeed Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general, faced a wide range of questions on Wednesday and Tillis is one of two key Republican senators threatening to derail his confirmation.

The Republicans hold an 11-10 advantage on the committee, losing a member with the sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina last weekend.

Democrats on the committee have pledged to uniformly oppose Blanche, which means the acting attorney general cannot afford to lose even one Republican lawmaker.

Lawmakers on Wednesday grilled Blanche on the creation of a $1.8 billion US “anti-weaponization” fund and resolution that gave Trump and his associates broad tax-audit immunity. Both of those deals emerged from a settlement agreement over a $10 billion US lawsuit Trump brought against the IRS.

The fund and the tax immunity resolution drew bipartisan fury, as lawmakers argued both were an effort to enrich Trump and his allies. In the wake of the backlash, Blanche told lawmakers the fund was dead, but he has since declined to kill the fund in writing.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas — with months left in office after being defeated in a primary by Trump-backed Ken Paxton — told Reuters on Wednesday he was still weighing his vote because it was not clear to him the fund had really been abandoned.

Should the chamber’s judiciary committee recommend Blanche for confirmation, the full Senate will then vote, where Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats.

The second day of the confirmation hearings on Thursday involved testimonials for and against the Blanche nomination from Bensky and others.

Offering testimonials on behalf of Blanche were John Ashcroft, former attorney general in George W. Bush’s administration, and Jennifer Bos, an Illinois woman whose daughter was killed in 2025.

Bos said Blanche was a strong advocate for victims of violent crime committed by individuals not authorized to be in the U.S. A Mexican man without legal status has been charged with murder in the death of Megan Bos and is awaiting trial.