A survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation said that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche behaved in a “condescending” manner during his meeting with her and other survivors.
The meeting came as Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) made meeting with Epstein survivors a prerequisite for his vote to confirm Blanche, the deputy attorney general and President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney.
Lara Blume McGee described the meeting to The Independent in a text message on Thursday evening.
“Today, Epstein survivors confronted Todd Blanche — and he treated it like a perfunctory audition for votes, not accountability,” Blume McGee said.
“Blanche was condescending, repeatedly interrupted and tried to gaslight survivors instead of explaining why DOJ released materials that revealed survivors’ identities. He offered no real plan to investigate anyone beyond Epstein and Maxwell and gave no reason to believe the remaining files aren’t vital to exposing other perpetrators and enablers. Todd Blanche is unfit to be attorney general — Senator Thom Tillis and the Senate must vote no.”
McGee and other survivors of Epstein came to Blanche’s confirmation hearing on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. They repeatedly criticized how Blanche and the Department of Justice’s management of files related to Epstein, the late convicted sex offender who died in custody in 2019.
Despite this, Tillis praised Blanche’s meeting with Epstein survivors.
“I commend Todd Blanche for doing what all his predecessors over the last two decades never did: meet with the victims of Jeffery Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Tillis said in a statement. “I appreciate his willingness to directly engage and listen to them.”
In addition to Blume McGee, Skye and Amanda Roberts, the brother and sister-in-law of the late Virginia Giuffre, described their meeting with Blanche in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“There was not a sense of compassion,” Sky Roberts. “Unfortunately, I don’t I think there was a lot of deny, deny, deny, until what the formalities of what this was supposed to be.”
Giuffre, who died by suicide last year, accused Epstein of trafficking her to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Duke of York, whom she claimed sexually assaulted her.
Roberts said that Blanche was likely only there because Tillis made it a prerequisite for his vote.
Tillis, who is retiring at the end of this year, has increasingly criticized the Trump administration and its officials.
He and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) are undecided as of now about Blanche’s confirmation. The death of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) means that their voting “no” could sink Blanche’s nomination.
