A group of women victimized by Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring urged Sens. Thom Tillis and John Cornyn to vote against Todd Blanche’s nomination to serve as U.S. attorney general.
More than two dozen women victimized by Epstein signed a letter posted on social media addressed to the two lawmakers. Jess Michaels, a survivor and advocate, served as the group’s spokesperson.
The letter complained that Mr. Blanche, while overseeing the release of the Epstein files, did not ensure the names of all victims were redacted. It also accused Mr. Blanche of showing “no remorse” for the exposure of victims’ names and images.
“Both of you have records of standing with survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault. A vote to confirm Todd Blanche would be a vote against those survivors,” the letter said.
Neither Mr. Tillis, North Carolina Republican, nor Mr. Cornyn, Texas Republican, has committed to voting in favor of advancing Mr. Blanche’s nomination out of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Blanche is currently serving as acting attorney general.
Even without pressure from Epstein victims, Mr. Blanche’s confirmation was endangered by the two senators’ conflicts with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Cornyn was spurned in the Texas Republican primary by Mr. Trump, who endorsed Republican opponent Ken Paxton in the May runoff and helped propel him to victory.
Mr. Tillis, who is not seeking reelection, has clashed with Mr. Trump throughout his final year in office.
Mr. Tillis said he leaned toward voting for Mr. Blanche, but he told CNN that he has concerns about “a lack of independence” at the Justice Department.
Mr. Cornyn is talking with the White House about the president’s settlement agreement with the IRS involving the unauthorized disclosure of his tax returns. The senator wants assurances that the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund, which Mr. Blanche has declared dead but not formally abandoned, cannot be revived.
The committee is slated to vote July 30 on Mr. Blanche’s nomination. Without the backing of Mr. Tillis and Mr. Cornyn, the nomination would likely stall.
Epstein’s victims say Mr. Blanche should be rejected based on his response to their demands for full accountability from those who participated in the sex trafficking.
Mr. Blanche met with survivors at the urging of Mr. Tillis, but the letter from the survivors claimed the meeting “was a box-checking exercise arranged only after his confirmation was put at risk.”
The letter also complained that more than 1,000 women and girls were abused by Epstein — a figure the Justice Department itself puts at more than 1,200 — yet the Justice Department has not prosecuted anyone other than Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Epstein committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting prosecution on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for helping him carry out the crimes.
Mr. Blanche was the point man in the Justice Department’s effort to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of all the files, with redactions limited to victims.
Some identifying information still made it in, and Mr. Blanche took the blame during his confirmation hearing Wednesday.
“I take responsibility,” he said.
Nearly 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files have been released in response to court orders and the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Mr. Blanche said the department erred in redactions 1% of the time and that errors were corrected as soon as they were brought to the department’s attention.
“For four years, there wasn’t a peep about Jeffrey Epstein. The Biden administration did nothing to be transparent about Jeffrey Epstein. We have been extraordinarily transparent,” Mr. Blanche said.
The Epstein scandal also continued to ensnare criminal defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, whom a House panel threatened to subpoena if he does not voluntarily testify in a congressional probe of Epstein’s sex crimes.
Mr. Dershowitz failed to show up Monday for an interview by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s investigators.
“Your counsel failed to provide a reason for your refusal to testify,” committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, wrote to Mr. Dershowitz on Tuesday. Mr. Comer called it “unacceptable” that Mr. Dershowitz had failed to appear.
Mr. Dershowitz has been asked to appear for a closed-door, transcribed interview on Sept. 2.
Mr. Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor emeritus, served as a legal adviser to Epstein, although he said the two cut ties in 2007 after Epstein’s plea agreement on state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Emails released in the Epstein files show Mr. Dershowitz remained in contact with Epstein and continued to provide legal advice up to 2019, the year the financier died.
Mr. Dershowitz once appeared eager to testify before the committee. The panel has interviewed more than a dozen witnesses in a wide-ranging investigation of Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and the Justice Department’s handling of his crimes.
Mr. Dershowitz, however, backed out of his appearance at the last minute.
In a May interview on “Pod Force One,” Mr. Dershowitz described what he knew about Epstein’s behavior.
He said the disgraced financier “was interested in 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds,” which he called “a terrible thing,” but not fitting the technical definition of a pedophile, who targets much younger children.
“I don’t think there’s a real case to be called a pedophile. I also don’t believe there was any trafficking going on,” Mr. Dershowitz said.
He added, “What happened is he made it known to young people in Palm Beach [Florida], if you come and give me a massage, you get $250. And many of them came back over and over and over again, collecting $250 and then got $500 if they recruited other people to come and give him more massages.”
Mr. Dershowitz said some of the girls who received financial settlements out of a fund for victims never met Epstein but were recruited by corrupt lawyers and urged to say they provided him with a massage in exchange for a payoff.
Epstein’s victims say more than 1,000 girls were recruited into the sex trafficking ring.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee has interviewed a list of high-profile witnesses who are associated with Epstein, including Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton.
The panel will interview Jes Staley, a former banking executive, on Thursday. In June 2025, Mr. Staley lost his appeal of a decision by British financial regulators to ban him from the industry because of his ties to Epstein.
All the witnesses have denied participating in or having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
• Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.