U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche participates in the 2026 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Grapevine, Texas, U.S. March 26, 2026. REUTERS/Callaghan O'Hare
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche startled some political analysts and observers on Thursday when he flubbed a softball question about the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Blanche was asked whether the public would learn the identities of the men who abused young women that are mentioned in the Epstein files during a press conference. Blanche's answer left some observers unsettled.
"You just baked an assumption into your question that I have never said and that I don't know to be true," Blanche said. "Is the public going to learn about men who abused these girls? What does that mean? I don't understand what that means."
President Donald Trump's Department of Justice has faced heaps of criticism over its handling of the Epstein files. For instance, the files released by the DOJ redacted the names of abusers, which caused a bipartisan firestorm.
Blanche, who is the acting Attorney General following Trump's firing of Pam Bondi on Thursday, said that the DOJ would "prosecute" any men that it found to be connected with Epstein's crimes.
"There's this built-in assumption that somehow there is this hidden tranche of information, of men that we know about, that we're covering up or that we're choosing not to prosecute," Blanche added. "That is not the case."
Political analysts and observers reacted on social media.
"We may have gone from bad to worse here," the Nebraska Democratic Party posted on X.
"It's pretty damn clear what that means. And 80 percent of Michiganders want the Epstein files released," the Michigan chapter of the AFL-CIO posted on X.
"Yeah, I have no faith in this guy," podcaster Luke Rudkowski posted on X.