Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse shamed Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Thom Tillis for supporting President Donald Trump's former personal attorney Todd Blanche for attorney general.
The two senators had held up Blanche's nomination over the president's $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund, but the survivors blasted Cornyn and Tillis for ducking meetings with them and ultimately agreeing to support Blanche – who has played a central role in blocking the full release of the Epstein files, reported MS NOW's Lisa Rubin.
"Senators Tillis and Cornyn were not willing to sit across from us and answer for the vote they were preparing to cast," the survivors said in a statement. "If they believed they were doing the right thing, they should have had the courage to look survivors in the eye and tell us why."
"The message was unmistakable," the statement added. "They wanted us to go away."
The survivors faulted Tillis for publicly inviting them to a meeting, saying they waited 45 minutes outside his office until a staffer told them he would not be available.
Rubin contrasted the Trump administration's treatment of Epstein survivors – whose names and other identifying details were unlawfully exposed in the Justice Department's partial release of its files on their abuse – and the Jan. 6 defendants who the president pardoned and wants to compensate.
"With Blanche poised for confirmation, it seems some Jan. 6 defendants could be compensated, whether or not from any anti-weaponization fund," Rubin noted. "It also seems DOJ’s investigation of further Epstein-related crimes is functionally, if never officially, over."
"It’s worth asking senators who have worried publicly about both the fund and the Epstein matter but who now back Blanche: If J6ers deserve federal compensation, why not the Epstein survivors?" she added.