Epstein survivors have found powerful ammunition in their fight to depose the attorney general, and it came from his own mouth.
On Thursday's episode of Katie Phang News, legal analyst and trial attorney Katie Phang laid out how lawyers for 32 women suing the FBI are leaning on remarks Attorney General Todd Blanche made during a July 16 meeting with survivors.
According to the plaintiffs' court filing, Blanche twice acknowledged in that meeting that the bureau mishandled its Epstein investigation before 2007, at one point telling the survivors, "You got screwed over by the FBI, but I cannot fix the FBI's lack of investigation."
The lawsuit, now in federal court in the Southern District of Florida, accuses the FBI and the Justice Department of ignoring tips about Jeffrey Epstein's abuse for decades despite mandatory policies requiring action. Among those tips, the complaint alleges, were reports made in 1996 by artist and Epstein survivor Maria Farmer, which the bureau never acted on. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $320 million in damages.
The judge has limited discovery for now to a narrow question of whether the FBI had discretion to disregard those complaints. The survivors' lawyers argue Blanche's comments answer it, and they served him with a subpoena to sit for a deposition.
"If the FBI had discretion, then how did it fail to properly investigate?" Phang asked. "He's kind of proving the plaintiffs' case for them."
The Justice Department has moved to quash the survivors' subpoena of Blanche, citing the so-called apex doctrine, which shields top officials from depositions unless they hold unique personal knowledge that can't be found elsewhere.
The plaintiffs counter that Blanche is the only government employee who made those statements, and Phang noted the DOJ's motion skipped over the meeting entirely, even after the survivors' lawyers flagged it by email.
According to the plaintiffs, the government has also yet to produce a single designated witness to answer their questions about FBI policy, despite saying in October it was still trying to find one.
A hearing on the dispute took place Wednesday, and the judge had not yet ruled.
"Be mad, be outraged, demand accountability like these survivors are doing," Phang said. "They are brave. They are courageous."