Jeffrey Epstein survivors are flatly rejecting Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's suggestion that he met with them — calling out the Trump DOJ chief just hours after his combative Senate testimony Tuesday.
"Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has not met with any of us," the group said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Blanche made the assertion during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, where Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) hammered him over the DOJ's release of unredacted victim names, photos, and personal information in the Epstein files.
"Will you apologize to the victims whose names, sensitive personal information, and even nude photos were not redacted by your department?" Murray demanded.
"Of course," Blanche replied. "We never want to release a victim's name."
But survivors say Blanche's claim of meeting with them is simply false — and that getting the DOJ to take them seriously has been a years-long uphill fight.
"As survivors, we previously sought a meeting with former Attorney General Bondi and Department of Justice officials, but no meeting occurred," the group said. "We should not have to be this persistent to engage with DOJ — the department responsible for handling the Epstein files, protecting their privacy, and answering for years of secrecy and failure."
The survivors said they have already reported abuse and allegations involving Epstein and his associates to the FBI and federal authorities "many times over the course of years."
"We should not be asked to relive their trauma again and again because the system failed to act," they said. "The burden is not on us to keep making reports. It is on the DOJ to investigate credible allegations against perpetrators and co-conspirators, and to account for the government's mishandling of these matters."
Blanche has been under fire for months over the DOJ's handling of the Epstein files, including blanket redactions in some places and failures to redact survivors' identities in others. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) has separately accused Blanche of intervening to block the DEA from releasing a key 2015 memo on Epstein-linked drug trafficking.
Now, survivors say it's time for the DOJ to stop dodging and sit down with them directly — not to start over, but to "explain how these failures occurred, and provide clear answers about the release, redaction, and withholding of Epstein-related records going forward."
