Epstein survivor criticizes Blanche, calls meeting 'a performative move'

Geoff Bennett:

The U.S. Senate is weighing President Trump's nomination of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to lead the Justice Department, as questions continue over the administration's handling of legal investigations into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It comes days after Blanche met privately with several survivors of Epstein's abuse.

Our justice correspondent, Ali Rogin, spoke with a survivor who attended that meeting.

Ali Rogin:

Geoff, the meeting came as Blanche works to win Senate confirmation while facing continued questions about the Justice Department's handling of the Epstein case.

Politico is reporting today the White House is now actively lobbying two Republican senators seen as potential holdouts, Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, to support the nomination. A group of survivors who met with Blanche Thursday wrote an open letter to those senators today, urging them to vote against Blanche, calling their meeting with him -- quote -- "an hour of deflection, interruption, and gaslighting."

Joining me now is Liz Stein, one of the survivors who met with Blanche on Thursday.

Liz, thank you so much for being here. Welcome back to the "News Hour."

Liz Stein, Jeffrey Epstein Survivor:

Thanks for having me.

Ali Rogin:

This meeting came on the urging of Senator Tillis, who said it was a condition of his yes-vote. What was the takeaway for yourself and your fellow survivors?

Liz Stein:

Well, I think that when Senator Tillis asked Todd Blanche to meet with us, I think that he wanted it to be a substantive meeting, and that's not what it was at all.

I don't know if we had extremely high hopes going into the meeting, but we really met Todd Blanche in hopes to work with him. We have been more than willing to work with the Department of Justice. We have been requesting meetings for months with Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice, and we have gotten nowhere until last week.

And it feels to us that it was a bit of a performative move so he could check a box for his promotion.

Ali Rogin:

Can you expand on that a little bit? What about it made you come away with that impression?

Liz Stein:

Well, like I said, we went into the meeting really in earnest looking to work with Todd Blanche in the Department of Justice. We went into the meeting with an agenda, questions that we had that we wanted answered.

And when we got into the meeting, we didn't receive any answers to any of the questions that we were asking. He talked around the subjects that we were trying to press him on, and we couldn't really get him to commit to anything.

I think that if Todd Blanche even offered us the slightest bit of an olive branch, we would have been satisfied with that, but it just felt like more of the same over and over again. Earlier this year, when Pam Bondi testified and refused to acknowledge that we were in the room, that sent a really strong message to us about what the DOJ thinks of us as victims of crime, and our meeting with Blanche only reiterated those feelings for me.

Ali Rogin:

What were some of the questions or the action items that you came in with that you felt went unanswered or unacknowledged?

Liz Stein:

We couldn't get a real clear answer on the redaction process, how it was handled, why we saw over and over survivors' names and information being released, while we simultaneously were seeing perpetrators' information redacted.

We did find out from Todd Blanche that there were over 800 individuals who were reviewing these files, but they were reviewing them for redactions only. They were not looking for additional investigative leads. They weren't looking to put pieces of the puzzle together. They were merely just looking at names.

That's concerning to us. There were 800 eyes on these files, and they were doing nothing but just looking for redactions, instead of information? Feels like a waste of time.

Ali Rogin:

You and your fellow survivors have called for the Department of Justice to follow up on the investigative leads revealed in these documents. Did acting Attorney General Blanche acknowledge that at all? Was there any movement on that?

Liz Stein:

There wasn't. And that, I think, was really concerning to us, because, when we look at the Epstein files, we can see investigative leads on almost every page, but the DOJ isn't interested.

And I need people to remember that there's been so much political emotion infused into what is a case about sex trafficking. This is a crime. And it's beyond concerning that our Department of Justice doesn't want to follow investigative leads in what is quite possibly the largest international sex trafficking ring we have ever seen.

Ali Rogin:

Given how badly this meeting went, according to the recounting of yourself and your fellow survivors, do you think Senator Tillis' vote should be conditioned on more than the fact that the meeting took place?

Liz Stein:

I think that Tillis wanted us to have a substantive meeting with Todd Blanche, and that's not what happened.

And Senator Tillis is a businessman, right? And if he was looking at the Department of Justice the way that he would look at any other business enterprise, Todd Blanche has not shown the leadership to be the head of the Department of Justice.

And I think that Senator Tillis and Cornyn really need to consider what Todd Blanche's record has been in regards to the Epstein case and how we were treated by the Department of Justice just last week.

Ali Rogin:

If Todd Blanche is confirmed as attorney general, how do you hope the DOJ proceeds when it comes to Epstein?

Liz Stein:

We have heard Todd Blanche say over and over and over again that there are no investigative leads, that, for as much as the Epstein saga has been a part of culture in the past year, it shouldn't be part of anything going forward.

In the release of these files, there were survivors who were Jane Does and had never, ever thought that they would ever have to be public. Yet they were thrown into the spotlight. People that they work with friends, family are now reading the most intimate details of these women's lives.

There's one survivor named Roza who came out and testified publicly in Palm Beach and said that she had been exposed more than 500 times. I don't know how anyone could look at that as a mistake. The Department of Justice is really not treating us with respect that crime victims should be treated, and it begs the question why.

Ali Rogin:

Liz Stein, survivor and advocate, thank you so much for joining us.

Liz Stein:

Thanks.