Epstein survivor Jess Michaels says Trump’s nominated attorney general Todd Blanche is still utterly committed to representing President Donald Trump over justice for victims of convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
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“The short answer is [‘m] disappointed,” Michaels told MS NOW anchor Nicole Wallace on Friday, while describing a meeting with the acting attorney general at the Department of Justice. “This seems par for the course. The way we were treated yesterday was no different than any other time. We were hoping it would be something different, and it was not.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) demanded Blanche meet with victims earlier this week as Blanche seeks Senate confirmation as the permanent U.S. attorney general. But Michaels said Blanche delivered the very minimum in the meeting, and even told victims that they were back on square one in terms of prosecuting Epstein’s cohorts involved with his sex-trafficking network.
“He was patronizing. It felt very much like the attempt to appear empathetic, and it came off as condescending and patronizing,” said Michaels. “It did not come off as ‘you are victims of a crime, and I can assure you we would never want harm like this to happen to anyone. And we’re on top of it.’ No, that’s not what happened. He very clearly stated that there was nothing to see in the files. And if there was going to be anything investigated, we were going to have to do the legwork. We’re going to have to go back to the FBI, share our stories again.”
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According to Michaels, Blanche advised victims to bring the files and ‘point out to FBI agents’ where they should start. She added that Blanche expressed no remorse for refusing to meet with victims prior to Tillis’ requirement.
“There was no remorse for any of the damage that was done. There was no remorse when we brought up that ‘we’ve been trying to talk to you for … nine months to tell you there are important files that should be looked at. There are plenty of investigative leads. Even when Annie [Farmer] said, ‘hey, I know that my sister’s report is missing part of the pages. Will you do an investigation?’ He said, ‘no,’ there was not going to be any further investigations and we had to go through proper channels, that now we had to go back to the FBI, or we could talk to this other specialist. But basically, he wanted us to start all over again.”
It was only recently that US District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan forced Blanche to open the files by siding with former MS NOW show host Katie Phang in her lawsuit demanding the Trump administration adhere to the word of the Epstein Transparency Act. Up until then, Blanche — who served as Trump’s private defense attorney before Trump appointed him over the DOJ — had refused without explanation to release names redacted from emails and documents that reference potentially damning videos and allegations of abuse of minors.
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