Blanche: ‘False’ to say DOJ ignoring Epstein victims

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday dismissed any suggestion victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been ignored by the Justice Department (DOJ), again offering a full-throated defense of the Trump administration’s handling of the investigation.

“When I hear this narrative that we are letting down victims or that we are failing victims, I want to make sure that people know that every day we fight for victims,” Blanche said during an interview with podcaster Katie Miller, the wife of top White House aide Stephen Miller.

“I’m not trying to defend Epstein,” he added later. “I do defend the work that this department is doing today, right now, which is going after every single perpetrator anywhere. And if there’s a narrative that exists that we’re ignoring Epstein victims, that is false.”

The podcast was released the same day as the House Oversight Committee formally subpoenaed Attorney General Pam Bondi to sit for a deposition next month.

The DOJ has faced repeated questions over how transparent it has been about its probe into files related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell since the administration released its first batch of documents in December.

Many Democrats and some Republicans have raised concerns about potentially missing or undisclosed information, as well as “unnecessary” redactions in the millions of pages released since.

Blanche, who declared in early February that the department’s review was finished, denied there were additional files related to Epstein in the DOJ’s possession.

“There’s a narrative that there’s three million pages that are being held back. They have nothing to do with Epstein,” he said, claiming the department “over-collected” information after the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law.  

“Every single page in the entire Justice Department and FBI that has anything to do with Jeffrey Epstein has been produced unless there was legal reason to redact it,” Blanche added.

Miller also pressed Blanche on the perceived lack of accountability for those who may have been involved in the disgraced financier’s crimes.

She questioned him about why prosecutions were being pursued in places such as the United Kingdom, referencing the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but not in the U.S.

“Well, because you need provable evidence, and so what I can do as deputy attorney general is invite anybody with evidence to come to the FBI and tell us,” the deputy attorney general explained.

Mountbatten-Windsor, formally Prince Andrew, was charged with suspicion of misconduct last month, likely related to allegations that he shared confidential information with Epstein while serving as a trade envoy.

Former U.K. Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson is also facing charges in connection with his relationship with Epstein. Both men have denied any criminal wrongdoing.

Blanche also addressed several popular right-wing conspiracy theories that have emerged as part of the Epstein saga, including that the financier — whose 2019 death was ruled a suicide — was a foreign intelligence asset.

He said the administration has uncovered “no evidence” to support that theory.

“The evidence that people say exists does not point to him being any part of foreign intelligence,” the No. 2 DOJ official continued. “Now, as I will say repeatedly, I did not know Epstein. I was not part of those investigations, so I’m answering your question based upon what I know, based upon what my investigation as a deputy attorney general for the past eleven months or so.”

“But from what I’ve seen in the files and from what I understand happened during all the investigations, there’s zero evidence of that,” he said.

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