Tr*mp pick Todd Blanche thought he had his Attorney General nomination in the bag. But after he admitted last week that “mistakes were made” on the Epstein front, not to mention that training tape bombshell, he’s facing a host of controversy around the once-secure nomination. Last week, Senator Thom Tillis told Blanche that he wouldn’t hand over his vote until Blanche met with Epstein survivors protesting his nomination. Blanche did so, treating the victims with condescension and disdain.
Today, a new Epstein ghost has risen to remind Tillis and other Republicans of exactly what’s at stake should Blanche be confirmed.
On Wednesday, in the midst of an already-embattled hearing process, family members of Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre released a letter urging Tillis to stand his ground and refuse to confirm Blanche. The letter was also addressed to senator John Cornyn, a Republican who has also pushed back against several Tr*mp nominations this week in an effort to protect PEPFAR’s emergency HIV funds from being gutted by the president.
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Guiffre ended her own life in 2025. Her posthumously published memoir Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, details her abuse and exploitation by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell after being poached from Tr*mp’s Mar-a-Lago spa, where she was groomed by the predators and ultimately sold to powerful men when still a minor.
Guiffre’s surviving family, along with two dozen more Epstein survivors, ask Cornyn and Tillis—without whose votes Blanche’s confirmation cannot survive—to remember their daughter’s legacy and the Epstein survivors exposed by Blanche’s sloppy handling of the files.
“Plain and simple,” the letter says, “Todd Blanche is bad for the business of justice.”
The letter goes into detail about how Blanche treated the survivors Tillis forced him to meet with last Thursday.
“Mr. Blanche had an opportunity to show leaderhsip, humility, and accountability. Instead, when he finally met with us after nine months of requests, he deflected questions, denied the existence of meaninful leads, pushed responsibility onto the FBI, and treated survivors and Virginia’s family as though we were a political obligation rather than people who deserved answers.”
The family goes on to tell Tillis that while they’re grateful that he forced Blanche to take the meeting, it was clear to them that Blanche only complied because he needs Tillis’s vote. In a different world, with Lindsey Graham still alive and Mitch McConnell well enough to participate in the vote, Blanche would have been confirmed by now. Luckily, that’s not the case.
Throughout the confirmation hearing, Tillis and Cornyn have been the only Republicans in a weakened majority to hold Blanche’s feet to the fire concerning the Epstein files. Though Cornyn initially voted against forcing the DOJ to release the files last year, he’s been unexpectedly vocal in the matter of Blanche’s confirmation in light of the ongoing scandal.
Whatever happens with Blanche’s confirmation, Epstein survivors will continue to raise hell and hold the GOP and Tr*mp’s DOJ to account.
“What message does it send,” the letter asks, “when survivors are exposed, preadtors remain protected, and failure is rewarded with power?”
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