US Politics
Rep rips Trump’s DOJ for ‘taking good care of Ghislaine Maxwell’ while ignoring Epstein victims
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Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified to members of Congress last week that he has met with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, along with “many” of their lawyers.
But more than a dozen survivors say they’ve never talked to him or his predecessor Pam Bondi, while other survivors said his sworn testimony “strains credulity.”
Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman has now accused Blanche of shielding the dead sex offenders’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell while ignoring survivors who have repeatedly called for a meeting with the Department of Justice to investigate Epstein’s alleged network of powerful abusers, underscoring the growing strain between Donald Trump’s administration and survivors who feel as if they’ve been cast aside.
Blanche is “taking good care of Ghislaine Maxwell, who is an absolutely treacherous human being, but will not meet with the other survivors who want to tell their story,” Goldman said in a video on social media Sunday.
“Why? Well, it’s obvious. It is a massive, massive coverup,” he said.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of recruiting and grooming young women and girls for Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges.
In October, the Supreme Court declined to review whether prosecutors fairly brought a case against her. With all her appeals exhausted, Maxwell filed a petition for her release from prison in December, claiming that “substantial new evidence has emerged” in her case.
Blanche interviewed Maxwell from prison in July 2025 as part of the Justice Department’s review of the so-called Epstein files — and she was then transferred to a minimum-security women’s prison in Texas.
She has refused to voluntarily testify to Congress without assurances that she can receive some form of clemency. President Donald Trump and some House Republicans have not unequivocally rejected the idea of a presidential pardon, but Blanche said last week that he has “ruled out” recommending one.
Epstein’s former personal assistant Sarah Kellen testified in Congress last week in a closed-door deposition, during which she described years of abuse, according to Goldman.
“Victims want to tell their stories and they’re not being allowed to,” he said.
In a brittle exchange with Sen. Chris Van Hollen during Blanche’s testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, the Maryland Democrat said Epstein survivors are “extremely frustrated that you keep calling for people to come forward with more evidence, but you have not met with them to hear their stories.”
“So simple question: If I connect you with these survivors, will you meet with them?” he asked.
Blanche said would “absolutely” meet with other survivors and accused the senator of spreading “bad information.”
“What you just said is false. I have met with them. I’ve met with many of the lawyers for the survivors of victims, as did Attorney General Bondi,” Blanche said May 19.
“We absolutely care for victims and we absolutely wanna hear from them and their lawyers,” he said.
A group of 18 survivors said Blanche has not met with any of them.
“As survivors, we previously sought a meeting with former Attorney General Bondi and Department of Justice officials, but no meeting occurred,” they said in a statement shared with The Independent.
“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,” they said.
“The burden is not on us to keep making reports,” they added. “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.”
Given Blanche’s latest remarks, the survivors are again asking the Justice Department to “meet directly with survivors and their counsel — not to ask survivors to start over, but to hear their concerns, explain how these failures occurred, and provide clear answers about the release, redaction, and withholding of Epstein-related records going forward.”
Annie Farmer, who was 16 when she first met Epstein, said she and her sister Maria Farmer have yet to receive “any outreach” from Blanche’s office.
After reaching out to federal prosecutors who secured Maxwell’s conviction about Blanche’s meeting, Annie Farmer said she was only met with “silence” and the news of her prison transfer.
“Blanche’s suggestion that survivors reach out to the Department of Justice to re-report the crimes committed against them is beyond insulting,” she said in a statement shared with The Independent.
“Many of us have already done that, repeatedly,” she said.
Annie and Maria Farmer said they “welcome” Blanche’s statement that he would not recommend a pardon for Maxwell.
“We will hold him to it,” Annie Farmer said. “And we ask that he make the same commitment regarding not recommending the commutation of her sentence either.”
The Independent has requested comment from the Justice Department.