By Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff
WASHINGTON, July 16 (Reuters) – Republican Senator Thom Tillis, a key vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Thursday he would not vote to advance President Trump’s nominee for attorney general unless the nominee, Todd Blanche, meets with victims of Jeffrey Epstein and their lawyers.
Blanche likely cannot advance without Tillis’ vote.
“I expect that meeting to occur before I’m willing to vote out of this committee,” Tillis said during the second day of Blanche’s confirmation hearing to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer. “I’m trying to get to yes, but this is a very important part of getting yes.”
Tillis is one of two key Republican senators threatening to derail Blanche’s confirmation. Democrats on the committee have pledged to uniformly oppose Blanche, which means the acting attorney general cannot afford to lose even one Republican lawmaker.
A group of Epstein survivors have said they requested meetings with Blanche for months but have not heard back. Blanche said Wednesday a deputy could meet with lawyers for Epstein survivors as soon as “today,” but said he could not meet with them directly.
One of the survivors, Dani Bensky, testified on Thursday that the group of survivors had not yet heard from the Justice Department about a possible meeting.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the first day of his confirmation hearing, Blanche, who is the acting attorney general, faced difficult questioning and criticism from Democrats and some Republicans over the Department of Justice’s rollout of the Epstein files, which left some victims’ names and photos unredacted. Lawmakers also grilled Blanche on the creation of a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and resolution that gave Trump and his associates broad tax-audit immunity.
Both of those deals emerged from a settlement agreement over a $10 billion lawsuit Trump brought against the IRS.
The fund and the tax immunity resolution drew bipartisan fury, as lawmakers argued both were an effort to enrich Trump and his allies. In the wake of the backlash, Blanche told lawmakers the fund was dead, but he has since declined to kill the fund in writing.
Republican Senator John Cornyn told Reuters on Wednesday he was still weighing his vote because it was not clear to him the fund had really been abandoned.
(Reporting by Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff; Editing by Alistair Bell)
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