Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday he supports public congressional hearings with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, a move that aligns the Justice Department, at least rhetorically, with mounting bipartisan pressure to bring the long-running Epstein files saga into the open.
Asked at the Semafor World Economy summit whether he would back the possibility of such hearings, Blanche answered simply: "Of course." He went further, insisting the DOJ has never turned its back on Epstein's victims.
The remarks, first reported by The Hill, came less than a week after House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer committed to holding public hearings with survivors. They also follow first lady Melania Trump's rare public call for Congress to give victims a platform, and a sharp rebuke from a group of survivors who say the government is shifting the burden onto them instead of holding the powerful accountable.
Blanche used the summit appearance to push back on the narrative that the department has moved on from the Epstein matter. He told the audience:
"We have said repeatedly from day one that if there's any victim that wants to come forward and talk about what they know, whether it's something that happened by Mr. Epstein, who's dead, or another individual or individuals, that's what the FBI does."
He added a broader acknowledgment that the country's frustration is justified:
"There's a lot of people in this country that correctly feel that we did not get closure with Jeffrey Epstein. I couldn't agree with that more."
That concession is notable given Blanche's own track record on the subject. He previously told Fox News that the Epstein matter "should not be part of anything going forward" at the department. On Wednesday, he denied ever making that statement, telling the audience, "I have never said we're moving on."
The contradiction is hard to miss. Either the acting attorney general misspoke to Fox News, or he misspoke at the summit. Either way, his shifting posture tracks with a broader pattern: the DOJ has been dragged, step by reluctant step, toward transparency on the Epstein files, rarely leading the way, almost always reacting to outside pressure.
The Epstein files controversy has dogged the Trump administration throughout the president's second term. Lawmakers and survivors have accused the DOJ of failing to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, House bill 4405, by flouting deadlines, withholding documents, overredacting released files, and in some cases exposing the identities of victims through botched redactions.
The department has released more than 3 million pages of documents, along with thousands of videos and images, as AP News reported. But critics from both parties say the roughly 6 million total documents tied to Epstein remain far from fully disclosed.
The political fallout has been severe. President Trump fired former Attorney General Pam Bondi at the start of the month, a decision that followed weeks of mounting tension over the department's handling of the case. Blanche, who served as Bondi's deputy, stepped into the acting role and immediately tried to distance himself from the issue, only to find that distance impossible to maintain.
Before Bondi's departure, she and Blanche went to Capitol Hill for a closed-door briefing with House Oversight Committee members. That session ended badly. Democratic lawmakers walked out, accusing the DOJ of stonewalling. Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost said bluntly, "We want her under oath because we do not trust her," the Washington Times reported.
The Republican-led committee had already subpoenaed Bondi for a sworn deposition, scheduled for April 14, over allegations the department withheld files and mishandled redactions. Five Republicans joined Democrats in supporting the enforcement effort, a sign of how deeply bipartisan the frustration runs.
Rep. Nancy Mace put it plainly: "We moved to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi because the Department of Justice has not complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. They claim all files have been released. The facts say otherwise," she said, as Fox News reported.
A DOJ spokesperson countered that the subpoena was "completely unnecessary," noting lawmakers had been invited to view unredacted files at the department. That offer came in February, when the DOJ announced it would allow members of Congress to review unredacted Epstein documents in person, a partial concession that the New York Post reported came only after sustained congressional pressure.
Rep. Ro Khanna captured the dynamic on social media: "When Congress pushes back, Congress can prevail." That's a fair summary. The DOJ has moved on transparency only when forced.
At an earlier briefing, Blanche himself told lawmakers, "I do defend the work that this department is doing today, right now, which is going after every single perpetrator anyway, and if there is a narrative that exists that we are ignoring Epstein victims, that is false." His words on Wednesday echoed that defense, but the record of missed deadlines, flawed redactions, and forced concessions tells a different story.
Last week, first lady Melania Trump made rare remarks at the White House urging Congress to hold hearings "specifically centered around the survivors." She also denied any relationship with Epstein or his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, calling reports suggesting she knew them and that Epstein introduced her to her husband "lies."
A day later, Chairman Comer said the committee had "always planned" to hold public hearings with Epstein's victims once it concluded its depositions. The timing suggested the first lady's public push gave the committee political cover to formalize what had been an open question.
A watchdog complaint had already alleged the DOJ excluded communications involving Bondi, Blanche, and FBI Director Kash Patel from the Epstein document release, adding fuel to suspicions that the department was managing its own exposure rather than pursuing full disclosure.
But not everyone welcomed the prospect of survivors testifying on Capitol Hill. A group of Epstein survivors issued a joint statement last week pushing back hard against the idea. They accused the government of "shifting the burden onto survivors under politicized conditions that protect those with power."
Their statement continued:
"Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have already shown extraordinary courage by coming forward, filing reports, and giving public testimony. Asking more of them now is a deflection of responsibility, not justice."
That criticism deserves serious weight. These are people who suffered at the hands of Epstein and his network. They have cooperated with law enforcement. They have testified. And now they are being asked to perform again, this time on a congressional stage, while the institutions that were supposed to protect them continue to fumble basic document compliance.
The question hanging over all of this is not whether survivors should testify. It is whether the institutions tasked with investigating Epstein's network, the DOJ, the FBI, Congress, are doing their jobs. Members of the president's own party have expressed no confidence in the department's handling of the case.
Blanche says the FBI stands ready to hear from any victim who wants to come forward. Fine. But the survivors' statement raises an uncomfortable point: the government already has their testimony, their reports, their cooperation. What it hasn't produced is a clear accounting of who else was involved in Epstein's operation and why the investigation into his network, and Maxwell's, has yielded so few prosecutions beyond the two central figures.
Public hearings could help. Sunlight has a way of forcing answers that closed-door briefings and redacted document dumps do not. But hearings are only as good as the questions asked and the willingness of the committee to follow the evidence wherever it leads, including into uncomfortable territory for people in both parties.
Blanche's endorsement of public hearings is a step. Whether it reflects a genuine shift in the DOJ's posture or simply another reactive concession under political pressure remains to be seen. His own contradictory statements, telling Fox News the matter should not be part of anything going forward, then denying he ever said it, do not inspire confidence that the department has found a steady hand on this file.
The acting attorney general faces scrutiny from multiple directions, and his credibility on the Epstein question will depend entirely on what the DOJ does next, not on what Blanche says at summits.
Survivors deserve more than hearings. They deserve a government that does its job without being shamed into it.
