CNN Legal Chief Destroys Trump DOJ Honcho Over Epstein Victims Amid Closed-Door Grilling

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig torched Trump Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over his department’s treatment of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims ahead of a closed-door grilling on Capitol Hill.

Blanche was a guest on Katie Miller’s podcast on Tuesday night, the eve of his briefing with lawmakers.

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchor Kate Bolduan played the part of the interview in which Blanche defended the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein Files.

Honig responded to the clip with a scathing assessment:

BOLDUAN: Today, Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche are set to meet with the House Oversight Committee for a closed-door briefing on the Epstein files. That’s not even 24 hours after the committee slapped her with a new subpoena. The committee wants the attorney general to appear next month to testify about DOJ’s handling of the Epstein investigation.

Republican committee chairman James Comer wrote in the cover letter for the subpoena that the committee thinks Bondi has “valuable insight into the Epstein investigation” and that they want a chance “to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking.”

Ahead of all of this, her deputy, Todd Blanche, is defending the department’s moves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, DEPUTY U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I am not trying to defend Epstein — I’m not. And 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining me right now is CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig to talk more about this.

First, what do you — what do you think of what Todd Blanche is saying there?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Well Kate, it’s interesting to hear DOJ congratulate itself on its commitment to protecting victims when the fact is first of all, dozens of victims have said publicly that they’ve asked for meetings with DOJ leadership and been denied.

Yet at the same time, the same deputy AG, Todd Blanche, who we just saw, spent two days meeting face-to-face in prison with Ghislaine Maxwell who then promptly was moved to a lower-security prison. Many of the victims have expressed objections to that.

Also, let’s remember DOJ, in its release of the Epstein files over the last several months, has — perhaps inadvertently but has released inexcusably victim-identifying information, which has compromised the safety and privacy of those victims.

So that’s something that I think the attorney general and deputy attorney general will need to answer for, as well in front of the committee behind closed doors today and when Pam Bondi, if she testifies, in a few weeks.

Watch above via CNN News Central.

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