Epstein Survivor Rips Todd Blanche After Epstein Victims Meeting: ‘We Were Gaslit’

Jess Michaels, a victim of convicted child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, accused Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche of gaslighting victims during a recent meeting.

Michaels joined MS NOW’s Alex Witt on Saturday to discuss the meeting between Blanche and Epstein survivors earlier this week.

Blanche had initially said during his Senate confirmation hearing that he couldn’t legally meet with survivors if they had legal representation.

Michaels said Blanche scrambled after public pressure from lawmakers — and he even tried passing off the meeting to his assistant:

It was very clear he was taking the meeting because he wants this promotion because initially what was passed off to us was meeting with his assistant and when we said no, he, he then scrambled and said, okay, well, I could be there before 2:00, but we had already left the Capitol and so we couldn’t get there before 2:00.

And we requested another meeting. And finally he agreed to personally meet with us at 4:30 in the afternoon on Thursday.

And I mean, I think his attempt at empathy and compassion really came off as patronizing and condescending. So I did not feel that he was a public servant there addressing crime victims that had that experienced horrific abuse.

The planned 30-minute meeting lasted more than two hours, but the two sides reached little consensus, Michaels said.

The only thing Blanche agreed with victims about was that the Department of Justice and FBI had previously  “botched” the initial Epstein investigation.

Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while behind bars, facing sex trafficking charges. Michaels said Blanche continually denied there is anything in files related to Epstein’s case that presents a lead that could be prosecuted with further investigation.

“He wouldn’t commit to any hope of for us,” she said.

Michaels said she and others felt “gaslit” during the meeting even though they felt they were presenting credible information that could be pursued by authorities.

“It felt like we were hitting a brick wall when we were trying to talk with him about — But what about this? But why can’t you look at that? You know, we were giving him information that he could have talked with us about, but we were gaslit. We were skipped over. It was frustrating, to say the least,” she said.

Watch above via MS NOW.

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