Jesse Watters Grills Bondi’s Replacement on Epstein: ‘You Don’t Think He Might’ve Been a Spy?’
Jesse Watters grilled newly minted Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on the Justice Department’s handling of its files on Jeffrey Epstein.
Blanche ascended to the post on Thursday after President Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi. The president had grown frustrated with the DOJ’s inability to successfully prosecute some of his political enemies, including former FBI Director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA).
Bondi had also drawn criticism over her handling of the Epstein case. In February 2025, claimed to have Epstein’s long-rumored client list, but later said there was no list. When Congress compelled the release of all of the DOJ’s material on Epstein, the department slow-walked releasing the files past the deadline mandated by law.
Blanche, who was previously Trump’s personal attorney, appeared on Thursday’s Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News, where the host asked about the Epstein files.
“Now, the Epstein files,” Watters said. “You’d agree – not handled well?”
“First of all, I have never heard President Trump say that the attorney general was– anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files,” Blanche replied. “And so, look, the Epstein files has been a saga that’s lasted for the past year. And what happened when the president signed the transparency act is that the Department of Justice has now released all the files with respect to the Epstein saga.”
Blanche’s contention that the DOJ has released all of its files on Epstein is not true, as far as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are concerned.
“So I think to the extent the Epstein files was a part of the past year of this Justice Department, it should not be a part of anything going forward,” the acting attorney general continued.
Watters then asked which country Epstein was spying for, leading to this exchange:
WATTERS: Ok, well, I mean, you’ve combed through these files, right? Who was Epstein spying for?
BLANCHE: Look, everything– I don’t know that he was spying for anybody. Nobody’s ever said that.
WATTERS: No? You don’t think he might’ve been a spy for a foreign country?
BLANCHE: I have no idea if he was a spy. All I know is that we don’t have any evidence in the Epstein files that the FBI collected over 15 years that suggest that, Jesse. I wasn’t– I don’t know. I wasn’t part of the original prosecution team. Neither was attorney general Bondi.
And I can tell you this. There’s only one president that’s held Mr. Epstein accountable and that’s Donald J. Trump. During his first administration, that was the administration that prosecuted him and during this administration it’s the administration that’s been totally transparent and released all the files. And no matter how much criticism people want to make about the Epstein files that is indisputable. It’s indisputable that nobody talked about the Epstein files for four years during Biden, four years. And so when President Trump said let’s release the Epstein files and the law was passed that allowed us to legally do it, we did it.
WATTERS: Ok. I’m not sure you totally get what people feel about that, but I wanna move on.
Earlier in the day. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) posited that Trump fired Bondi to prevent her from testifying about Epstein, a former friend of Trump’s, before the House Oversight Committee later this month.
In July, Blanche interviewed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who in 2021, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking. Maxwell told Blanche that she had never witnessed Trump engaging in illegal activity from Trump’s time as Epstein’s friend. After the interview, the Department of Justice transferred Maxwell to a lower security facility, where she receives custom meals and is allowed to play with dogs.
Watch above via Fox News.
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