I'm an Epstein survivor. Todd Blanche isn't fit to be Trump's AG.

More than 20 years ago, when I was a 17-year-old aspiring ballerina in New York City, I met Jeffrey Epstein.

My mother was seriously ill, and I was young and scared. Epstein recognized that vulnerability and exploited it. He presented himself as someone who could help, then used my age, dreams and my family's circumstances to manipulate and sexually abuse me.

For years, I carried what happened largely on my own. Then other survivors of Epstein's trafficking network began coming forward, and I found hope in knowing that I was not alone. Over time, our individual stories grew into a movement demanding accountability. That movement helped lead to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which we believed would finally expose the full scope of Epstein's crimes and the people who enabled them.

What happened instead was alarming. The Department of Justice released survivors' names and other personally identifying information. This included nude images that showed young women – possibly teenagers – with their faces visible. My name, phone number, former addresses, where I worked and studied at the time and accounts of abuse were all made public.

At the same time, the names of alleged abusers, enablers and other powerful people connected to Epstein remained hidden throughout the files. The redactions were so extensive that a federal judge ordered the DOJ to explain them or remove them.

Just as alarming, more than a thousand women and girls were abused, yet no one beyond Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell has been prosecuted. Rather than pursuing leads beyond his interview with Maxwell or prosecuting anyone else, then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche appears to have been huddled in the White House Situation Room helping manage the political and public relations fallout from the release of the Epstein files.

Rushed meeting shows Todd Blanche doesn't care about Epstein survivors

Taken together, these failures paint a deeply troubling picture. Former Attorney General Pam Bondi testified to a congressional committee that Blanche was in charge of the Epstein files release. These failures fall on his shoulders.

Now, Blanche is up for a promotion to attorney general, the country's top law enforcement officer.

During my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 16, I told senators that Blanche had refused my repeated requests for a meeting for nearly nine months. Although he has said he met with representatives of 30 accusers, he did not meet with me or any of the survivors I know.

During that same period, he met with Maxwell for nine hours before she was moved to a low-security prison. In his own testimony, Blanche claimed there was no evidence to support additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell, despite the investigative leads, survivor testimony and other records already contained in the files.

After my testimony, Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, seemed moved. He said he could not support Blanche's confirmation until Blanche met with survivors directly.

Only then did Blanche's team scramble to arrange a meeting, as my fellow survivors and I – exhausted from days of travel and advocacy – were preparing to leave Washington. We rearranged our schedules and hurried to make sure our lawyers could attend.

The meeting that followed was, by any honest account, a box-checking exercise to secure Tillis' vote. Blanche offered no meaningful explanation for how the redaction failures happened, who approved the release or what steps he would take to prevent survivors from being exposed again. He made no commitment to investigate or prosecute anyone beyond Epstein and Maxwell.

Americans deserve an attorney general who believes in accountability

Instead, we were told to take our information to the FBI. We have already done that. Survivors have reported what happened, provided evidence and retold the most painful experiences of our lives to law enforcement for decades.

Telling us to start over was not a plan for accountability. There was no attempt to work with us. It was another way to dismiss us.

Today, I am a teacher and a mother. I would not find Blanche's refusal to take accountability acceptable in my students or my child. The American people should not find it acceptable in the man seeking the highest law enforcement position in the country.

The country deserves an attorney general who listens to survivors, holds predators accountable and keeps their children safe. Blanche has shown us that he is not that person.

Tillis asked Blanche to meet with us because the senator understood that survivors deserved answers. We met with him in good faith, but he did not do the same. A meeting alone cannot become a substitute for accountability, and checking a box should not be enough to secure the senator's vote.

My message to Tillis is simple. If you hoped Blanche would offer survivors real accountability by meeting with us, he did not. If you hoped this meeting would resolve our concerns, it did not. And if your support for his confirmation depends on his ability to treat survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault with honesty and respect, then you - and every senator – should vote no on Blanche for attorney general.

Danielle Bensky is a Jeffrey Epstein survivor, public advocate and speaker fighting for government transparency, victim accountability and legislative reform in sex trafficking cases.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: I'm an Epstein survivor. Todd Blanche isn't fit to be Trump's AG.

Reporting by Danielle Bensky, Opinion contributor / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 23, 2026 at 3:06 AM.