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A victim of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein lamented Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) Tuesday vote to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general.
“There’s always a glimmer of hope that somebody will do the right thing,” Dani Bensky told MS NOW’s Mychael Schnell. “And I was really hoping that it would be John Cornyn, to be honest, because he has been such a great advocate and proponent for putting those who have abused and… [organized] sex trafficking rings away.”
“And so, to see that this is how he’s going to end his career and his legacy, it’s really depressing,” Bensky continued.
Earlier Tuesday, Cornyn joined all 11 of his GOP colleagues in advancing Blanche’s nomination from the Senate Judiciary Committee to the full floor of the upper chamber.
The Texas Republican, along with fellow Judiciary panel member Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), did not support Blanche’s confirmation until the acting attorney general on Sunday formally rescinded the $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund the Justice Department (DOJ) created and backed down from earlier this year.
In explaining his vote, Cornyn said the written document addresses the “concerns” him and Tillis had about the fund — which the DOJ formed as part of a settlement in President Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS.
Trump, his children and their businesses still have immunity from future IRS probes, another tenet of the settlement. The president also did not sign off on Blanche’s memo rescinding the fund, which Cornyn had previously noted could allow Trump to sue to revive it.
Victims of Epstein’s crimes have blasted Blanche and former Attorney General Pam Bondi for their handling of files related to the probes of the late sex offender.
Survivors have criticized the DOJ for delays in releasing those files in accordance with federal law, the redactions within the documents and the publicizing of information about and photos of victims.
While Blanche met with a group of Epstein victims last month, at the urging of Tillis, one woman said the meeting was unproductive.
“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,” Jess Michaels told MS NOW’s Alex Witt last month.
Bensky on Tuesday added to the criticism of Blanche, saying the DOJ “committed its own crime” during the release of the Epstein files.
“Nude photos were released,” she told Schnell. “All of our information was out and there exposed, and there’s just no accountability for that.”
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