Annie Farmer, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein, said she had a forced meeting with Todd Blanche, which only happened after Senator Thom Tillis made it a requirement for moving his attorney general nomination forward.The meeting didn’t help answer the many questions she had for Blanche.
Farmer said Blanche wasn’t convincing when it came to caring about the case or wanting to do better.
She told reporters, “He was not at all convincing that he cares about this, about doing better in this case.”
Farmer, who testified against Epstein and has been fighting for accountability for survivors for years, said her disappointment with the meeting only made her more determined to speak out against Blanche’s confirmation.
She called the meeting “rushed and reluctant from the start.”
The meeting happened because Senator Thom Tillis made it a condition for moving Blanche’s confirmation as the permanent U.S.
attorney general.Farmer said she felt Blanche was only meeting them because he had no choice.
Survivors had waited a long time to meet with someone at Blanche’s level and came prepared with serious questions.
Instead, they were met with defensiveness and no real answers.
Blanche initially said he was there to listen, but survivors found that unsatisfying because they were looking for information and reassurance from one of the most powerful people in the Justice Department.
As the meeting went on, Farmer said frustration grew more and more.
“I think he could have done such a better job of meeting the moment, meeting those feelings, expressing empathy in a way that was believable and authentic,” she said.
But instead, she said, Blanche came across as defensive and dismissive.
Farmer is someone who helped bring light to Epstein’s sex trafficking operations and has spent years helping victims.
Survivors hoped the meeting would be a rare chance to talk directly to the head of the Justice Department, but it instead made them more worried about how the case is being handled.
After finally getting a chance to speak with one of the most powerful officials in the Trump Justice Department, Farmer left feeling that he doesn’t care enough about the case.
Todd Blanche clearly only supports Donald Trump and not the U.S.
Constitution.
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