An Epstein survivor called Sen. John Cornyn's vote to advance Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination "really depressing", accusing the outgoing Texas senator of abandoning his record on prosecuting sex traffickers.
Dani Bensky, who identifies as a victim of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, made the remarks Tuesday after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines to send Blanche's nomination to the full Senate floor. Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina had been the last two Republican holdouts, withholding support for weeks over a separate dispute involving a $1.776 billion fund created by the Department of Justice. Both senators dropped their opposition after the acting attorney general formally rescinded that fund on Sunday.
Bensky told MSNBC's Mychael Schnell that she had hoped Cornyn would block Blanche's advancement, given the senator's past advocacy for prosecuting sex trafficking rings. Instead, she said, Cornyn folded once his concerns about the DOJ fund were addressed, leaving Epstein survivors without a champion on the committee.
Bensky did not hold back about her disappointment:
"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."
The criticism lands at a complicated moment for Cornyn, who is finishing out his final Senate term after losing the Texas Republican primary runoff to Ken Paxton. Trump had endorsed Paxton over Cornyn in that race, and the political backdrop colored the entire confirmation fight.
Cornyn and Tillis had refused to support Blanche for weeks, but their objections had nothing to do with Epstein. Both senators focused on the so-called "anti-weaponization" fund, a $1.776 billion pot of money the DOJ created as part of a settlement in President Trump's lawsuit against the IRS. The fund had drawn bipartisan scrutiny, and Cornyn raised concerns that Trump had not personally signed off on the memo rescinding it, which could have allowed a future legal challenge to revive the money.
The breakthrough came Sunday, when Blanche formally rescinded the fund in writing, stating it "shall have no force or effect," the New York Post reported. Blanche also agreed to limit the scope of audit protection to only the original lawsuit plaintiffs. Trump, his children, and their businesses still retain immunity from future IRS probes under a separate provision of the settlement.
Cornyn explained his reversal in measured terms. "Given this agreement with Mr. Blanche, I expect the Department to live up to this in future litigation, and I will vote to advance him out of the committee today," he said, adding that his vote "goes beyond this document: We need a stabilizing force at the Department of Justice."
Trump himself had publicly acknowledged that Cornyn's hold was likely motivated by the senator's frustration over Trump's endorsement of Paxton. "Todd Blanche is a very, very good man, and he shouldn't be in the middle of this. He should get approved because you will never get anybody like him," Trump said.
That political dynamic, a lame-duck senator using his committee leverage after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger, had raised the stakes around the nomination for months. Trump had even considered pulling Blanche's nomination entirely to sidestep the holdout before the deal materialized.
For Bensky and other Epstein survivors, the anti-weaponization fund was never the point. Their grievance centers on how the DOJ, under both former Attorney General Pam Bondi and now Blanche, has handled the release of files from federal probes into Epstein's sex trafficking operation.
Bensky accused the DOJ of releasing nude photographs of victims and exposing their personal information during the file release process. She characterized the department's conduct as having "committed its own crime."
"Nude photos were released. All of our information was out and there exposed, and there's just no accountability for that."
Blanche met with a group of Epstein victims last month at the urging of Sen. Tillis. But another survivor, Jess Michaels, described the meeting as unproductive. She told MSNBC that the victims tried to share information with Blanche and felt dismissed.
"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."
Bensky framed the broader situation as a failure of accountability. She said she held out hope that at least one senator would use the confirmation process to press Blanche on the Epstein file handling. "There's always a glimmer of hope that somebody will do the right thing," she said.
With the committee vote behind him, Blanche now faces a full Senate confirmation vote. He has been serving as acting attorney general since April, and the 12-10 committee tally reflected a straight party-line split, every Republican voted to advance, and every Democrat voted against.
The floor vote may not be a formality. Fox News reported that Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins, John Curtis, and Bill Cassidy remain undecided. With Sen. Mitch McConnell absent due to injury, Blanche can afford to lose only two Republican votes. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana predicted Blanche would be confirmed, telling reporters simply, "He'll be confirmed."
Cornyn's decision to vote yes removed the most immediate obstacle. But it also closed the door on what Epstein survivors saw as their best remaining leverage point inside the Republican caucus. Cornyn had built a reputation over his Senate career as a champion of legislation targeting sex traffickers, a record that made his vote to advance Blanche without addressing the Epstein file complaints particularly bitter for Bensky.
Trump's endorsement record in Republican primaries has reshaped the political calculus for senators who might otherwise have held out longer. Cornyn, already defeated by a Trump-backed challenger, had less political incentive to sustain a fight that put him at odds with the White House, and perhaps less to lose by ending it.
Several questions remain unanswered. No one in S1 or supporting coverage identified which specific Epstein-related documents contained the nude photographs Bensky described, or what federal rules governed their release. The DOJ has not publicly responded to the survivors' accusation that the file release itself constituted misconduct. And it remains unclear whether any senator plans to raise the Epstein survivors' concerns during the full Senate debate on Blanche's confirmation.
Cornyn got his deal on the money. Epstein survivors got a meeting they called a waste of time. The confirmation moves forward, and the people who lived through Epstein's crimes are left wondering who in Washington, if anyone, is still listening.
