Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche criticized Democratic lawmakers’ decision to walk out of a closed-door briefing with him and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday.
The two Trump officials briefed the House Oversight Committee on the Justice Department’s (DOJ) investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. After clashing with Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) over logistics of the forum, Democrats exited around 30 minutes into the meeting.
Blanche called the move a “stunt” and defended holding the briefing behind closed doors, citing victim privacy reasons.
“So, you want to talk about victims, you want to talk about mistakes that you think this department made, let’s do it,” Blanche told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo on Friday. “Ask any question you want, and we’ll answer it.
“That is exactly what we should have done,” he continued. “Do you think we should have had a meeting open to the public when we’re going to talk about concerns they have over redactions and our process?”
Comer has led Congress’s probe into documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and the chair has requested congressional testimony from several high-profile people whose names appear in these files.
The Kentucky Republican has also subpoenaed Bondi to appear before the committee next month to testify under oath about the DOJ investigation. However, Democrats expressed concerns on Wednesday that the meeting with Bondi and Blanche could replace the scheduled deposition.
After leaving the closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Comer said he did not “see any reason for [Bondi] to do a deposition.”
Oversight Democrats have argued that DOJ did not properly carry out a redaction process when releasing files related to its Epstein probe.
Blanche said the Trump administration has made all redacted names available to Congress and acknowledged “some complaints” of errors from lawmakers.
“When complaints were identified, no problem, we will address it and we will fix it,” the deputy attorney general told Cuomo. “So the narrative putting things up on your screen that show big chunks of redactions, that’s what happens in sex trafficking cases.
“That’s what happens when women who were abused and tell their stories to the FBI come in and tell them, there are large pages that are redacted, as the law requires,” he added.
Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) slammed Bondi’s closed-door meeting on Thursday, calling it a “fake briefing” and “shameful.”
“She’s clearly trying to get out of her real hearing that will be transcribed and UNDER OATH,” he wrote on social platform X.
“We won’t participate in these games, and we look forward to her deposition—which is required by our bipartisan subpoena and the law,” the lawmaker said.
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