Blanche AG Committee Vote: A Vote to Protect Predators

For Immediate Release: August 4, 2026
Contact: media@fwdshift.com

Prominent women’s and survivors’ group denounces today’s vote to advance the nomination of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and reaffirms commitment to Epstein accountability and holding abusers accountable

UltraViolet Action, a leading national women-led gender-justice organization responsible for numerous impactful campaigns that create a cost for sexism and sexual violence, released the following statement after the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted today to advance the nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Republican senators on the committee have chosen not to side with the majority of the American people, who demand integrity from our elected leaders and want everyone involved in Jeffrey Epstein’s network—including those who enabled it—to be held accountable,” said Arisha Hatch, UltraViolet Action Executive Director. “Today’s vote is a blow to survivors, our democracy, and the rule of law. It is, however, a boon for Trump, who has been found civilly liable for sexual abuse himself and now, with the help of his personal criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, will be able to continue using the government for self-enrichment without any oversight or transparency.”

Blanche’s nomination finally made it past a committee vote on partisan lines after weeks of controversy surrounding a proposed $1.8 billion, taxpayer-backed fund for political backers, including violent January 6 rioters. As part of a deal to get backing from key GOP senators, Blanche—currently serving as acting attorney general—committed to backing away from the slush fund but, critically, maintained that Trump and his family would receive immunity from future tax enforcement.

This would be bad enough to sink the nomination of any government official—and unsurprisingly, the slush fund and proposed tax immunity scheme drew most attention during Blanche’s hearings—but that’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Blanche being unfit to lead.

He has weaponized the Justice Department against Trump’s enemies in unprecedented fashion while defending the president’s sweeping pardons for violent rioters and seditionists; has pledged to undermine women’s access to life-saving abortion medication; and he has violated federal court orders and misled judges. Perhaps most disturbingly, Blanche has also been the face of Trump’s Epstein cover-up campaign. UltraViolet has compiled a detailed record of Blanche’s disqualifying actions and statements, including his role in the Trump administration’s Epstein cover-up campaign at weareultraviolet.org/todd-blanche-doj-nomination.

“Blanche has attacked and ignored the courageous survivors who put themselves at great personal risk to tell the world the truth about Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the network of wealthy and powerful people who enabled their abuse,” continued Hatch. “Blanche has shown us exactly who he is: a friend of billionaire abusers and grifters, not the American people. He was Trump’s personal lawyer before joining the government and now looks to use his newfound power to continue delivering for his most important client, no matter how many survivors are hurt in the process.”

It has been more than 220 days since the December 19, 2025 deadline for the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein files, as required by the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act. It’s also been a month since Blanche missed a separate court-ordered deadline to release additional unredacted Epstein records or justify the government’s continued withholding of information.

Indeed, Blanche has made clear that, under his leadership, the Justice Department will no longer focus their work on investigating or prosecuting those who helped facilitate or were directly involved in Epstein’s pedophile ring, which trafficked and abused at least 1,000 women—many whom were girls at the time of the abuse. Such is his disdain for survivors that he even helped lead a process that exposed identifying information and released nude images of young women, several who may have been teenagers at the time.

“The advancement of Blanche’s nomination is an insult to survivors, but it won’t weaken our resolve. Just the opposite: it’s been strengthened. We will not let up in our fight for a better future in which women are believed and abusers are held accountable. We will continue to demand the respect, transparency, and justice that survivors deserve,” continued Hatch.

“We now call on the wider Senate to not make the same mistake as their colleagues on the Judiciary Committee. A vote for Blanche is a vote to protect predators,” concluded Hatch.

Through a coordinated series of petitions and strategic pressure campaigns, UltraViolet Action’s ‘The Epstein Accountability Project’ has galvanized public scrutiny of prominent figures and institutions with documented ties to Epstein’s sexual abuse network, and contributed to pushing them out of plum positions of power and influence:

• Ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers stepped down from his roles at Harvard University and OpenAI following pressure campaigns over his cozy, years-long relationship with Epstein.
• Dr. Peter Attia resigned from his role as a contributor at CBS after UltraViolet Action and other organizations drew attention to his ties to Epstein (his name appeared more than 1,700 times in the over 3 million emails exposed in the Epstein files).
• Disgraced media mogul Casey Wasserman was forced to sell his eponymous talent agency after advocates and artists alike demanded accountability over reports that he flew on Epstein’s private plane.

UltraViolet has also stood in solidarity with Epstein survivors, co-organizing a butterfly vigil on April 25, 2026, in Washington, D.C., honoring the life and legacy of the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a survivor of sexual abuse by Epstein’s network.

To learn more about UltraViolet Action’s Epstein Accountability Project, please visit weareultraviolet.org/epstein-accountability-project

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weareultraviolet.org

UltraViolet Action is a women-led gender justice 501(c)(4) organization, with an online community of more than 1 million members nationwide. We combine organizing, technology, creative campaigning, and people power to win real-world changes for women and gender-expansive people.