GOP senator blew off Epstein survivors after on-camera pledge to meet them

Thomas Kika
5h
Sen. Thom Tillis arrives to attend a briefing for senators on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., January 7, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

A prominent Republican senator was accused of blowing off a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein survivors, despite on-camera evidence that he had previously promised to take such a meeting.

On Tuesday, Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump's nominee for Attorney General, was approved to move forward in the confirmation process by the Senate Judiciary Committee, after facing stiff pushback for his involvement in some of the administration's more high-profile abuses and botches. He faced particular scrutiny for his involvement in the handling of the Epstein files, as well as his role in facilitating the lighter treatment of Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

In response to the vote, a group of women who survived the notorious sex trafficker's abuses released a joint statement expressing "profound disappointment," and excoriating Blanche for failing them "every step of the way." As lawyer and activist Cheyenne Hunt noted on X, the statement also accused Sen. Thom Tillis, a vocal Trump critic who helped hold up Blanche's nomination, of blowing them off after promising to meet. They also called out the other major Republican Blanche holdout, Sen. John Cornyn.

"The treatment we received from senators throughout this process was just as revealing," the statement read. "Senator Tillis publicly invited us, on camera, to come to his office and promised to meet with us. We did. We waited for 45 minutes in his lobby, only to be told by a staffer he would not meet with us after all. Senator Cornyn also refused to hear directly from survivors before casting his vote. Senators Tillis and Cornyn were not willing to sit across from us and answer for the vote they were preparing to cast. If they believed they were doing the right thing, they should have had the courage to look survivors in the eye and tell us why. The message was unmistakable: they wanted us to go."

In another post to X, Hunt shared the footage in which Tillis promised to take a meeting with Epstein survivors.

"What I'm hoping to do is meet, not only the attorneys, but with the survivors, and have a discussion about the next steps," Tillis can be heard saying while waiting at a bank of elevators, adding that he wanted to see "specific action items." He can also be heard pointing the women in the specific direction of his office, where they could meet later, and apologizing for having to rush off for other business.

Throughout the clip, the gathered survivors can also be heard expressing gratitude for Tillis's supposed willingness to take a meeting with them.

"In case you missed it, here’s the video where he clearly agreed to meet with them, only to stand them up in his office," Hunt wrote alongside the clip. "Beyond disrespectful and cowardly."

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