Attorney General Todd Blanche Is Denying a Major Epstein Files Theory

Following the news that Pam Bondi was removed from her post as President Donald Trump's Attorney General, there was immediate speculation and reporting about exactly why she was let go. Among the reasons that were frequently cited in the reporting was Bondi's handling of the release of the Epstein files, which drew further attention to the case and to the president's past connections to Epstein.

Now, Todd Blanche is taking over as the acting Attorney General, and he is already suggesting that Bondi's firing had nothing to do with Epstein. Here's what he's said about the Epstein files.

In an interview with Fox News's Jesse Watters, Blanche denied that Bondi's firing was related to the Epstein investigation.

“I have never heard President Trump say anything that the attorney general was, that anything that happened to her had anything to do with the Epstein files,” he said.

What is true, though, is that Blanche might have been more personally involved with the Epstein investigation than Bondi was.

He was serving as deputy attorney general prior to his appointment, and was the attorney overseeing the release of a trove of files related to the probe of Epstein. This came after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and it was signed into law by President Trump.

Blanche and Bondi both received criticisms from lawmakers over the slow release of the files and the redaction process.

In an earlier part of the Epstein investigation, Blanche was also the lawyer who met with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's long-time associate, in prison. A redacted transcript of the interview was released to the public, and just days after the meeting, Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison. Blanche came under fire for the decision and defended it during an interview with Meet the Press in 2025.

“At the time that I met Miss Maxwell, there was a tremendous amount of scrutiny and publicity toward her, and the institution she was in; she was suffering numerous threats against her life,” he explained.

Maxwell was first sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in Epstein's sex trafficking in 2022, and was moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security federal prison camp in Texas.

However, we don't yet know whether he'll be nominated as the permanent replacement for Bondi. It's possible that Trump will put him forward as the nominee, as he often does, but it's also possible that he could decide to select someone else for the job.

That might ultimately depend on the president's perspective of Blanche's performance during his time as the acting Attorney General. As Bondi has already discovered, keeping this president happy can be tricky, even when you're working to achieve goals that he has prioritized.