WASHINGTON— Based largely onhis tough cross-examinations of FBI Director Kash Patellast year, Jeffrey Epstein’s “Minor Victim No. 1” is pressing U.S. Sen. John Kennedy to oppose the confirmation of Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general.
“I feel like he’s somewhat, you know, starting to feel like that there’s something much bigger going on here. And I think he wants to find out,” Marina Lacerda said of Kennedy, R-Madisonville, in an interview.
Palm Beach Police began investigating Epstein after hearing stories about his sexually exploiting and trafficking underage girls. Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution. He served 13 months under a controversial deal offered by then U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, of Miami, that gave Epstein immunity from federal charges.
In 2019, after several of the now-adult women went public with their allegations, federal prosecutors arrested and charged Epstein with sex trafficking minors out his New York City mansion as well as his estates in Florida, New Mexico and a Caribbean island. Epstein killed himself while in detention.
Lacerda is one of 20 Epstein survivors working to block Blanche’s confirmation as the nation’s leading law enforcement official.
Blanche has been acting attorney general since former Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped down April 2.
Both Kennedy and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, inMarch 2025 backed Blanche’s appointmentas second-in-command of the Department of Justice.
As deputy attorney general, Blanche oversaw the organization and release of nearly 3 million files gathered by law enforcement looking into allegations the wealthy financier recruited more than a thousand young girls for sex.
Blanche has said repeatedly that no evidence that adult men had sex with girls was found in the interviews, transcripts, notes, and other materials gathered during the investigations into Epstein’s conduct, even though at least one accuser claimed she was sent to have sex with men in Epstein’s circle.
“We can’t allow for this man to come in and gaslight in saying that there's nothing here to look at,” Lacerda said. “There are things to look at.”
Lacerda and 19 other survivors wrote in a letter that they were concerned that Blanche was among senior administration figures who adopted a strategy of minimizing the Epstein files instead of choosing to pursue “investigative leads and try to figure out what actually happened. These revelations confirm our worst fears about the administration prioritizing political expediency over justice for survivors and truth for the American people.”
The survivors need one Republican senator on their side to kill Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which willhear from the nominee on Wednesdayand Thursday. Kennedy is a member of that committee.
