Claim:
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "We're not going to prosecute the predators in the Epstein files and we're not going to release their names to the public."
Rating:
In late August and early September 2026, rumors circulated that U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche once stated during a news conference that there were no plans for prosecutions or a public release of predators named in the files of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender and financier.
Users acrosssocial media platformsandRedditposted about the alleged quote, claiming the AG made the statement during a news conference discussing the DOJ's investigation of Epstein and his associates.
According to the rumor, Blanche purportedly said, "We're not going to prosecute the predators in the Epstein files and we're not going to release their names to the public."
The rumor circulated online previously but gained renewed popularity after Blanche wasconfirmed as attorney generalin August.
The quote is incorrectly attributed to Blanche.
It wasn't spoken in the video clip circulating with the alleged statement, and there is no evidence he ever publicly said the words in question. Searches ofBing,DuckDuckGo,GoogleandYahooreturned no relevant results from credible media outlets about such a quote, which would have been widely reported.
The clip accompanying the quote is from a Jan. 30, 2026,news conferencein which Blanche announced the final release of files related to the DOJ's investigation into Epstein.
Snopes reached out to Blanche for further comment on this claim and will update this article if we hear back.
It's unclear whether the falsely attributed quote was intentionally misleading or a botched attempt to summarize Blanche's comments. A full viewing of the news conference and reading of its transcript showed no statement matching that shared in the claim.
At the 21:07 mark of the video, viewable onC-SPAN, Blanche responded to a reporter's question about whether the men in the Epstein files accused of abusing women would be prosecuted and have their names made public.
Blanche responded:
If we had information, we meaning the Department of Justice, about men who abused women, we would prosecute them.
