Todd Blanche went on Fox News this weekend to defend Donald Trump’s hard line on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, only to be undercut a few hours later by Trump himself.
In the final part of the show, host Johnny Joey Jones steered the discussion toward the topic that Trump’s team tries hardest to keep under wraps: the Epstein files. Jones pointed out the latest set of troubling emails tied to Jeffrey Epstein, including one that mentioned Rhona Graff, Trump’s longtime executive assistant. He told viewers that Americans still want answers about “this kingpin pervert” who gathered private information on prominent individuals in politics and business.
Jones also outlined Trump’s contradictory public statements on the controversy. Trump has previously called the push for transparency a “Democrat hoax,” and he has also suggested that the files may hurt Democrats more than Republicans. “I’ve heard President Trump say it’s all for show,” Jones said per Daily Beast, noting that Trump has also stated Epstein’s contacts “need to be looked into” because of their ties to Democrats.
“President Trump has said the same thing since the campaign about Jeffrey Epstein, which is that he has nothing to hide,” he said. He added that the Justice Department “has never disputed that” and claimed Trump had already instructed the department to keep reviewing what remains in the files. Blanche then pointed to the department’s work on trafficking cases, saying prosecutors had “nothing to hide” and would follow any further direction from the president “with open arms.”
When Jones pressed him about why a case over a decade old hasn’t led to many high-profile charges, Blanche said investigators would “continue to find out if there’s anybody responsible” and “if they’re out there we’ll find them.”
However, Blanche avoided the central question about whether Trump’s changing public narrative makes it harder for people to trust how the Justice Department is handling the files. Instead, he went back to familiar political talking points about crime and Democratic cities.
Shortly after Blanche’s interview aired, Trump made a sudden shift.
In a lengthy Truth Social post, he urged House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files, a drastic change from his previous stance. “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” he wrote, while again claiming the whole matter was a “Democrat hoax.” He also claimed that “nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive,” continuing to frame the issue as politically driven.
Trump’s change comes as Congress prepares to vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill that would require the Justice Department to release what remains of its Epstein records. For lawmakers who have spent months pushing against the administration’s stonewalling, Blanche’s appearance on Fox now looks like an effort to maintain a stance that was already crumbling.
Blanche is also facing scrutiny for a different role in the Epstein saga. As Trump’s former personal attorney and now his deputy attorney general, he led a long interview with Ghislaine Maxwell last year. The unusual decision to assign a political appointee so close to Trump raised concerns, especially given that Trump’s name has repeatedly surfaced in court documents, flight logs, and witness accounts.
