Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's own statements acknowledging FBI negligence in the Jeffrey Epstein case were submitted in federal court on Wednesday, just hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on his confirmation.

Survivors' attorneys filed the letter before Judge Ryon McCabe in the Southern District of Florida as part of the case Doe 1 et al. v. United States. The filing argues that Blanche effectively admitted FBI wrongdoing during an attempt to deflect responsibility for the bureau's failures in the Epstein investigation, and it asks the court to allow an amendment to the complaint on that basis.

Plaintiffs stated they were "seeking this relief in light of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's very recent statements to survivors," referring to remarks he made at a July 16 meeting held at Justice Department headquarters.

During that meeting, ABC News reported, survivors characterized Blanche's demeanor as "dissatisfactory and contrived." According to the report, Blanche dismissed survivor Maria Farmer by telling her that her "call [to the FBI about Epstein] was made in 1996," that "the case was handled improperly before 2007," and that "you got screwed over by the FBI but I cannot fix the FBI's lack of investigation."

Those statements now form part of the official federal court record, entered the day before senators are scheduled to decide whether Blanche's nomination advances. If approved by the Judiciary Committee, the nomination would proceed to a vote by the full Senate.

The underlying lawsuit, filed in September 2024, represents 33 women suing the U.S. government under the Federal Tort Claims Act — a statute that permits citizens to sue the federal government for negligence — over what they allege were the FBI's failures related to Epstein. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $100 million in damages.

The complaint alleges the FBI received its first credible tip in 1996, when Maria Farmer reported that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell had sexually abused her and her sister. The bureau took no action, according to the filing. It further alleges that the FBI ignored child sexual abuse material seized during a 2005 raid on Epstein's Palm Beach mansion, failed to interview victims whose names and phone numbers were already in its possession, and permitted Epstein to serve as a judge at a beauty pageant in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2007 while he was under active investigation.

Epstein survivor Annie Farmer, who testified at Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial — which resulted in Maxwell's 2021 conviction on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges and a 20-year prison sentence — said she left the July 16 meeting convinced that senators should vote against Blanche's confirmation, ABC News reported. She described him as "abrasive, condescending, and intentionally noncommittal to survivors," and said his evasiveness felt like "a deliberate attempt to claim the Attorney General's office is powerless in this matter."

"The FBI has the power to open investigations, not me," Blanche told those assembled at the meeting, MS NOW reported. "I'm just the attorney general," he added.

The remark drew particular frustration from survivors because the FBI operates within the Department of Justice, and as Attorney General, Blanche would hold ultimate supervisory authority over the bureau.

The meeting itself took place only because Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) — whose support Blanche needs to advance out of the Judiciary Committee — demanded it as a condition of his vote, according to ABC News. As of Wednesday afternoon, Tillis had not yet committed to supporting Blanche's confirmation.

The Judiciary Committee vote is scheduled for Thursday morning.