Podbit · The MeidasTouch Podcast
Acting AG Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing is just days away. Harry Litman sees this as a moment of vulnerability: the DOJ has been pretending to cooperate, and Senate confirmation is exactly the kind of mirror that exposes that pretense.
Where this was said
At 15:42 · chapter starts 13:40
With the legal analysis established, Meiselas zooms out to the political strategy, tracing Trump's delay-and-distract tactic back to 2016, when Trump kept promising a press conference to address Melania's immigration status — 'two weeks, two weeks, two weeks' — until a new scandal eclipsed the story. The Epstein DOJ obstruction, he argues, is the same play run at much higher stakes. Every daily scandal provides fresh distraction material, allowing the administration to drag things on indefinitely while the news cycle churns. Meiselas then poses the episode's central question directly to Litman: what do citizens, the New Mexico AG, and media networks actually do against a regime that seems to actively enjoy covering up child sex trafficking rings? [1] — Ben Meiselas "Trump has used the same playbook since 2016: promise a press conference, delay indefinitely, let another scandal overtake the story. Ben Me…" 13:34 Harry Litman's answer is to keep the spotlight blazing and use every institutional lever available — including the imminent Todd Blanche confirmation hearing, which Litman identifies as a moment of real vulnerability. The DOJ has been pretending to cooperate; a Senate confirmation hearing is exactly the kind of mirror that exposes that pretense. Litman argues that the combination of sustained media attention, an organized victim community, and Blanche's confirmation creates pressure the DOJ's fake-cooperation theater cannot indefinitely withstand.
With courts sidelined and the DOJ blocking state investigations, the most powerful remaining tool is sustained media and public pressure. Harry Litman argues that exactly this kind of spotlight — combined with confirmation hearings — is what makes the DOJ's position untenable.
Harry Litman noted that Todd Blanche's Senate confirmation hearing was just days away, meaning the Epstein obstruction story would inevitably resurface in that context.
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