Following a two-day session with Deputy Lawyer Common Todd Blanche final month, the Justice Division on Friday launched transcripts of its interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, the previous affiliate and co-conspirator of intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Through the interview, Maxwell, who’s overtly searching for a pardon from President Donald Trump, praised the president repeatedly and mentioned he was primarily a Boy Scout.
Maxwell advised Blanche that she “never” noticed Trump in any compromising scenario with Epstein and that she solely noticed the 2 males collectively in social settings, by no means privately.
“I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the President in any of ― I don’t recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance. I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody,” she mentioned.
For 20 years, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching, and relentless in pursuit of the reality. Help our mission to maintain us round for the following 20 — we are able to’t do that with out you.
Trump dispatched Blanche, previously his private lawyer, to interview Maxwell final month amid a furor over the administration’s refusal to launch the federal government’s information from its prosecution of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 after being charged with intercourse trafficking minors. Trump socialized for years with Epstein and Maxwell.
Maxwell was sentenced to twenty years in jail following her conviction in 2020 on intercourse trafficking prices as Epstein’s confederate. On the time she was charged, Trump provided effectively needs.
“I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump mentioned. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach.”
Not solely did Maxwell not see Trump obtain any massages, however Maxwell additionally advised Blanche that Epstein by no means recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago, opposite to Trump’s latest statements that he reduce ties with Epstein after doing precisely that.
Maxwell additionally went out of her option to reward Trump for turning into president, primarily providing effectively needs of her personal to the person who might let her out of jail.
“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find ― I ― I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him,” she mentioned.
And as for the birthday card Trump reportedly gave Epstein with a racy observe, that was not one thing Maxwell might recall.
“I don’t remember,” she mentioned.
Davidoff Studios Pictures by way of Getty Photographs
The testimony with Blanche is extraordinarily uncommon; usually, it wouldn’t be a high-ranking Justice Division official who would conduct an interview like Maxwell’s however as an alternative the prosecutors who labored her case.
The Justice Division has seemingly already let Maxwell get pleasure from some advantages of testifying to Blanche privately because the Epstein Recordsdata scandal rocked the Trump administration earlier this summer time. They moved her from jail to a minimum-security jail camp, opposite to rules requiring she be housed in a facility requiring at the least “low” degree safety for intercourse offenders.
Although the Justice Division mentioned final month it wouldn’t launch its information from the Epstein case, on Friday the division started sharing the fabric with the Republican-led Home Oversight Committee in response to a subpoena.
“The production contains thousands of pages of documents,” a committee spokesperson mentioned Friday, including that the committee “intends to make these records public after thorough review to ensure any victims’ identification and child sexual abuse material are redacted.”
Democrats have blasted Republicans’ plans to make piecemeal disclosures of the Epstein information and in addition the Justice Division’s uncommon interview with Maxwell, particularly in mild of her favorable jail switch.
Trump mentioned Friday within the Oval Workplace that the entire Epstein affair is a hoax.
“You’ve got a lot of people that could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be,” Trump mentioned. “It’s a Democrat hoax. It’s just a hoax. The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax.”
Trump additionally claimed that former President Invoice Clinton had been to Epstein’s non-public island 28 occasions, however Maxwell advised Blanche he by no means did.
“He never. Absolutely never went,” Maxwell mentioned. “And I can be sure of that because there’s no way he would’ve gone ― I don’t believe there’s any way that he would’ve gone to the island, had I not been there. Because I don’t believe he had an independent friendship, if you will, with Epstein.”
