Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, said during a taped interview last month with the Department of Justice that she never saw President Trump do anything wrong or concerning. That’s according to ABC News, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Maxwell sat down with senior Justice Department official Todd Blanche for nearly nine hours over two days in July. On July 24, he posted on X:
“Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow. The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.”
Maxwell made no accusations or statements that could negatively affect Trump, unnamed sources tell ABC News.
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Transcripts and audio recording may be released
Officials with the Trump administration might release the full transcripts of what Maxwell said during her interview, and sources also tell ABC News there’s an audio recording of the interview, too. However, it’s unclear if it will be released along with the transcript.
Maxwell apparently requested the interview with the DOJ, ABC News reports. She was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors for Epstein and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Transfer to Texas prison and Trump’s response
Days after meeting with Blanche, she was quietly moved from a federal correctional facility in Florida to a lower-security prison in Texas.
Reporters asked Trump about the transfer, to which he replied: “I didn’t know about it at all, no. I read about it just like you did. It’s not a very uncommon thing.”
Trump hasn’t ruled out pardon for Maxwell
Meanwhile, the president has not ruled out granting Maxwell a pardon. He was asked if he would ever consider giving Maxwell a pardon while taking questions from reporters in Scotland, days after Maxwell met with Blanche.
“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it,” Trump said to reporters. “Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it. But, right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
Trump and Maxwell’s past social ties
Maxwell and Trump moved in similar social circles in the 1990s and early 2000s, often attending the same parties and events in New York and Palm Beach. Photos exist showing Trump with Maxwell and Epstein at various events, which have been widely circulated in the media. President Trump has not been implicated in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case. In May, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed him that his name appears in the Epstein files, though the presence in the files doesn’t imply he did anything wrong.
