Maxwell

Former girlfriend of convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

The United States Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, to have her sex trafficking conviction overturned.

The top court turned down Maxwell’s bid on Monday, keeping in place a decision by a lower court to allow her conviction to stand. The decision appears to leave a pardon or clemency from US President Donald Trump as the former socialite’s only potential avenue for release.

The 63-year-old Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Her lawyers have argued that Maxwell is covered by a 2007 plea deal Epstein made with federal prosecutors and that her conviction should therefore be nullified.

“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, said.

“But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”

As is customary, the Supreme Court declined to explain its decision to reject the appeal.

Speculation and conspiracy theories have long swirled around Epstein and Maxwell and the elite circles they operated in. But renewed interest has largely focused on Trump’s past friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019.

Calls for more transparency have come both from Trump’s base and from Democrats, who have increasingly seized on the issue as a political cudgel.

In July, Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, met with Maxwell as Trump sought to quell that criticism.

During the meeting, Maxwell told Blanche that she was not aware of any so-called “client list”, referring to a long-sought list of individuals who may have engaged in sexual abuses alongside Epstein, according to a transcript. She added she had never seen Trump behave inappropriately.

A week after the interview, Maxwell was moved from a low-security prison facility in Florida to a less-restrictive prison camp in Texas.

Prior to the interview, the Justice Department said in July that after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data that there was “no incriminating client list” nor was there any evidence that Epstein may have blackmailed prominent people.

Oct. 6 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by Ghislaine Maxwell Monday of her conviction for aiding the late Jeffrey Epstein in trafficking underage girls.

Maxwell’s defense attorney argued in March to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York that her client should have been legally immune in a previous agreement made with convicted sex trafficker Epstein by Florida prosecutors in 2007.

The appeals court didn’t agree with her attorneys, and the Supreme Court refused to take up the case.

“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” Maxwell’s defense attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement. “But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”

Maxwell, 63, has served five years of her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.

Maxwell and her attorney met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days in July. There were growing calls from Democrats and Republicans for President Donald Trump to release files on the Epstein case and worry that he may pardon her, though he hasn’t said that he would.

In August, she was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas, though no reason was ever given for the transfer.

In early September, some of the victims of Epstein and Maxwell spoke out in Washington, D.C., about their ordeals and how the government should release the files — including the “birthday book” — to show who Epstein’s clients were. Trump called it a “Democratic hoax.”

Epstein died by suicide while in custody in 2019.

WASHINGTON — Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend and accomplice, repeatedly denied in her interview with the Justice Department having witnessed any sexually inappropriate interactions with Donald Trump, according to records released Friday meant to distance the president from the sex-trafficking case.

The Trump administration issued transcripts from interviews that Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche conducted with Maxwell last month as the administration was scrambling to present itself as transparent amid a fierce backlash over its refusal to disclose a trove of records from the case.

The records show Maxwell repeatedly showering Trump with praise and denying under questioning from Blanche that she had observed Trump engaged in any form of sexual behavior. The administration was presumably eager to make such denials public at a time when Trump has faced questions about his former longtime friendship with Epstein and as his administration has endured continued scrutiny over its handling of evidence from the case.

The transcript release represents the latest Trump administration effort to repair self-inflicted political wounds after failing to deliver on expectations that its own officials had created through conspiracy theories and bold pronouncements that never came to pass. By making public two days’ worth of interviews, officials appear to be hoping to at least temporarily keep at bay sustained anger from Trump’s base as they send Congress evidence they had previously kept from view.

After her interview with Blanche, Maxwell was moved from the low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas to continue serving a 20-year sentence for her 2021 conviction for luring underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Her trial featured sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14 told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s homes.

She was convicted of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

Victims of Epstein and Maxwell and victims’ family members, among others, have expressed outrage at her prison relocation and the Trump administration’s handling of the case.

Neither Maxwell’s lawyers nor the federal Bureau of Prisons has explained the reason for the move, but one of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, said in a social media post Friday that Maxwell was “innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted.”

Maxwell is widely believed to be seeking a presidential pardon, which Trump has not ruled out.

‘Never inappropriate’

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript. “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Maxwell recalled knowing about Trump and possibly meeting him for the first time in 1990, when her newspaper magnate father, Robert Maxwell, was the owner of the New York Daily News. She said she had been to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., sometimes alone, but hadn’t seen Trump since the mid-2000s.

Asked if she ever heard Epstein or anyone else say Trump “had done anything inappropriate with masseuses” or anyone else in their orbit, Maxwell replied, “Absolutely never, in any context.”

Maxwell was interviewed over the course of two days last month by Blanche — one of Trump’s personal lawyers before joining the Justice Department — at a Florida courthouse. She was given limited immunity, allowing her to speak freely without fear of prosecution for anything she said except in the event of a false statement.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Friday began sending to the House Oversight Committee records from the investigation that the panel says it intends to make public after removing victims’ information.

The case had long captured public attention in part because of Epstein’s social connections over the years to prominent figures, including Britain’s Prince Andrew, former President Clinton and Trump, who has said he had a falling-out with Epstein years ago and well before the financier came under investigation.

Maxwell told Blanche that Clinton was initially her friend, not Epstein’s, and that she never saw him receive a massage — nor did she believe he ever did. The only times they were together, she said, were the two dozen or so times they traveled on Epstein’s plane.

“That would’ve been the only time that I think that President Clinton could have even received a massage,” Maxwell said. “And he didn’t, because I was there.”

She also spoke glowingly of Britain’s Prince Andrew and dismissed as “rubbish” the late Virginia Giuffre’s claim that she was paid to have a relationship with Andrew and that he had sex with her at Maxwell’s London home.

Maxwell sought to distance herself from Epstein’s conduct, repeatedly denying allegations made during her trial about her role. Though she acknowledged that at one point Epstein began preferring younger women, she claimed she never understood that to “encompass children.” Prosecutors presented evidence at trial showing she and Epstein both knew some victims were underage.

“I did see from when I met him, he was involved, or — involved or friends with or whatever, however you want to characterize it — with women who were in their 20s,” she told Blanche. “And then the slide to, you know, 18 or younger looking women. But I never considered that this would encompass criminal behavior.”

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls, and was found dead a month later in a New York jail cell in what investigators determined was suicide.

A story that’s consumed the Justice Department

The saga has consumed the Trump administration following a two-page announcement from the FBI and Justice Department last month that Epstein had killed himself despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, that a “client list” that Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, and that no additional documents from the high-profile investigation were suitable to be released.

The announcement produced outrage from conspiracy theorists, online sleuths and Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government cover-up during previous administrations. That expectation was driven in part by comments from officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who on podcasts before taking their current positions had repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent people were being withheld.

Patel, for instance, said in at least one podcast interview before becoming director that Epstein’s “black book” was under the “direct control of the director of the FBI.”

The administration made a stumble in February when far-right influencers were invited to the White House in February and provided by Bondi with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.

After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI and raised expectations of forthcoming releases.

But after a weeks-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

Faced with fury from his base, Trump sought to quickly turn the page, shutting down questioning of Bondi about Epstein at a White House Cabinet meeting and deriding as “weaklings” his own supporters who he said were falling for the “Jeffrey Epstein hoax.”

The Justice Department has responded to a subpoena from House lawmakers by pledging to turn over information.

Tucker, Sisak and Richer write for the Associated Press. AP writer Adriana Gomez Licon contributed to this report.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has told US officials she did not witness any inappropriate conduct by Donald Trump or former President Bill Clinton.

The Trump administration has faced pressure to disclose information about Epstein, who the US president was previously friendly with.

Maxwell was interviewed from prison in July and, according to the newly released transcript, told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that a much-discussed Epstein “client list” does not exist.

She also called allegations of Prince Andrew having sexual relations with an underage girl in Maxwell’s home “mind-blowingly not conceivable”.

Maxwell is seeking a pardon from Trump and has been accused of lying to federal officials.

Shortly the interview with Blanche – who previously worked as Trump’s personal attorney – she was moved from her from a Florida prison to a new minimum-security facility in Texas. It is unclear why the move was made.

She is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a sex-trafficking scheme, and has petitioned the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction. Her lawyer has said they would “welcome” a pardon from the president.

The White House has been adamant that “no leniency is being given or discussed” in Maxwell’s case.

Trump has maintained that he fell out with Epstein in 2004.

The president has accused his political opponents of using the case to distract from what he sees as his administration’s victories.

But he has also faced pressure from his own Republican Party for more transparency around investigations of Epstein.

In the transcripts – which amount to 300 pages, some heavily redacted – Maxwell said that while she believed Trump and Epstein were friendly “in social settings”, she did not think they were close friends.

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” she said – alluding to the massage services that some Epstein victims have mentioned. “The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”

“In the times I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects,” she added.

She also said she did not recall Trump sending Epstein a 50th birthday note in 2003, which drew recent headlines after the note was reported in the Wall Street Journal.

In the interview, Blanche also asked Maxwell about the alleged “client list” of high-profile personalities that has become the object of conspiracy theories in recent years.

Maxwell was asked about several well-known figures, including Bill Gates, Elon Musk, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, actor Kevin Spacey, model Naomi Campbell and Prince Andrew – whom she denied she introduced to Epstein.

The list of his high-profile associates had become a focal point for conspiracy theorists who insisted that it was being kept hidden by the “deep state” to protect prominent participants in Epstein’s crimes.

Several figures in Trump’s administration – including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino – repeated those claims in the past, although they have since backtracked.

“There is no list,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell also spoke about Prince Andrew, whose relationship with Epstein eventually led to his stepping down from royal duties.

She called it a “flat untruth” that she’d been the one who introduced the Duke of York to Epstein.

“First of all, let’s just state, I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew,” she said.

She spoke at length of Epstein’s relationship with both Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson.

Prince Andrew has previously said that Maxwell introduced him to Epstein. But Maxwell said she believed it was the duchess who was responsible.

When approached by the BBC about Maxwell’s claim, Sarah Ferguson’s representatives declined to comment.

Maxwell also spoke about Prince Andrew’s alleged relationship with a woman whose name has been redacted in the transcript.

She said she found the allegations against the Duke of York “mind-blowingly not conceivable”, partly due to the size of her house where the events allegedly took place.

She was also asked about a “famous photo” of Prince Andrew and the unnamed woman, with Maxwell in the background. She told Blanche this photo was fake.

The prince was accused by Virginia Giuffre, who is not named in the transcript, of sexually abusing her when she was 17. He denied the allegations but reached a financial settlement with her in 2022, which contained no admission of liability or apology.

A widely circulated photo shows him alongside Giuffre with Maxwell in the background. Andrew has previously disputed its authenticity.

Giuffre took her own life earlier this year. Her family has condemned the justice department for interviewing Maxwell and said she is a “monster” whose testimony cannot be trusted.

According to Maxwell, she first befriended Epstein in 1991, and subsequently developed a sexual relationship with him.

Even after that relationship ended, she said she was still paid by Epstein – up to $250,000 (£184,782) a year by 2009 – and remained “friends with benefits”. She added that their relationship was “almost non-existent” between 2010 and his death.

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

“I do not believe he died by suicide, no,” Maxwell said when asked, although she added that she did “not have any reason” to believe that he had been killed in a bid to silence him.

“It’s ludicrous,” she said of theories that he was murdered. “I also happen to think if that is what they wanted, they would’ve had plenty of opportunity when he wasn’t in jail.”

“And if they were worried about blackmail or anything from him, he would’ve been a very easy target,” she added.

Earlier this year, reports emerged that Trump had been told by US Attorney General Pam Bondi that his name appeared in the official files of the investigation into Epstein .

Trump has never been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with the case – and on the campaign trail last year said he would publicise more information about the case.

But he reversed his position several months into his administration, saying the case was closed, and criticised supporters and journalists who continued to press him on it.

The United States Department of Justice has released transcripts of a recent interview between Ghislaine Maxwell, the former partner of child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, and one of its top officials.

Their meeting was arranged in July as the administration of President Donald Trump struggled to tamp down scrutiny over his past ties to Epstein.

In transcripts released on Friday, Maxwell praised Trump and insisted that she never saw him engage in any inappropriate behaviour.

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” said Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking convictions.

“I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the second-in-command at the Justice Department, previously said he met with Maxwell to see if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims”.

But the release of the transcripts is likely to reignite questions about how the Justice Department has handled information about the Epstein case, which has become a source of speculation and conspiracy theories among Trump’s supporters.

On Friday, Blanche said that, excepting the names of the victims, “every word is included” in the released transcripts.

“Nothing removed. Nothing hidden,” he explained.

In the interview, Maxwell denied having any knowledge of a so-called “client list”, a subject of conspiracy theories on the US right.

She also complimented Trump for his behaviour and his “extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now”.

“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” Maxwell said, adding, “I like him, and I’ve always liked him.”

Following her meeting with Blanche, which took place in a courthouse over two days, Maxwell was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas.

The government has not explained the reason for the change.

But in the aftermath of the meeting, the family of one of Epstein’s highest-profile accusers, Virginia Giuffre, called on the Trump administration not to show Maxwell any leniency.

“She must remain in prison — anything less would go down in history as being one of the highest travesties of justice,” Giuffre’s relatives wrote in a statement. Giuffre died by suicide in April.

Epstein himself was found dead in his jail cell in 2019, and his death was ruled a suicide by hanging.

Still, conspiracy theories have widely circulated in the US that his death could have been a cover-up, based on the belief that Epstein’s powerful associates may have taken part in his abuse.

Experts say the saga has become a stand-in for the suspicion that the rich and powerful face little accountability, and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base has long backed efforts to “drain the swamp”: a catchphrase used to advocate for the removal of corrupt forces in the government and leading industries.

Some of these suspicions have evolved into conspiracy theories about rings of paedophiles operating in the shadows of power.

In 2016, for instance, a suspect fired a gun into the Comet Ping Pong Pizzeria in Washington, DC, based on the belief it was a hub for such a ring.

In the Epstein case, there was widespread speculation that the disgraced financier kept a “client list” as blackmail against powerful figures.

Several members of the Trump administration had previously been strong promoters of that conspiracy theory, including Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel.

But he has since backtracked after joining the White House for Trump’s second term, with the FBI and Department of Justice issuing a joint memo that no such list exists. That memo also reaffirmed that Epstein died by suicide and no further suspects in his abuses have come to light.

The memo, however, failed to dampen interest in the scandal, and many pointed out that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February that a client list was “on her desk” for review. Bondi has since said she misspoke and was referring to the Epstein files in general.

A Quinnipiac poll in July found that 63 percent of people in the US disapprove of Trump’s handling of the issue.

Aug. 22 (UPI) — Former Jeffrey Epstein girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell told federal investigators that she never saw President Donald Trump do anything illegal or improper.

Federal investigators recently interviewed Maxwell for two days to learn more about what she might know regarding illegal activities related to Epstein.

She dismissed claims that the files contain condemning information about Trump.

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell told the DOJ investigators, as reported by The New York Times.

“I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way,” she said.

“President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” Maxwell said. “I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.”

Maxwell said she likes the president and always has, while she was being interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month in Florida.

The Justice Department released a redacted transcript and audio files of the two-day interview on Friday.

Maxwell also denied that Epstein maintained a list of powerful individuals or engaged in a blackmail campaign to obtain money or favors from them.

She said Epstein likely had no association with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Maxwell also told Blanche she does not believe Epstein committed suicide but said he was not killed to protect powerful individuals.

Epstein was a controversial financier and convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and child sex abuse charges in New York City.

Other files held by the Department of Justice and related to the federal investigations of Epstein and Maxwell also were released on Friday.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence after her 2021 conviction for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors over a 10-year period.

The DOJ was to begin sending some of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation files to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday.

The committee on Aug. 5 had subpoenaed the DOJ to gain access to the investigation files, which the DOJ agreed to begin sharing on Friday after redacting the names of alleged victims and child sex abuse materials, NPR reported.

Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., anticipated receipt of hundreds of Epstein file documents on Friday and has said at least some of them eventually will be made public.

“We’re going to be transparent,” Comer told media earlier this week. “We’re doing what we said we would do. We’re getting the documents.”

Comer submitted 11 subpoenas for federal investigation files regarding Epstein and his imprisoned accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, plus testimony from well-known witnesses.

The list of subpoenaed witnesses’ testimonies includes those by former President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller, and former Attorneys General Bill Barr and Merrick Garland.

Committee members are to consult with the DOJ to ensure any shared files will not affect ongoing investigations and criminal cases, Forbes reported.

Although the files have not been made public yet, at least one congressional Democrat claims the Trump administration employed a distraction tactic to divert attention away from the Epstein files.

The FBI on Friday raided the home of former Trump administration National Security Adviser John Bolton for unknown reasons.

“It looks political” and “an attempt to distract from the other big news of the day, which is the first production of the Epstein files,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., told CNN on Friday, as reported by The Daily Beast.

He accused the Trump administration of wanting to “change the conversation repeatedly” and said such events will “happen every day because they don’t want people talking about the Epstein files or about their mismanagement of the economy.”

Bolton was President Donald Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019 and has become a vocal critic of the president.

Trump said he was not briefed on the FBI’s raid, The Guardian reported.

NEW YORK — A federal judge who presided over the sex trafficking case against financier Jeffrey Epstein has rejected the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts.

The ruling Wednesday by Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan came after the judge presiding over the case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend, also turned down the government’s request.

Barring reversal on appeal, Berman’s decision forecloses the possibility of grand jury testimony being released now that three judges have reached the same conclusion. A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007.

The rulings are a collective repudiation of the Justice Department’s effort to divert attention away from its stated refusal to release a massive trove of records in its possession and make clear that the still-sealed court documents contain none of the answers likely to satisfy the immense public interest in the case.

President Trump had called for the release of transcripts amid rumors and criticism about his long-ago involvement with Epstein. During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files related to Epstein, but he was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked new revelations.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

Berman said the information contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts “pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.”

The Justice Department had informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, “had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay.”

The agent testified over two days, on June 18, 2019, and July 2, 2019. The entire transcript was 70 pages. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow shown during the June 18 session and a call log shown during the July 2 session, which ended with grand jurors voting to indict Epstein. Both of those will also remain sealed, Berman ruled.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse girls and young women. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Epstein died in jail awaiting trial.

Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump’s base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.

Since then, officials in Trump’s Republican administration have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.

“The government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein file,” Berman wrote in an apparent reference to the Justice Department’s refusal to release additional records on its own while simultaneously moving to unseal grand jury transcripts.

“By comparison,” Berman added, “the instant grand jury motion appears to be a ‘diversion’ from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government’s possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged conduct.”

Meanwhile, Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse weeks ago by Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche, and the House Oversight Committee had also said that it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said they would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to ensure immunity from prosecution.

In a letter to Maxwell’s lawyers, Rep. James Comer, the committee chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition until after the resolution of Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court. That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September.

Comer wrote that although Maxwell’s testimony was “vital” to the Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony, as was requested by her team.

Neumeister and Sisak write for the Associated Press. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

Aug. 11 (UPI) — A New York judge on Monday rejected a request by the federal government to unseal grand jury records in the federal case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein‘s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell after the Trump administration signed off on her prison transfer.

“The court’s review confirmed that unsealing the grand jury materials would not reveal new information of any consequence,” U.S. Judge Paul Engelmayer of New York’s Southern District wrote in his 31-page ruling denying a request by the U.S. Department of Justice to unseal the grand jury material.

Late last week, the Justice Department asked to unseal further evidence in the case, saying it wanted to shield “personal identifying information” but argued that the circumstances of Maxwell’s case had warranted the unusual legal maneuver.

A grand jury’s proceedings and its corresponding evidence typically stay secret.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her December 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges, but has since appealed her guilty verdict.

Engelmayer, an Obama appointee, said the government’s invocation of the special circumstances surrounding the case engulfing the White House “fails at the threshold” to explain a need to release the docs.

“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such.”

Maxwell was transferred in early August from her Tallahassee prison in Florida to a cushy low-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, with little reason in another unusual legal move.

“It’s entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” the judge said Monday.

Government had hoped to get files released about Jeffrey Epstein associate to quell furore that had grown over the case.

A United States judge has denied a request by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to unseal transcripts from a grand jury that indicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a decision issued on Monday, Judge Paul A Engelmayer said lawyers for the government failed to convince the court that extraordinary circumstances warranted the release of the grand jury testimony, which is typically delivered privately and sealed.

“[The government’s] entire premise – that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them – is demonstrably false,” Engelmayer wrote in his decision.

The DOJ in June announced it would not release any additional documents from the investigation into Epstein, causing an uproar among President Donald Trump’s base, which holds a number of conspiracy theories about the well-connected sex trafficker.

In an effort to quell the backlash, the DOJ at the order of Trump then sought to unseal transcripts both from Maxwell’s grand jury as well as Epstein’s.

In 2021, Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.

Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Aug. 8 (UPI) — The Department of Justice asked New York judges to unseal more evidence in the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell criminal cases, but it still wants to shield “personal identifying information.”

This is an expansion of Attorney General Pam Bondi‘s earlier request to courts to unseal five days of grand jury testimony in relation to the cases.

In July, a Florida judge refused to unseal transcripts related to a criminal case brought against Epstein for sex charges in the early 2000s. That case was resolved in a controversial plea deal that saw the billionaire financier serve about a year in prison.

The latest request is about Epstein’s 2019 criminal case in New York, which was dropped after he died by suicide in his jail cell. It also asks to unseal grand jury evidence in Maxwell’s case, which ended in her conviction and sentence of 20 years in prison.

The request to shield personal identifying information could protect others from being tied to the case.

“Any effort to redact third party names smacks of a cover up,” victim Annie Farmer said through her lawyer in an Aug. 5 letter to the court. Farmer testified for the prosecution in Maxwell’s 2021 criminal trial.

“To the extent any of Epstein’s and Maxwell’s enablers and co-conspirators who have thus far evaded accountability are implicated by the grand jury transcripts, their identities should not be shielded from the public,” Farmer’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, added. She added that victims’ identifications should be redacted.

The new request comes after the judges handling the requests — Richard Berman for the Epstein case and Paul Engelmayer for the Maxwell case — told the department to specify their positions.

The department requested to have until Aug. 14 to notify everyone who’s name appears on the evidence and update the judges.

Usually, grand jury proceedings and evidence are kept secret.

Meanwhile, advocacy group Democracy Forward filed suit Fridy against the Justice Department and the FBI for records on their handling of the Epstein investigation. It wants records about senior administration officials’ communication about Epstein documents and any correspondence between Epstein and President Donald Trump.

The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.

“The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the group, said in a statement. The federal government often shields records on criminal investigations from public view.

Maxwell earlier this week opposed the Justice Department effort to unseal the grand jury testimony. She said it would compromise her privacy and her potential to appeal.

Also earlier this week, the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed the Department of Justice, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and several others for documents and testimony about Epstein.

Aug. 1 (UPI) — Ghislaine Maxwell has been moved from her prison in Tallahassee, Fla., to a low-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, though no reason has been given.

Maxwell, 63, has served five of her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. She was the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex trafficker of underage girls.

The prison she was moved from is a low-security facility, and her destination is a minimum security one.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, declined to elaborate, saying, “We can confirm that she was moved but we have no comment.”

Maxwell, with her attorney, recently met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days. There have been growing calls from Democrats and Republicans for President Donald Trump to release files on the Epstein case and worry that he may issue her a pardon, though he hasn’t said that he would.

Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who doesn’t represent Maxwell, suggested that she could be threatened, hurt or injured in the Tallahassee prison, especially if she continues to cooperate with the Justice Department. The Tallahassee prison houses gang members and violent offenders.

“Given her situation, [the move is] the best for her,” Mangel told CNN.

Josh Lepird, vice president for the region of the officers’ union that includes Bryan, Texas, said the transfer did not seem unusual to him, even for a high-profile prisoner.

“The only unusual thing is that you typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left,” Lepird told the Houston Chronicle. “But if someone is a cooperating witness, they can request a lower security level.”

The move sparked concern from the family of one of Maxwell’s most vocal accusers, the late Virginia Giuffre, that the transfer is part of an undisclosed deal between the Justice Department and the Trump administration, spokesperson Dini von Mueffling told USA Today.

The family has expressed worry that Trump and some inside the DOJ are trying to silence Maxwell without receiving any input from potentially hundreds of accusers who say she and Epstein sexually abused them and forced them to have sex with prominent men. Those men have not been publicly identified.

“The family is scrambling right now to figure out what’s going on,” von Mueffling said. “They don’t understand why this is happening.”

Other inmates in the camp include Jen Shah, from the TV show The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City, and Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice in the abuse of underage girls by high-society sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has been moved to a minimum security facility in Texas, the United States Bureau of Prisons said, triggering an angry reaction from some of the pair’s victims.

Maxwell, a former girlfriend of Epstein, was moved from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Tallahassee – a low-security prison in Florida – to the minimum security Federal Prison Camp in Bryan, Texas, the Bureau of Prisons said on Friday.

“We can confirm Ghislaine Maxwell is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Prison Camp [FPC] Bryan in Bryan, Texas,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesman said, without providing an explanation for the transfer.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also confirmed the move but declined to discuss the reasons for the transfer.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – a one-time friend to the powerful and influential in the US – and was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her crimes.

Two women who said they were sexually abused by Epstein and Maxwell, and the family of another accuser who recently took her own life, condemned Maxwell’s surprise prison transfer.

“It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received,” Annie and Maria Farmer and the family of Virginia Giuffre said in a statement.

“Without any notification to the Maxwell victims, the government overnight has moved Maxwell to a minimum security luxury prison in Texas,” the victims said.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions, and she should never be shown any leniency,” they said.

“This move smacks of a cover-up. The victims deserve better,” they added.

‘Government cover-up in real time’

The Bryan prison camp in Texas is a minimum security institution, the lowest of five security levels in the US federal prison system. Such facilities have limited or no perimeter fencing, whereas low security facilities, such as FCI Tallahassee, have double-fenced perimeters and higher staff-to-inmate ratios than prison camps, according to the bureau.

Maxwell’s move comes after Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer – interviewed Maxwell for two days at a Florida courthouse last week in a highly unusual meeting between a convicted felon and a high-ranking Department of Justice official.

Blanche has declined so far to say what was discussed, but Maxwell’s lawyer, Markus, said she answered every question she was asked.

Maxwell has reportedly offered to testify before Congress about Epstein if given immunity and has also reportedly been seeking a pardon from the US president, who was once a close friend of Epstein, who took his own life in prison in 2019.

Tim Hogan, a senior Democratic National Committee adviser, denounced what he alleged was a “government cover-up in real time”.

“Donald Trump’s FBI, run by loyalist Kash Patel, redacted Trump’s name from the Epstein files – which have still not been released,” Hogan said.

“While Trump and his administration try to cover up the heinous crimes included in those files, they’re simultaneously doing favours for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell,” Hogan said.

MAGA base up in arms

Trump has faced weeks of mounting demands from Democrats and many of his conspiracy-minded supporters to be more transparent about the Epstein case after the Justice Department said last month that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the investigation into the high-profile sex trafficker.

Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base has also been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said recently that Epstein had not blackmailed any prominent figures, and that he did not keep a “client list”.

Trump also ignited further furore this week when he told reporters he fell out with Epstein after the sex offender “stole” female employees from a spa at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

One of those employees was Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave and took her own life at her home in Australia in April.

Giuffre’s family issued a statement this week appealing to Trump not to consider pardoning Maxwell, who they called a “monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life”.

In an interview on Friday night, Trump said that nobody had asked him to grant clemency to Maxwell, but he “had a right to do it”.

“I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don’t know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it,” Trump said in an interview.

WASHINGTON — Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas as her criminal case generates renewed public attention.

The federal Bureau of Prisons said Friday that Maxwell had been transferred to Bryan, Texas, but did not explain the circumstances. Her attorney confirmed the move but also declined to discuss the reasons for it.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. She had been held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla., until her transfer to the prison camp in Texas, where other inmates include Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and Jen Shah of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.”

Minimum-security federal prison camps house inmates the Bureau of Prisons considers to be the lowest security risk. Some don’t even have fences.

The prison camps were originally designed with low security to make operations easier and to allow inmates tasked with performing work at the prison, such as landscaping and maintenance, to avoid repeatedly checking in and out of a main prison facility.

Maxwell’s case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department’s statement last month saying that it would not be releasing any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

Since then, administration officials have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting from courts the unsealing of grand jury transcripts.

Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse over two days last week by Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche.

The House Oversight Committee has separately said that it wants to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said this week that she would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to give her immunity from prosecution for anything she said.

Tucker writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.

July 25 (UPI) — Ghislaine Maxwell, associate of child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, is meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Friday to answer more questions about her knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and who may have associated with him.

The two met Thursday and spoke for six hours at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Fla. Friday’s meeting is a continuation of the questioning. Blanche is a former defense attorney of President Donald Trump.

Before leaving for Scotland Friday, Trump brushed off questions about Epstein.

“I have nothing to do with the guy,” Trump said of Epstein. He socialized with Epstein for years before falling out with him in the mid-2000s.

Trump said reporters should focus on those who allegedly spent time with Epstein, such as former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who was also once the president of Harvard.

People “don’t talk about them. They talk about me,” he complained.

“You should focus on Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard, you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys,” CNBC reported that Trump said.

“I’ll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I sure as hell didn’t.”

When asked if he would pardon Maxwell, who has served five years of a 20-year sentence for finding and grooming young girls for Epstein’s abuse, Trump said, “It’s something I haven’t thought about.”

“I’m allowed to do it,” he added.

Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus said Maxwell was “hoping for another productive day.”

“Ghislaine has been treated unfairly for over five years now,” he added.

“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her face would be next to the definition next to the dictionary definition of it,” he said. “So, you know, we’re grateful for this opportunity to finally be able to say what really happened, and that’s what we’re going to do yesterday and today.”

“We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated, and she’s telling the truth,” Markus said.

“She’s got no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth.”

Markus refused to comment on the nature of the questioning.

On social media, Blanche said he would reveal what he learned from Maxwell “at the appropriate time.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that Trump’s name appeared several times in the files.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., during a press conference on Wednesday, said making the Epstein files public needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned, some of whom are minors.

WASHINGTON — Justice Department officials were set to meet on Thursday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The meeting in Florida, which Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he was working to arrange, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of President Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.

In a social media post Tuesday, Blanche said that Trump “has told us to release all credible evidence” and that if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the Justice Department “will hear what she has to say.”

A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Thursday. The person who confirmed the meeting insisted on anonymity to describe a closed-door encounter to the Associated Press.

A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed on Tuesday there were discussions with the government and said Maxwell “will always testify truthfully.”

The House Committee on Oversight issued a subpoena on Wednesday for Maxwell to testify before committee officials in August.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence and is housed at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla. She was sentenced three years ago after being convicted of helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.

Officials have said Epstein killed himself in his New York jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, but his case has generated endless attention and conspiracy theories because of his and Maxwell’s links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department said it would not release more files related to the Epstein investigation, despite promises that claimed otherwise from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi. The department also said an Epstein client list does not exist.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Bondi told Trump in May that his name was among high-profile people mentioned in government files of Epstein, though the mention does not imply wrongdoing.

Trump, a Republican, has said that he once thought Epstein was a “terrific guy” but that they later had a falling out.

A subcommittee on Wednesday also voted to subpoena the Justice Department for documents related to Epstein. And senators in both major political parties have expressed openness to holding hearings on the matter after Congress’ August recess.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, has introduced legislation with bipartisan support that would require the Justice Department to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his associates.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican majority leader, Rep. Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, have said they will address whatever outstanding Epstein-related issues are in Congress when they return from recess.

Epstein, under a 2008 nonprosecution agreement, pleaded guilty in Florida to state charges of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. That allowed him to avert a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work release program. He was required to make payments to victims and register as a sex offender.

In 2019, Epstein was charged by federal prosecutors in Manhattan for nearly identical allegations.

Tucker and Williams write for the Associated Press. Williams reported from Detroit.

July 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Justice is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, at a federal courthouse in Florida on Thursday.

She was originally scheduled to meet Justice Department representatives at the minimum-security prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking, but instead the meeting will happen at the U.S. attorney’s office, located inside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, as first reported by ABC News.

“For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” posted U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to X Tuesday in regard to the Thursday meeting.

Maxwell has also been subpoenaed by House Oversight Committee Chairperson Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., for a deposition slated to take place at the prison where she is held on Aug. 11.

Maxwell was convicted and sentenced in June 2022 as an accomplice in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and was denied a reassessment by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that a recent review of Epstein-related documents by the Justice Department and FBI allegedly found that President Donald Trump‘s name appeared several times in the files, and that Trump was informed of that by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in May before the Justice Department said it would not make those files public.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday during a press conference that when the Epstein files are made public, “which we must do as quickly as possible,” it needs to be done in a way that protects the victims mentioned in the files, some of whom are purportedly minors.

But he also stressed that only “credible evidence” should be revealed, and Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus responded on X Wednesday that “We understand [Johnson’s] general concern, Congress should always vet the credibility of its witnesses.”

However, Markus claimed, “those concerns are unfounded,” and that Maxwell testifies before Congress and not invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, that “she would testify truthfully.”

Markus also said that Maxwell is looking forward to her meeting with the DOJ, and that will inform how she proceeds in regard to the Congressional subpoena.

Rumors that Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 while in custody, had a list of clients who participated in the abuse and exploitation have been denied by the DOJ. Further rumors involve President Donald Trump’s past relationship with Epstein, although Trump has since called public’s interest in the Epstein files a “scam” and a “hoax” created by his political opponents.

A judge on Wednesday rejected a Trump administration request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations of Jeffrey Epstein years ago in Florida, though a similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.

U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.

The Justice Department last week asked the judge to release records to quell a storm among supporters of President Trump who believe there was a conspiracy to protect Epstein’s clients and conceal videos of crimes being committed and other evidence.

In 2008, Epstein cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche had asked judges in Florida and New York to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, saying “transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.”

Federal grand juries hear evidence in secret and then decide whether there is enough for an indictment. Experts say the transcripts probably would not reveal much because prosecutors typically try to present only enough material to get charges and don’t introduce the entire investigation.

Epstein, a wealthy financier, years later was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges, and Maxwell was charged with helping him abuse teenage girls.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York City about a month after he was arrested. Investigators concluded he killed himself. Maxwell later was convicted at trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The case attracted attention because of Epstein and Maxwell’s links to famous people, including royals, presidents and billionaires. It also led to some of the biggest conspiracy theories animating Trump’s base.

The furor over records has been stoked by the Justice Department. In February, far-right influencers were invited to the White House and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified.” The binders contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.

The department on July 7 acknowledged that Epstein did not have a list of clients. It also said no more files related to his case would be made public.

A two-page memo that bore the logos of the FBI and Justice Department, but that was not signed by any individual, said the department determined that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”

White writes for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Uproar over the Trump administration’s handling of files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation continues to grip Washington, prompting the Justice Department on Tuesday to schedule an unusual meeting with Epstein’s top confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, and the House Oversight Committee to move to subpoena her testimony amid bipartisan calls for transparency in the case.

The renewed focus on Maxwell comes amid persistent questions over Trump’s years-long friendship with Epstein, the late and disgraced financier whose sprawling sex-trafficking ring victimized more than 200 women and girls.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison for her role in perpetuating one of the most expansive sex-trafficking rings in modern U.S. history.

It is the first time the Justice Department has approached Maxwell’s counsel for a meeting, according to the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, who wrote in a statement that he would take the meeting himself “to ask: What do you know?”

“No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits,” said Blanche, formerly one of Trump’s personal attorneys.

And yet, Republicans and Democrats alike are expressing suspicion over the Justice Department’s moves, questioning whether its outreach to Maxwell could be an effort to cut a cooperation agreement with a figure holding unique insights on the president’s friendship with Epstein.

Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, called Trump “the ultimate dealmaker” earlier this month, and said this week that Maxwell’s team is “grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”

“Ghislaine Maxwell is a federal prisoner right now. Obviously, she wants a pardon, so she will probably sing from whatever hymnal Donald Trump tells her to sing from,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland and ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN this week.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a binding resolution that would compel the release of FBI files related to the Epstein investigation, drawing a rebuke from Trump on social media Tuesday. And Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), a longtime ally of the president, told reporters that he did not trust what the Justice Department was telling the public about the case.

“No, I don’t. I don’t. I don’t trust them,” he said. “I’m big on clarity and transparency, and that’s a good reason people don’t trust government in either party.”

Burchett motioned in the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday to have the panel proceed with a subpoena for Maxwell to appear for public testimony, a move that was adopted by voice vote.

But to prevent a bipartisan vote on releasing the files from moving on the House floor, House Speaker Mike Johnson planned to send the chamber home for summer recess a day early, telling reporters that there was no purpose in Congress pushing the administration “to do something they’re already doing.”

Epstein, a wealthy financier with a deep bench of powerful friends, died in a New York City prison in August 2019 facing federal charges over a child sex-trafficking conspiracy.

The New York City medical examiner and the inspector general of the Justice Department both ruled Epstein’s death was a suicide. But suspicions of conspiracy have surrounded his case and his untimely death due to his known association with some of the country’s most powerful men.

Photos of Trump, Epstein and Maxwell are widely available, and Trump has acknowledged their friendship in the past.

“I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” he said. “No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent a raunchy 50th birthday card to Epstein that included a sketch of a naked woman, featuring breasts and a squiggly “Donald” signature mimicking pubic hair. The sketch also included a note that read, “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.” Maxwell compiled the album, according to the report.

Trump has begged and scolded his supporters to move on from the controversy, despite stoking conspiracies around the existence of a list of Epstein’s clients throughout the 2024 presidential election.

“I would say these files were made up by [former FBI Director James] Comey and [former President] Obama, made up by the Biden” administration, Trump now says, “and we went through years of that with the Russia, Russia, Russia hoax.”

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced one of its top officials has sought a meeting with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, amid continued scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s handling of the case.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Pam Bondi released a statement from her deputy, Todd Blanche, who explained that he is pursuing a meeting with Maxwell to ensure transparency in the government’s Epstein investigation.

“This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead,” Blanche said.

“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.”

Blanche’s statement comes as the Trump administration weathers a backlash from his base over the Epstein scandal.

On July 7, the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a memo saying a review of Epstein’s case yielded no new evidence, including no “client list”.

But that finding caused an uproar among Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, which noted that Bondi herself had referred to a client list “sitting on my desk right now” earlier this year.

Members of Trump’s base have long embraced conspiracy theories about rings of sex offenders in the highest levels of government, and some have questioned the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death, speculating that it was an orchestrated cover-up.

According to authorities, the billionaire financier — who had a powerful social circle — committed suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Maxwell, a close confidant and former girlfriend of Epstein’s, has been imprisoned since her 2021 conviction on five federal charges related to her role in the sexual abuse of underage girls.

Blanche said he has “communicated with counsel for Ms Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the department”.

“I anticipate meeting with Ms Maxwell in the coming days,” he added.

A lawyer for Maxwell, David Oscar Markus, confirmed her legal team was “in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully”.

“We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case. We have no other comment at this time,” he said.

The update comes after Trump last week instructed Bondi and Blanche to ask a federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in both the cases of Epstein and Maxwell.

Trump had supported the FBI and Justice Department in their assessment earlier this month, which failed to produce any new incriminating evidence about any of the high-profile politicians and businessmen in Epstein’s orbit.

One of the conspiracy theories circulating about the case is that Epstein used his sex-trafficking ring to blackmail powerful figures, though the July memo splashed cold water on that assertion.

“This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list’,” the memo said. “There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.”

The situation has drawn renewed scrutiny to Trump’s own years-long relationship with Epstein, as high-profile members of the MAGA base denounced the results of the memo as unsatisfying and inconclusive.

The president has attempted to dismiss the outcry, calling the controversy the “Epstein hoax” and denouncing his supporters as “weaklings” for perpetuating it.

That did little to stem the outrage from some of the most influential voices in the MAGA movement, who have called on Bondi to resign.

Earlier this year, Bondi vowed that the Justice Department would release additional materials, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs” in connection with Epstein’s clients.

However, the information that the department has released since Trump took office has shed no new light on the case.

Trump himself has had to contend with media reports over his ties to Epstein. He recently filed a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal after the newspaper reported on a “bawdy” letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein for his 50th birthday.

Several of Trump’s top officials have themselves spent years fuelling speculation over the Epstein files, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino.

NEW YORK — A Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecution of chronic sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend is unlikely to produce much, if anything, to satisfy the public’s appetite for new revelations about the financier’s crimes, former federal prosecutors say.

Attorney Sarah Krissoff, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from from 2008 to 2021, called the request in the prosecutions of Epstein and imprisoned British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell “a distraction.”

President Trump “is trying to present himself as if he’s doing something here and it really is nothing,” Krissoff told the Associated Press in a weekend interview.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche made the request Friday, asking judges to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and Maxwell, saying in a statement that “transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.”

The request came as the administration sought to contain the public outcry that followed its announcement that it would not be releasing additional files from the Epstein inquiry despite previously promising it would.

Epstein killed himself at age 66 in his federal jail cell in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, while Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed after her December 2021 sex trafficking conviction for luring girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

Krissoff and Joshua Naftalis, a Manhattan federal prosecutor for 11 years before entering private practice in 2023, said grand jury presentations are purposely brief.

Naftalis said Southern District prosecutors present just enough to a grand jury to get an indictment, but “it’s not going to be everything the FBI and investigators have figured out about Maxwell and Epstein.”

“People want the entire file from however long. That’s just not what this is,” he said, estimating that the transcripts, at most, probably amount to a few hundred pages.

“It’s not going to be much,” Krissoff said, estimating the length at as little as 60 pages “because the Southern District of New York’s practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury.”

“They basically spoon-feed the indictment to the grand jury. That’s what we’re going to see,” she said. “I just think it’s not going to be that interesting. … I don’t think it’s going to be anything new.”

Both former prosecutors said that grand jury witnesses in Manhattan are usually federal agents summarizing their witness interviews.

That practice might conflict with the public perception of some state and federal grand jury proceedings, where witnesses likely to testify at a trial are brought before grand juries during lengthy proceedings prior to indictments or when grand juries are used as an investigatory tool.

In Manhattan, federal prosecutors “are trying to get a particular result so they present the case very narrowly and inform the grand jury what they want them to do,” Krissoff said.

Krissoff predicted that judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases would reject the government’s request.

With Maxwell, a petition is before the U.S. Supreme Court, so appeals have not been exhausted. With Epstein, the charges are related to the Maxwell case and the anonymity of scores of victims who have not gone public is at stake, although Blanche requested that victim identities be protected.

“This is not a 50-, 60-, 80-year-old case,” Krissoff noted. “There’s still someone in custody.”

She said that citing “public intrigue, interest and excitement” about a case was probably not enough to convince a judge to release the transcripts despite a 1997 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said judges have wide discretion and that public interest alone can justify releasing grand jury information.

Krissoff called it “mind-blowingly strange” that Justice Department officials in Washington are increasingly directly filing requests and arguments in the Southern District of New York, where the prosecutor’s office has long been labeled the “Sovereign District of New York” for its independence from outside influence.

“To have the attorney general and deputy attorney general meddling in an SDNY case is unheard of,” she said.

Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor and Fordham Law School criminal law professor, said judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases may take weeks or months to rule.

“Especially here where the case involved witnesses or victims of sexual abuse, many of which are underage, the judge is going to be very cautious about what the judge releases,” she said.

Bader said she didn’t see the government’s quest aimed at satisfying the public’s desire to explore conspiracy theories “trumping — pardon the pun — the well-established notions of protecting the secrecy of the grand jury process.”

“I’m sure that all the line prosecutors who really sort of appreciate the secrecy and special relationship they have with the grand jury are not happy that DOJ is asking the court to release these transcripts,” she added.

Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, called Trump’s comments and influence in the Epstein matter “unprecedented” and “extraordinarily unusual” because he is a sitting president.

He said it was not surprising that some former prosecutors are alarmed that the request to unseal the grand jury materials came two days after the firing of Manhattan Assistant U.S. Atty. Maurene Comey, who worked on the Epstein and Maxwell cases.

“If federal prosecutors have to worry about the professional consequences of refusing to go along with the political or personal agenda of powerful people, then we are in a very different place than I’ve understood the federal Department of Justice to be in over the last 30 years of my career,” he said.

Krissoff said the uncertain environment that has current prosecutors feeling unsettled is shared by government employees she speaks with at other agencies as part of her work in private practice.

“The thing I hear most often is this is a strange time. Things aren’t working the way we’re used to them working,” she said.

Neumeister writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Eric Tucker and Alanna Durkin Richer contributed to this report.