Ghislaine Maxwell — the convicted co-conspirator of sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein — advised a prime official of the U.S. Justice Division that President Donald Trump was “a gentleman in all respects” and that she by no means noticed him do something inappropriate with anybody related to Epstein.
“Completely by no means, in any context,” Maxwell stated.
Maxwell advised Deputy Lawyer Normal Todd Blanche throughout a extremely uncommon two-day interview session last month that in her time with Epstein — which spanned from the early Nineteen Nineties to the mid-2000s — she by no means noticed nor heard of any improper or illicit exercise by Trump nor any of the well-known males who related to Epstein, in keeping with a transcript of the dialog made public on Friday.
“I by no means witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any means. The President was by no means inappropriate with anyone. Within the occasions that I used to be with him, he was a gentleman in all respects,” Maxwell stated.
Maxwell’s feedback got here because the Trump administration stays mired in controversy over its choice to not launch to the general public its investigative information on Epstein.
Printed experiences within the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal final month indicated that the choice to not launch the information got here after President Trump was knowledgeable that his title was amongst those who appeared a number of occasions within the paperwork. The president has denied that he was advised his title appeared within the information. The looks of a reputation within the Epstein information just isn’t proof of illicit exercise.
The transcript launched Friday signifies that Maxwell’s legal professionals initiated the request for the assembly with Blanche, however her representatives have insisted that no guarantees had been made by the administration in reference to the interview.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Donald Trump attend the fiftieth anniversary for each the Ford Modeling Company and Pantene hair care merchandise in New York, Oct. 30, 1997.
Richard Corkery/NY Every day Information Archive by way of Getty Photographs
“We have not spoken to the president or anybody a couple of pardon simply but,” Maxwell’s legal professional David Markus stated outdoors the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace in Tallahassee, the place the interview befell final month.
“After all, everyone is aware of Ms. Maxwell would welcome any reduction,” he added.
Trump, Maxwell advised Blanche, was “all the time very cordial and really form to me” in her interactions with him.
“And I simply wish to say that I discover — I like his extraordinary achievement in changing into the president now. And I like him, and I’ve all the time favored him,” she stated, in keeping with the transcript.
Earlier than any allegations of sexual misconduct in opposition to Epstein surfaced in 2005, Trump spoke glowingly of Epstein, and court docket information have included paperwork and testimony indicating Trump was a passenger on one in all Epstein’s jets at the very least eight occasions between 1993 and 1997. The 2 native New Yorkers appeared in images collectively at Mar-A-Lago, the president’s personal Palm Seashore membership, and at varied public occasions in Manhattan.
Trump advised New York magazine in 2002 he’d recognized Epstein for 15 years and described him as a “Terrific man.”
“He is a whole lot of enjoyable to be with. It’s even stated that he likes lovely girls as a lot as I do, and lots of of them are on the youthful aspect. Little question about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life,” he advised the journal.After Epstein’s arrest in 2019 on conspiracy and baby sex-trafficking costs. Trump, then in his first presidential time period, stated he’d ended his relationship with Epstein 15 years earlier.
“I knew him like everyone in Palm Seashore knew him,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace in July 2019. “I had a falling out with him a very long time in the past. I do not assume I’ve spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn’t a fan. I used to be not, yeah, a very long time in the past, I would say possibly 15 years. I used to be not a fan of his, that I can inform you. I used to be not a fan of his,” Trump stated.
Extra just lately, the president has claimed he cut up with Epstein after discovering Epstein was allegedly poaching workers from the spa at Mar-A-Lago, the president’s personal membership in Palm Seashore.After Maxwell’s arrest in 2020 for aiding in Epstein’s sex-trafficking, Trump was noticeably extra sympathetic.
“I simply want her nicely, frankly. I’ve met her quite a few occasions through the years particularly since I lived in Palm Seashore and I assume they lived in Palm Seashore. However I want her nicely, no matter it’s,” the president stated.
Maxwell stated that she first knew of Trump by way of her late father, the late British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, who bought the NY Every day Information in 1991.
“I could have met Donald Trump at the moment as a result of my father was very pleasant with him and favored him very a lot,” Maxwell stated. “And I feel, [it] ought to be stated that he additionally very a lot favored [Trump’s first wife] Ivana as a result of she was additionally from Czechoslovakia the place my dad was from.”
Maxwell stated she solely noticed Trump and Epstein collectively in social settings and that she didn’t introduce the 2 males.
“I do not know the way they met, and I do not know the way they turned pals. I definitely noticed them collectively and I bear in mind the few occasions I noticed them collectively. However they had been pleasant. I imply, they appeared pleasant,” Maxwell stated.
The 63-year-old Maxwell — a former girlfriend and longtime companion of Epstein — was granted restricted immunity for her discussions with Blanche. She was convicted in 2021 of sex-trafficking and different offenses linked to her facilitation and participation in Epstein’s sexual exploitation of minor women.
Maxwell didn’t testify in her personal protection, however her attorneys insisted on her innocence all through the trial. They contended the federal government was prosecuting Maxwell as a “substitute” for Epstein, after the accused baby sex-trafficker died in federal custody in 2019.
Within the interview with Blanche, Maxwell continued to insist she was not concerned within the sexual exploitation of minors.
“I am not saying that Mr. Epstein didn’t do these issues,” Maxwell advised Blanche. “I am not right here to defend him. However what I can say is I didn’t take part in that exercise.”
At her sentencing listening to in 2022, a federal prosecutor stated that Maxwell had proven “completely no regret” and had “made misrepresentations when it fits her.” A federal decide imposed a 20 yr jail sentence.
Maxwell has appealed her conviction however has to this point been unsuccessful. She presently has a petition pending earlier than the US Supreme Court docket for a evaluation of her case. The justice division has opposed her petition, and the excessive court docket has not but indicated whether or not it would hear her enchantment.
On the conclusion of the interview session final month, Blanche advised Maxwell that he had no plan for what would possibly come subsequent, however that he would proceed speaking together with her attorneys.
“So I’ll speak to Mr. Markus about what we will do subsequent, if something,” Blanche stated.
“I am not being coy. I simply — I do not know but. I do not know,” he stated.
