Trump administration reportedly considers release of Maxwell interview


Trump administration reportedly considers release of Ghislaine Maxwell interview

The Trump administration is considering whether to publicly release a transcript of a late-July interview between Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Justice Department recorded Maxwell’s interview, which took place last month on July 24 and 25 at the U.S. attorney’s office in Tallahassee, and is now in the process of transcribing and redacting the contents for possible public disclosure, a source told the Washington Examiner. However, officials remain undecided, with one source saying a final decision has not yet been made and that internal conversations remain active as of Tuesday morning, according to CNN.

The revelation of the Maxwell transcript comes as the administration faces growing pressure from allies of President Donald Trump to release all credible evidence tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

If anything is released, it will likely happen soon, two senior officials told CNN, noting the timeline could still stretch several weeks depending on final clearance from top White House and DOJ officials.

Asked about the matter last week, Trump told Newsmax that he had not personally spoken to Blanche about the Maxwell interview but added that “we’d like to release everything, but we don’t want people to get hurt that shouldn’t be hurt.” Trump described Blanche as a “straight shooter” and said he trusted him to use judgment in what could or should be made public.

White House officials have said that the president is not considering clemency for Maxwell, as the Supreme Court weighs whether to consider an appeal of her conviction on the basis that she claims she was implicated by a nonprosecution agreement afforded to Epstein in the 2000s. The DOJ has urged the justices not to grant her case for review.

Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for her role in helping Epstein groom and abuse underage girls. Just days after the DOJ interview, she was quietly transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas — a move that prompted sharp criticism from some of Epstein’s victims, who called it an unwarranted leniency.

DOJ filings show Maxwell grand jury transcripts reveal few new details

While discussions over the Blanche-Maxwell interview play out behind closed doors, the Justice Department on Monday filed a new court document stating that most of the material presented to the grand jury in the Maxwell case is already publicly known.

In a letter to two federal judges in New York, signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Blanche, the pair said they provided an annotated version of the grand jury transcript to identify what, if anything, remains sealed. According to the filing, aside from the names of certain victims and witnesses, “much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony … was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported.”

DOJ officials said they are not asking for the release of any grand jury exhibits at this time, though they requested more time to finalize the department’s position on whether to unseal them. A separate notice was also filed with the court outlining efforts to notify all victims referenced in the transcripts, except one person who has not been located.

U.S. District Judge Adam Engelmayer, who is handling the Maxwell case, granted the administration’s request to set a Friday deadline to determine whether its motion to unseal also covers grand jury exhibits. He also ordered the government to submit by hand any submissions by the victims in unredacted form, so the court can publish a public version with redactions to protect any personally identifying information.

The government clarified Monday that it was able to contact all relevant victims aside from one, who could not be reached, per the DOJ’s filing. Shortly before the government’s filing, two victims made requests to ensure their names and personally identifying information were kept hidden from the public eye.

Meanwhile, the DOJ notably revealed the timeline for when grand juries convened over the cases of Maxwell and Epstein in its letter to the judges. Maxwell’s grand jury met on June 29 and July 8, 2020, before her indictment, and again on March 29, 2021, for additional charges. For Epstein, the grand jury convened on June 18 and July 2, 2019, just before his arrest.

ANONYMOUS EPSTEIN VICTIMS ASK JUDGE TO SHIELD THEIR IDENTITIES IN GRAND JURY FILES

Judges handling oversight of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury transcripts are expected to rule in the coming weeks on whether the grand jury materials will be unsealed.

The Washington Examiner contacted officials at the White House, the DOJ, and an attorney for Maxwell for comment.



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