The lady thought to have essentially the most direct data of Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long sex-trafficking operation claims there was no consumer listing, no blackmail scheme and — to her data — no high-profile Epstein associates who dedicated illicit acts in reference to the infamous sex-offender’s crimes.
That is based on an account supplied by Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell to a prime official of the U.S. Division of Justice throughout a extremely uncommon two-day interview session final month, sources briefed on the contents of the discussions informed ABC Information.
Maxwell informed Deputy Legal professional Normal Todd Blanche that in her time with Epstein — which ranged from the early Nineties to the mid-2000s — she by no means witnessed nor heard of any inappropriate or felony exercise by President Donald Trump, former President Invoice Clinton, nor any of the well-known males who related to Epstein, based on the sources.
A transcript of Maxwell’s interview with Blanche, and audio of the interview, have been among the many objects supplied by the DOJ on Friday to the Home Committee on Oversight and Authorities Reform, in response to a congressional subpoena for the entire investigative information on Epstein.
The 63-year outdated Maxwell, who has been incarcerated since her arrest in 2020, additionally claimed she had been misidentified by a key witness at her felony trial and insisted she was not concerned within the sexual exploitation of minors, the sources stated.
Blanche — who beforehand served as a private protection lawyer to President Donald Trump — introduced his intention to talk with Maxwell in a social media post final month, because the Trump administration sought to quell the self-inflicted controversy surrounding its determination to not launch the federal government’s investigative information on Epstein, after repeatedly promising to take action.
The Division of Justice — in an unsigned memo launched final month explaining its determination — stated {that a} “systematic evaluation” revealed no incriminating client list and no proof “that would predicate an investigation into uncharged third events.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Avenue Live performance Collection Benefitting Wall Avenue Rising, with a Efficiency by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Avenue on March 15, 2005 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan through Getty Photographs)
Patrick Mcmullan/Patrick McMullan through Getty Picture
Maxwell was granted restricted immunity for the interview with Blanche, sources beforehand informed ABC Information, that means nothing she stated may very well be used in opposition to her, except she lied.
She is at the moment serving a 20-year jail sentence for aiding and collaborating in Epstein’s trafficking of underage women, which concerned a scheme to recruit younger girls and women for massages of Epstein that turned sexual. Federal prosecutors in New York stated Maxwell helped Epstein recruit, groom and in the end abuse women as younger as 14.
Regardless of her conviction at trial in 2021 — the place she declined to take the witness stand — Maxwell claimed in her interview with Blanche that she had been wrongly accused and didn’t obtain a good trial. She maintained, as she had achieved beforehand in a 2016 deposition in a civil case, that she by no means recruited anybody underage to therapeutic massage Epstein and by no means witnessed or participated in any felony acts, the sources stated.
Federal prosecutors charged Maxwell with perjury for alleged lies she informed in the course of the 2016 deposition. And the federal government repeatedly assailed her credibility throughout her felony case, citing her “willingness to lie openly underneath oath about her conduct,” based on court docket information.
Maxwell was indicted in July 2020, in the course of the first Trump administration. Her trial occurred in late 2021, whereas President Joe Biden was within the White Home. The perjury counts in opposition to her have been ultimately dropped after her conviction on the extra critical prices.
Blanche’s assembly with Maxwell got here simply days after the Justice Division fired Maurene Comey, a federal prosecutor in New York with essentially the most detailed data of the case. Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, led the felony prosecution of Maxwell.
Blanche — the highest deputy to U.S. Legal professional Normal Pamela Bondi –indicated that the objective of the Maxwell assembly was to find out if she had “details about anybody who has dedicated crimes in opposition to victims,” based on a July 22 assertion posted to social media by the DOJ.
In line with sources aware of inside deliberations that preceded the assembly with Maxwell, Blanche was inspired by some prime administration officers to hunt data that would result in felony investigations that may quiet the outrage from a few of Trump’s most vocal supporters.
“The FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche wrote within the put up. “Till now, no administration on behalf of the Division had inquired about her willingness to fulfill with the federal government. That modifications now.”
Sources informed ABC Information, nevertheless, that it was Maxwell’s authorized crew that initiated the request for the assembly. Maxwell has a pending software earlier than the U.S. Supreme Courtroom to evaluation her conviction. Her attorneys have acknowledged that they haven’t but requested President Trump to commute her sentence or to pardon her, however that Maxwell “would welcome any reduction.”
Blanche was accompanied by an FBI agent and one other DOJ official and Maxwell was with three of her attorneys, based on sources aware of the assembly.
The bizarre assembly involving the nation’s second-ranking regulation enforcement official and a convicted sex-trafficker evoked a robust response from some victims of Epstein and Maxwell.
Annie Farmer, one of many witnesses who testified for the prosecution at Maxwell’s trial, informed a federal court docket final week that she and different victims “unequivocally object to any potential leniency that the federal government could also be contemplating for Maxwell.”
Throughout 9 hours of questioning over two days, Maxwell was quizzed by Blanche about dozens of well-known individuals — politicians, enterprise titans and Hollywood stars — who had beforehand been named as having related to Epstein. And in every occasion, Maxwell indicated that she had by no means witnessed nor heard about any alleged wrongdoing, the sources stated.
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, informed reporters after the conferences concluded that his consumer had been requested by Blanche about “100 totally different individuals.”
“She did not maintain something again,” Markus stated.
Amongst these Blanche inquired about, sources informed ABC Information, have been tech billionaires Invoice Gates, Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk; political figures Ehud Barak, Robert Kennedy Jr. and the late U.S. Senator George Mitchell; and celebrities Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and Naomi Campbell.
The rumored existence of an apocryphal “Epstein consumer listing” has lengthy fueled hypothesis of a “deep state” cover-up to guard an elite cabal of alleged individuals in Epstein’s crimes. A few of the most vocal purveyors of the idea — together with FBI Director Kash Patel and his prime deputy Dan Bongino — have since taken up outstanding posts within the Trump administration.
However Maxwell stated there was no such listing and that she noticed no indication that Epstein had obtained compromising data that he used to extort others, based on the sources who have been briefed on the interview.
At one level within the interview, Maxwell likened the search to seek out others complicit in Epstein’s crimes to the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, based on an individual aware of what Maxwell stated.
Vital parts of the interview have been devoted to inquiries about President Trump and ex-President Invoice Clinton.
Earlier than any allegations of sexual misconduct in opposition to Epstein surfaced in 2005, Trump and Clinton every spoke glowingly of Epstein, and court docket information have included paperwork and testimony indicating that — at separate occasions — each males flew with Epstein on his non-public jets.
Clinton’s affiliation with Epstein was first famous publicly in 2002, after reporters realized of the previous president’s journey that 12 months on Epstein’s jet for a humanitarian mission to a number of African nations. Clinton informed New York magazine by means of a spokesman on the time that “Jeffrey is each a extremely profitable financier and a dedicated philanthropist with a eager sense of world markets and an in-depth data of twenty-first-century science.”
In that very same article, Trump boasted of his friendship with Epstein, saying, “I’ve recognized Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific man.”
“He is a number of enjoyable to be with. It’s even stated that he likes lovely girls as a lot as I do, and plenty of of them are on the youthful facet. Little question about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life,” Trump informed the journal.
Maxwell informed Blanche she had a friendship with former President Clinton after being launched by a mutual acquaintance, the sources stated. Maxwell stated she had prompt to Epstein that he permit Clinton to make use of his non-public jumbo jet to fly to a number of worldwide locations in Africa, Asia and Europe within the early 2000s. Clinton, Maxwell stated, had no explicit curiosity in Epstein aside from having using his aircraft.
Regardless of President Trump’s oft-repeated claims that Clinton had traveled greater than 20 occasions to Little St. James — Epstein’s non-public U.S. Virgin Islands property the place a lot of Epstein’s abuse is alleged to have occurred — Maxwell stated the previous president had by no means been there and would not have wished to go, as a result of he had no relationship with Epstein, based on sources aware of what Maxwell informed Blanche.
Invoice Clinton has beforehand stated by means of a spokesperson that he “knew nothing” about Epstein’s crimes, had by no means visited the island, and that every one the flights on Epstein’s plane in 2002 and 2003 have been related to work for the Clinton Basis.
As for the present president, Maxwell stated that she first knew of Trump by means of her late father, who bought the New York Every day Information in 1991. She stated she solely noticed Trump and Epstein, each native New Yorkers, collectively in social settings and by no means noticed or heard something inappropriate about Trump whereas he was with Epstein.
And at a time when her authorized crew has publicly signaled her hopes for a reprieve from the president, Maxwell, the sources stated, expressed admiration for Trump.
Printed experiences within the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal final month indicated that the choice to not launch the Epstein information got here after President Trump was knowledgeable in Might that his title was amongst people who appeared a number of occasions within the paperwork. The president has denied that he was informed his title appeared within the information.
The looks of a reputation within the Epstein information will not be proof of illicit exercise.
President Trump has stated he ended his affiliation with Epstein earlier than any allegations of sexual abuse have been raised in Florida within the mid 2000s.
Trump stated in 2019, after Epstein’s arrest for youngster intercourse trafficking, that he hadn’t spoken to him in 15 years. Extra not too long ago, the president has claimed he break up with Epstein after discovering Epstein was allegedly poaching staff from the spa at Mar-a-Lago, the president’s non-public membership in Palm Seaside.
Maxwell was escorted from her jail cell in Tallahassee to the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the 2 days of conferences with Blanche. Every week later, she was transferred to a minimum-security federal jail camp for girls in Texas, with no official rationalization for the transfer.
Maxwell is the Oxford-educated daughter of Robert Maxwell, the larger-than-life publishing baron whose rags-to-riches story captivated England. She lived an extravagant life among the many British elite till her father’s enterprise empire collapsed within the wake of his dying in 1991. She relocated to New York searching for a contemporary begin and was quickly seen within the firm of the mysterious multimillionaire Epstein.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and youngster intercourse trafficking. He died in custody a month later, whereas awaiting trial. His dying was dominated a suicide by hanging.
