(AFP) – The Justice Department released a transcript on Friday of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, in which she said Donald Trump was friendly with the convicted sex offender but was “never inappropriate with anybody.” Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, was interviewed last month by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer. The Justice Department released hundreds of pages of transcripts and audio recordings of the interview in what Blanche called “the interest of transparency.”
“Except for the names of victims, every word is included. Nothing removed. Nothing hidden,” Blanche said. The 63-year-old Maxwell was moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas following the interview with Blanche. Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections, died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls recruited to provide him with sexual massages. Trump, 79, was once a friend of Epstein and, according to The Wall Street Journal, the president’s name was among hundreds found during a Justice Department review of the so-called Epstein files, though there has not been evidence of wrongdoing.
A House of Representatives committee has subpoenaed the Epstein files and received a first batch of records on Friday from the Justice Department. Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and held as an article of faith that “Deep State” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood — but not Trump. These supporters have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said in July that Epstein had committed suicide, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a “client list.”
Maxwell, in the interview with Blanche, said Trump and Epstein were “friendly like people are in social settings.” “I don’t think they were close friends,” the former British socialite said. “I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” she said. “I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”
Casts doubt on Epstein suicide – Maxwell said Trump “was a gentleman in all respects” during the time they spent together beginning in the 1990s. “Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” she said. “And I just want to say that I find — I — I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now.” Maxwell also said she did not believe Epstein committed suicide in prison. “I do not believe he died by suicide,” she said. Epstein did not keep any sort of “client list,” Maxwell said, and she was not aware of any blackmail of prominent persons. “I never saw it and I never imagined it,” she said.
David Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, said she answered every question she was asked during the interview, which took place over two days. “Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case,” Markus said on X. “She never committed or participated in sexual abuse against minors, or anyone else for that matter. The only reason she was ever charged is that she served as a scapegoat after Jeffrey Epstein died in prison.”
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