Donald Trump’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche offered Ghislaine Maxwell a limited form of immunity during her two days of questioning over former lover and billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, sources have confirmed.
Maxwell, who is serving 20 years’ prison for her involvement in Epstein’s sordid crimes, was the one to reach out to the Department of Justice to set up the meetings, ABC News reported. She apparently requested what’s known as ‘proffer immunity’ so that anything she revealed couldn’t be used against her at a later date.
This form of immunity is specifically provided to people under investigation or facing charges to determine the value of a possible witness. Maxwell has already been tried and convicted.
Pardon Speculation Intensifies
President Trump refused to rule out invoking his presidential pardon powers for Maxwell when asked on Friday morning, despite her conviction for sex trafficking underage girls.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about,” he said before departing for Scotland. When pressed further, he deflected, saying: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
However, Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said after her questioning: “There have been no asks and no promises.” He later appeared to suggest his client was angling for presidential clemency, telling reporters: “We haven’t spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet. The president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way.”
Two Days of Intensive Questioning
Maxwell, 63, completed a second day of interviews with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday afternoon at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, near the low-security federal prison where she is serving her sentence.
Markus claimed that his client spoke with Blanche about “100 different people” related to Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring. “They asked about every possible thing you could imagine – everything,” Markus claimed.
The lawyer said Maxwell “literally answered every question” and “didn’t hold anything back” during the nine hours of interviews over two days. “She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question,” he stated.
He also said Maxwell is being used as the “scapegoat” in the entire Epstein case and has been “treated unfairly for the last five years.”
Controversial Meeting Arrangements
The meeting has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and legal experts, particularly because Blanche is not only Trump’s deputy attorney general but also his former personal lawyer.
“The conflict of interest is glaring,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday. “It stinks of high corruption.”
Representative Dan Goldman, a New York Democrat, accused Blanche of “tacitly floating a pardon for Maxwell in return for information that politically benefits President Trump.”
Sources familiar with the arrangement described the limited immunity as standard, noting that since Maxwell has already been convicted, the only thing she could be charged for is lying in the interview, which proffer immunity does not cover.
Trump Deflects Epstein Questions
When questioned about the meetings whilst departing for his five-day trip to Scotland, Trump attempted to shift focus to other high-profile figures who had socialised with Epstein.
“You should focus on Clinton… the former president of Harvard; you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys, I’ll give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I sure as hell didn’t,” Trump said, referring to former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
The President insisted he “never went to his [Epstein’s] island” and told reporters they were “making a very big thing over something that’s not a big thing.”
Prison Conditions and Appeal
Markus detailed the poor conditions he says his client has experienced over the last five years since Epstein’s death in prison on 10 August 2019.
He said Maxwell was “treated like an animal” in prison and “woken up every 15 minutes.” The lawyer added: “We wouldn’t keep animals the way she’s been kept in prison. It’s unbelievable that she can keep her spirits up this high.”
Maxwell is continuing to appeal her sex trafficking conviction. The latest effort was opposed by the DOJ last week as she sought for the Supreme Court to take up the case, arguing that she shouldn’t have been charged due to a 2008 plea deal Epstein struck with the court.
Political Fallout
The Trump administration has faced sustained backlash over its handling of the Epstein investigation. Earlier this month, the Justice Department concluded that investigators had no additional evidence implicating “any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing” and that Epstein did not have a “client list.”
This conclusion sparked bipartisan outrage, with many believing it contradicts earlier statements from the administration. Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously stated she had Epstein’s client list “on her desk.”
Outside the courthouse in Tallahassee on Friday, a plane flew overhead with a banner reading: “Trump and Bondi are protecting predators.”
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Maxwell to testify before Congress on 11 August, though Markus said they had not yet decided whether to comply.
Historical Context
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five of six federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 for her role in helping Epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage girls.
Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. The circumstances of his death have fuelled numerous conspiracy theories.
Trump and Epstein had been friends since the 1980s, with author Michael Wolff describing them as “two guys joined at the hip for a good 15 years.” However, Trump has repeatedly insisted he had “nothing to do with the guy” and that they fell out in the mid-2000s.
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