Ghislaine Maxwell: could talking about Epstein be her get out of jail free card?
'Ghislaine answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half. She answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability,' attorney David Oscar Markus told reporters. 'She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question.'
Maxwell's highly unusual two-day sit-down with the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche – who served as Donald Trump's criminal defense attorney before working for his justice department – came as the US president tiptoes through a political minefield related to Epstein and his own social links to the disgraced former financier.
But Blanche's meeting – held amid rumors and denials of a pardon for Maxwell shortly before her sudden move on Friday to a Texas prison – did not just show Trump's flagging efforts at damage control over the Epstein scandal. Maxwell is simultaneously pursuing several other strategies to be freed from her 20-year federal prison sentence.
And, some experts believe, Maxwell's ultimate aim is probably not really revealing the whole truth and everything she knows about Epstein, Trump and other powerful figures. Instead, it is all about earning her freedom.
Maxwell's team is pushing the US supreme court to consider her appeal, which contends that she was shielded from prosecution in Epstein's controversial 2007 plea agreement – an argument that has been opposed by the same justice department that has now met with her.
Maxwell is also trying to make the most of a congressional subpoena, threatening to invoke her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination unless she is given immunity. Her legal team has also suggested clemency – which Trump could grant immediately.
This broad-spectrum approach, which several longtime defense attorneys said represented sound legal strategy, has prompted skepticism about whether any discussions reflect an actual desire to reveal truth. More, Maxwell's track record of alleged lying undermines whatever truths Trump officials claim they want to reveal in highly publicized meetings.
'If I were representing her, I would be doing exactly the same thing. The supreme court petition has virtually no chance of success. The issues raised are not novel or of general relevance to other cases,' said Ron Kuby, a longtime defense attorney whose practice focuses on civil rights.
Kuby told the Guardian that the supreme court agrees to take on 'only the smallest fraction' of petitions. 'Filing a supreme court petition is akin to playing the lotto, you can't win unless you play, but your likelihood of winning is slim, so it's a last-ditch effort that defendants use when they have enough money for full due process.'
The parallel strategy of actively pursuing clemency with the Trump administration is sound because Trump could commute her sentence or issue a pardon, Kuby said. 'Because these are all federal convictions, he can let her out of jail tomorrow,' he added.
As for why Maxwell would seem willing to shed light on Epstein despite a low likelihood of a positive outcome, 'she has nothing to lose.
'The question isn't 'why would she meet with them'? She'll do anything for people who can help with this,' Kuby said.
Eric Faddis, a trial attorney and founding partner of the Colorado firm Varner Faddis, voiced similar sentiments about Maxwell's strategy.
'For anyone who's been sentenced to 20 years in prison, it would behoove them to explore all potential avenues to try and better their legal position, and it looks like that's what Maxwell is doing here,' Faddis said.
Other legal experts agree.
'Maxwell's attorneys are doing everything they can to keep her out of prison,' said John Day, a former prosecutor in New Mexico who founded the John Day Law Office.
The Epstein controversy swirling around Trump may prove an excellent opportunity that few could have foreseen.
'This is a moment in time that wasn't there before, where she suddenly has an opening to try to get a change in her situation,' Day said. 'Up until the Epstein case resurfaced and the Epstein-Trump issues came to the forefront of people's attention, Maxwell was just doing her time.
'Suddenly, she is trying to make the case that she has information, and she has information that's worth trading for, and she's hoping, her lawyers are hoping, that somehow someone is going to decide that it's worth giving her a break.'
Should Maxwell receive any favorable outcome, it might do little to promote truth and much to foment uncertainty.
'If there is some kind of a deal that came out of the nine hours that Todd Blanche met with her, then any information that comes out of that is always going to be seen in the context of 'what was the deal?'' Day said.
Indeed, Trump's handling of the Epstein files has done little but sow doubt. The Trump justice department released a memo insisting there was no Epstein client list, and decided not to release extensive case files, despite his campaign promise to do so.
This backtracking on releasing documents helped fan the flames of controversy that came after the publication of a Wall Street Journal article claiming that Trump contributed a 'bawdy' letter to a birthday present for Epstein – compiled by Maxwell.
Shortly after the story ran, Trump announced that he had directed his justice department to request the unsealing of grand jury transcripts in Epstein and Maxwell's criminal cases.
This purported push for transparency, vis-a-vis Bondi's request for unsealing, does not appear to have quelled backlash against Trump. The Wall Street Journal on 23 July reported that Bondi told Trump his name appeared in the Epstein files on multiple occasions.
Epstein, whom prosecutors stated abused girls as young as 14, had long enjoyed the company of numerous high-profile men in his circle – among them Trump and Britain's Prince Andrew. Epstein killed himself in jail awaiting trial six years ago.
Trump's camp has insisted that a pardon is not in the works, with a senior administration official saying: 'No leniency is being given or discussed. That's just false. The president himself has said that clemency for Maxwell is not something he is even thinking about at this time.'
But at other times, Trump's comments on the issue have raised eyebrows, with him saying: 'I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.' He has also remarked: 'Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it' and that 'Right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.'
Top congressional Republicans are toeing the line when it comes to the idea of potential presidential relief, including the House speaker, Mike Johnson. 'Well, I mean, obviously that's a decision of the president,' Johnson said on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. 'I won't get in front of him. That's not my lane.'
The political benefit for Trump from a pardon – however unlikely – remains nearly nil, as it would do little to support his prior claims about wanting the truth revealed.
'The giant problem here – although what we have seen is that people are capable of believing all kinds of things if Trump says they are true – I don't think there's anything that Ghislaine Maxwell can say that will put any of this to rest,' Kuby said. 'Certainly, the optics of giving an actual convicted child [abuser] clemency does not easily align with the right wing's purported concern about child abuse.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
9 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Daughter of priest, 20, released from ICE detention after arrest during routine court hearing
A Purdue University student and the daughter of a pioneering Episcopal priest has finally been released after she was arrested and placed into custody after attending what was supposed to be a routine immigration court hearing. Yeonsoo Go, 20, who arrived in the US from South Korea in 2021 on an R-2 visa, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last Thursday outside the federal courthouse at Federal Plaza in Manhattan. On Monday, there were scenes of joy just after 8pm as mother and daughter were reunited at the very same place where her arrest took place - 26 Federal Plaza. Photographers were there to capture the moment as tears flowed between the two women who ran into each other's outstretched arms and embraced one another. Days earlier Go was arrested by ICE. The move ignited fury across faith communities, civil rights groups, and Korean American advocacy organizations. Go's attorney insisted her visa is active and valid through the end of this year, while the Department of Homeland Security says it expired more than two years ago. Monday evening's release came after protests this past weekend outside of the Lower Manhattan federal building. 'Everything just feels surreal,' said Go to PIX11 as she was walked out of federal detention with her mother, Rev. Kyrie Kim and headed back to Scarsdale, New York. 'I was praying hard,' she said when asked her detention at Federal Plaza and in Louisiana where she also spent several days. Her mother Rev. Kyrie Kim, is a trailblazing Episcopal priest and first woman ordained in the Seoul Diocese of the Anglican Church of Korea. She is working in Scarsdale on a visa sponsored by the Episcopal Church of the United States. Go, who graduated from Scarsdale High last year is currently a college student at Purdue University and had been in the country on a religious dependent visa, since 2021. Rev. Kim noted how so many other detainees are not as fortunate as her daughter. 'It's not [just] Soo in this situation,' Rev. Kim said. 'There are more, maybe, those in need of support. 'I'm just happy that she's with me,' she said. Church leaders and elected officials had been pushing for Go's release with another rally planned for Thursday. Mary Rothwell Davis, attorney for the Episcopal Diocese of New York, told 13News Go was released to her mother on her own recognizance, but did not know any other terms of the release. 'We are hopeful she will be back at Purdue in the next few weeks,' she said. Rothwell Davis also said Go was given a hearing date for her visa status in late August. Go was arrested last Thursday after what she thought had been a regular immigration meeting. But as she left the courtroom ICE agents were waiting for her outside. According to advocacy groups and church leaders, five plainclothes officers surrounded Go and detained her. No warrant was presented at the scene, and she was not given the opportunity to speak further with her attorney. Last week, officials with the Department of Homeland Security offered a starkly different version of events. 'Yeonsoo Go, an illegal alien from South Korea, overstayed her visa that expired more than two years ago,' DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. 'President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the US. ICE arrested her on July 31 and placed her in expedited removal proceedings.' But her attorney said such assertion was false. No warrant was presented at the scene, and Go was not given the opportunity to speak further with her attorney before being taken away 'She has a valid visa that expires in December 2025, and she has a pending application for extension,' said a legal representative for Go. 'The judge was satisfied enough to continue the case until October. There was no indication that she was to be taken into custody.' Since her arrest, Go was held in an ICE holding facility at 26 Federal Plaza, a building that clergy say is unfit for human confinement. She was also moved to Louisiana before being brought back to New York. The incident has triggered an immediate wave of protests and condemnation from across the religious and immigrant rights landscape. On Saturday, faith leaders, elected officials, and immigration advocates stood shoulder-to-shoulder outside the ICE building in lower Manhattan to demanding her release. By Monday, their prayers were answered. 'We call for the end of weaponization in our courts,' Bishop Heyd declared to a crowd of supporters and reporters. 'We stand up for a New York and a country that respects the dignity of every person.' The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) joined the Episcopal Diocese of New York and the Interfaith Center of New York to organize the press conference. Posters demanding Go's release were plastered on the courthouse fence, alongside flowers and handwritten notes of support from local high school classmates. Murad Awawdeh, president and CEO of NYIC, warned others with pending hearings to be vigilant. 'I think it's critically important that anyone who needs to go to an immigration court hearing call the New York State Office of New Americans and their hotline,' Awawdeh said. 'Make a family preparedness plan. If possible, work with a lawyer to set up a virtual hearing.' Korean American community leaders say the episode is part of a disturbing trend of rising enforcement actions targeting Korean nationals regardless of their legal status. Go's case echoes the recent detention of Tae Heung Will Kim, a Korean green card holder and Texas resident who was taken into custody at San Francisco International Airport last month. Kim, a Ph.D. student, was held at the airport for more than a week before being transferred to an ICE facility in Arizona. His family has not received information about his condition or location. As outrage builds, activists are demanding urgent federal oversight and accountability for what they say is a pattern of unjustified enforcement.
Reuters
9 minutes ago
- Reuters
Breakingviews - US-India standoff is about more than Russian oil
HONG KONG, Aug 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The standoff between the U.S. and India may well get worse before it gets better. Having slapped a 25% tariff on goods the South Asian country sends to America, Donald Trump is vowing to ratchet up the rate over the $4 trillion economy's purchases of Russian oil. New Delhi calls the threat unjustified and unreasonable. A deal with Washington is possible, but diffusing the situation looks tricky. Far from being a winner in the U.S. president's global trade war, India is rapidly emerging as a big loser alongside China. Trump's desire to isolate the People's Republic - and its exporters routing goods through Southeast Asia - was initially expected to benefit India, which sent $87 billion of goods to the U.S. last year. His sudden cooling on Russia, though, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reluctance to open up his country's agriculture market out of a desire to protect millions of poor farmers, have put India in his firing line. India's economy can withstand Trump's aggressions, for now. Nomura, a Japanese bank, reckons the 25% U.S. tariff on imports from India might shave 20 basis points off its 6.2% GDP growth forecast for the country's current financial year. Sure, New Delhi argues its purchases of cheap Russian oil, which comprise 40% of its crude imports, are a "national compulsion" and keep global prices in check. But India can manage without it: at 2.1%, its consumer price inflation is at the lowest level since January 2019, so giving up the roughly $4 discount per barrel on Russian supplies would not cause too much domestic pain at current prices. Yet India has a lot more besides oil to lose from giving Russia the cold shoulder. The duo's longstanding relationship may be undergoing a managed decline, opens new tab as New Delhi diversifies its weapons supplies, but Moscow remains a reliable partner to India and relations with the country buttress its multipolar foreign policy. Trump's decision to work with Pakistan to develop its oil reserves, and his subsequent taunt that it perhaps will sell oil to neighbouring India one day, further underscore why New Delhi may always keep some distance from Washington. India can perhaps afford to wait and see what the U.S. agrees with China. Beijing has vowed to protect its energy sovereignty in response to similar U.S. threats over Russian oil purchases. That poses a major obstacle for Trump to strike any grand bargain with the world's second-largest economy. Ultimately the U.S. may see value in preserving a warm relationship with India as a counterbalance to China. The wait, however, will be awkward. Follow Una Galani on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X, opens new tab.
Daily Mail
37 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Girl's family give heartbreaking update after she was severely injured in Miami boat crash that killed her 3 young friends
The family of one of three survivors from a horrific Miami boat crash has provided a heartbreaking update on the young girl's recovery. Calena Areyana Gruber, seven, was onboard a sailboat with five other campers at the Miami Youth Sailing Foundation summer camp and their 19-year-old counselor, when it collided with a 60-foot barge being pulled by a tugboat in Biscayne Bay on July 28. The impact from the crash left the 17-foot Hobie Getaway sinking underneath the barge, but Gruber was able to swim out to save her life, an attorney representing the family told the Miami Herald. She was rushed to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital in critical condition, but has since been released and is now recovering at home. Her family, though, says they still have a long road ahead of them as Gruber continues to have 'open lacerations and scrapes' all over her body. 'This little 7-year-old girl is devastated by what happened, both physically and emotionally,' attorney Justin B. Shapiro said in a statement, according to NBC South Florida. 'She was acutely aware that she could have died and she repeats that to her parents, and so it's going to be a long and difficult road for her. 'Her parents, of course, are committed to getting her all of the help and care that she needs,' he added, 'but seven-year-old children are not equipped to deal with this kind of trauma and so it's going to be a lot of work.' Still, he said, Gruber's parents - Karina Gruber Moreno and Enrique Areyan Viqueira - 'know that we could have been having a very different conversation today' and 'know that we're fortunate to still have Calena with us.' Two other young girls onboard the sailboat, Erin Co, 13, and seven-year-old Mila Yankelevich, died on their way to Ryder Trauma Center, with a Medical Examiner declaring they died of accidental drowning despite wearing life jackets. A third girl, Arielle Mazi Bucham, 10, was rushed to the trauma center in critical condition alongside Gruber, but has since succumbed to her injuries. The camp counselor and another girl, aged 12, walked away unharmed. In their own statement on Monday, Gruber Moreno and Areyan Viqueira said they are 'deeply moved and incredibly grateful for the outpouring of prayers and kindness we have received from the community.' They added that they were heartbroken for the families who lost their daughters in the crash, as they shared a photo of Calena arriving to camp on the fateful day. 'This is a deeply harrowing reminder of how suddenly and senselessly life can change,' the family's statement read. 'In an instant, what should have been a day of joy and connection on the water turned into a source of unimaginable grief,' the couple said, as they 'respectfully' asked for privacy 'as we focus on healing and processing this difficult situation.' The United States Coast Guard is now continuing to investigate what may have caused the fatal collision. Officials have already determined that both boat captains' toxicology reports came back negative, the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed on Friday. 'I can confirm alcohol and drug testing was completed for both individuals onboard the tug and barge as well as the sailboat operator. All results were negative,' a spokesperson with the federal agency said. Authorities also previously stated that the barge was supporting construction work in the Miami Beach area before the fatal collision. It was transporting a large crane parked in front of the pilot house at the time of the collision, leading to speculation the crane may have obstructed the tugboat operator's vision, the Herald reports. A loophole in Coast Guard boating regulations may have also contributed to the crash. According to the regulations, commercial tugboats that are under 26 feet in length do not require an operator to be a licensed captain. Coast Guard officials have not yet confirmed how large the tugboat was, but a review of photos and an analysis by two AI tools estimate the ship was under 26 feet. The sunken sailboat is seen after being recovered from the water The Coast Guard's navigation rules also stipulate that sailboats generally have the right of way over motorboats - but must yield to a vessel that is 'restricted in its ability to maneuver.' It is now believed Coast Guard officials will work to determine whether the tugboat was restricted in its movement as part of the investigation. Yet Miami Yacht Club member Katie Flood-Reiss has said that the sailboat's 19-year-old instructor would have had no chance of evading the barge in the bay. 'In those conditions, with almost no wind, it would have been impossible to turn that sailboat around quickly,' she explained. The investigation into the fatal collision may now take several months to complete. In the meantime, Gruber's family is pushing for changes to prevent similar accidents from happening in the future. Attorney Shapiro noted that waterways in Florida, the boating capital of the world, have become a 'lawless sanctuary.' 'Our clients want answers of course, but first and foremost our clients want this to never happen again,' he said. 'We need to shine a spotlight on this so that we can learn every possible lesson from this. 'We cannot have this collision in vain, we need to learn from it and we need to make our waterways safer by any means necessary,' he urged.
