Senate Dems demand DOJ share Ghislaine Maxwell interview tapes, pledge not to pardon her
WASHINGTON – The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Richard Durbin, asked the Justice Department on July 28 for all recordings of its two days of interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein who is now at the center of a public furor over unreleased DOJ investigative files into a child sex trafficking ring allegedly headed by the two.
Durbin, D-Ill., sought all recordings and related transcripts in a letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the former Trump personal defense lawyer who conducted the interviews with Maxwell last week in Tallahassee, Fla., near where she is serving a 20-year prison sentence related to the trafficking ring.
The letter was co-signed by fellow Judiciary Committee member Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the former top federal prosecutor in Rhode Island and state attorney general.
The senators also demanded that the Justice Department commit to offering no pardon or reduction of Maxwell's sentence in exchange for information she provides, citing 'serious questions about the potential for a corrupt bargain between the Trump Administration and Ghislaine Maxwell.'
'What does the Justice Department want out of Ghislaine Maxwell? She's a proven liar and sex trafficker. The timing of her meeting with Deputy Attorney General Blanche doesn't pass the sniff test,' according to a social media post with the letter by the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which has oversight of the DOJ. 'They're on notice—no political games here.'
In their letter, Durbin and Whitehouse noted that Maxwell has been accused by Justice Department prosecutors of being willing 'to brazenly lie under oath about her conduct' in connection with the case.
More: Trump says he's 'allowed' to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell and he never went to Epstein's island
They demanded to know 'why would DOJ depart from long-standing precedent and now seek her cooperation?' given those accusations of lying, Maxwell's sex trafficking conviction and the 'troves of corroborating evidence collected through multiple investigations.'
The interviews with Maxwell, in which she was reportedly given partial immunity, are likely another tactic to distract from DOJ's failure to fulfill a commitment made by Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release all of the Epstein files in DOJ's possession, Durbin and Whitehouse wrote.
'The victims and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein have been repeatedly let down by the criminal justice system,' the senators wrote. 'Rather than engaging in this elaborate ruse, DOJ should simply release the Epstein files, as Attorney General Bondi promised to do.'
Trump has said twice in recent days, including Monday, that while he 'is allowed' to pardon Maxwell, he hasn't thought about it.
Last Friday, after Maxwell's second day of interviews with Blanche, her lawyer David Markus noted that Trump 'said he had the power' to pardon her. 'We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way," Markus told reporters.
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