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US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell

US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell

RNZ News16 hours ago
By
Chris Lefkow
, AFP
An undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and US financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Photo:
AFP / US District Court for the southern district of New York
The US Department of Justice is seeking to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, officials said on Tuesday (US time), as President Donald Trump struggles to quell a furore over the handling of the explosive case.
The former British socialite is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own pedophile trafficking case.
"President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence" about the Epstein case, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X.
The surprise announcement marked the Trump administration's latest effort to defuse spiralling anger among the Republican's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein's crimes and high-level connections.
Blanche said an FBI review of the evidence against Epstein, a wealthy financier whose powerful friends once included Trump, had found nothing to suggest new leads.
But if Maxwell "has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say", said Blanche, who was formerly Trump's personal lawyer.
"No one is above the law - and no lead is off-limits."
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions with the government and said "Ghislaine will always testify truthfully".
"We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case," Markus added.
Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs.
Trump's conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said on 7 July that
Epstein had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list
."
Trump has tried a variety of measures to placate his base, including by ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's aborted New York case.
At a White House meeting with the Philippine's president on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the entire Epstein scandal as "a witch hunt."
US President Donald Trump
Photo:
ANNA MONEYMAKER
However, the president's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement has long held as an article of faith that "Deep State" elites were protecting Epstein's associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood - although not Trump himself.
While no evidence has emerged of any wrongdoing by Trump, the president had a close friendship with Epstein and he sued the
Wall Street Journal
last week after
it published a story about a raunchy letter he purportedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday
.
The latest developments come just days after the federal prosecutor who handled Epstein's and Maxwell's sex trafficking cases was abruptly fired by the Trump Justice Department.
Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, a prominent Trump critic, was dismissed on 16 July from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan.
US Speaker Mike Johnson
Photo:
AFP / Drew Angerer
The furore over Epstein has derailed business in the US House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early to derail demands by Democrats for a vote to release the "Epstein files."
Epstein was found hanging dead in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.
The FBI and New York medical examiner ruled his death a suicide but the determination has done little to quell speculation in right-wing circles that he was murdered.
Among those with connections to Epstein was Britain's Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.
Billionaire Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump on X last month of being in the "Epstein files" after the pair had a falling out, but he later deleted his posts.
-AFP
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It was after that that criminal accusations first started to gather around Epstein, culminating in a 13-month prison sentence for prostitution in 2008. In 2014, Epstein approached Wolff, a highly respected New York journalist who had been the media columnist of Vanity Fair, with a view to being written about. Wolff had just begun writing about Trump, work which would form the basis of Fire and Fury, the first of his accounts of the President's time in the White House. Wolff's book, "Fire and Fury", about Trump's first presidency. Photo / Getty Images 'Epstein said: 'You can ask me anything, I have nothing to hide, and you judge for yourself whether I'm honest',' Wolff recalls. After a couple of 'pretty damn interesting' conversations, Wolff began attending the events Epstein held at his mansion on the Upper East Side, thought to be one of the largest private residences in New York. 'It was kind of extraordinary,' Wolff says. 'The people there were amazing. 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They talked about Trump all the time.' As the authorities closed in on Epstein prior to his arrest in 2019, he remained in touch with Wolff. In a piece from 2020, The Last Days of Jeffrey Epstein, Wolff details the acrimony between Epstein and Trump. Epstein refers to Trump as a 'moron', and makes derogatory claims about his leadership style. 'He lets someone else be in charge, until other people realise that someone else is in charge. When that happens, you're no longer in charge.' After the fall-out over their property deal, Wolff says Epstein came to believe it was Trump – who had close relations to the Florida law enforcement – who turned Epstein in before he was jailed for soliciting prostitutes in 2008. In the same piece, Wolff quotes Bannon telling Epstein he was the 'only person' he was afraid of during Trump's first presidential campaign, implying he believed the financier knew dangerous secrets about Trump. 'As well you should have been,' Epstein is reported to have replied. 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A protester outside Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse during the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell in 2021. Photo / AFP When the US Department of Justice finally released a tape of events that evening two weeks ago, analysts found that nearly three minutes had been cut out. 'It seems implausible that he could have killed himself in the way they say he would have had to have killed himself,' Wolff says, 'but equally implausible that he would have been murdered and all of the people, the FBI agents and assistant US attorneys would either know something or keep quiet about it. I don't know.' In the years since Epstein's death, Wolff has tried to draw attention to what he claims was the true extent of his relationship with Trump. But he has not gained much traction. 'I've been trying to place this stuff for a long time,' Wolff says, describing how he has pitched larger treatments of his 'endless amounts of recordings' countless times, only for the plug to be pulled at the last minute. 'It's so compelling that everyone's always interested, but executives decide it's too complicated and controversial. Because as soon as you start to deal with Epstein as a person with multiple dimensions, instead of just this evil guy, it freaks everybody out.' Virginia Giuffre was one of the most prominent and outspoken alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein until her death this year. Photo / Getty Images He says he thinks partly the press has not been willing to further confront Trump's friendship with Epstein. 'There has been, among the respectable press, a view that this subject is too icky,' Wolff says. 'Good people don't discuss this. He's the President of the United States, how can you link him to the President of the United States without evidence … It has something to do with the fact that there is not the language in the post-MeToo world to discuss sex. You have to talk about sex, you have to make distinctions between girls and women, talk about the complicated idea of consent of victims. It's very hard in the recent climate. 'People don't know how to approach this,' he adds. 'They think it's going to be too hot to handle, the right wing is going to yell at us and the left wing is going to yell at us and the women are going to yell at us and Trump is going to yell at us. We're not going to be a hero to anyone if we tell this story.' To judge by the renewed interest in Wolff's 100 hours of tapes this time, the weight of public pressure may prove decisive.

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