Justice Department wants to interview Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell
If Ghislaine Maxwell 'has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a post on X, adding that President Donald Trump 'has told us to release all credible evidence." A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed there were discussions with the government.
The overture to attorneys for Maxwell, who in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of Trump's base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.
As part of that effort, the Justice Department, acting at the direction of the Republican president, last week asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts from the case. That decision is ultimately up to the judge.
Epstein, who killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14, authorities say. He couldn't have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion, prosecutors say.
The Justice Department had said in a two-page memo this month that it had not uncovered evidence to charge anyone else in connection with Epstein's abuse. But Blanche said in his social media post that the Justice Department 'does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead.'
He said in his post that, at the direction of Attorney General Pam Bondi, he has 'communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department." He said he anticipated meeting with Maxwell in the coming days.
A lawyer for Maxwell, David Oscar Markus, said Tuesday in a statement: 'I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.'
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Follow the AP's coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case at https://apnews.com/hub/jeffrey-epstein.
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New York Post
a few seconds ago
- New York Post
Ghislaine Maxwell preparing ‘new evidence' ahead of highly anticipated meeting with feds, her brother explains
Ghislaine Maxwell is assembling 'new evidence' to present to the feds when she meets with them this week, her brother told The Post. Jeffrey Epstein's madame never gave her version of events to federal prosecutors before her 2021 trial, which resulted in a 20-year sentence for recruiting women and underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. She also never testified in her own defense. 'She will be putting before that court material new evidence that was not available to the defense at her 2021 trial, which would have had a significant impact on its outcome,' Ian Maxwell told The Post in an email Wednesday. Maxwell, 63, is the lynchpin in the Epstein affair and one of the few people still alive who knows the names, times, dates and places of his entanglements — both in business and private. Epstein died in jail while awaiting trial in 2019. 8 Ghislaine Maxwell is busy assembling 'new' evidence in her federal prison cell that could see her exonerated, according to her family. Talk TV 'If she squeals on some of the people that she has videos on they won't be happy, ' former Epstein sex slave Virginia Guiffre alleged in an interview with Gayle King on CBS News in 2020. Guiffre, who took her own life in April, became one of the most prominent accusers of Ghislaine and Epstein after she had been recruited by the pair and worked for them until 2002, during which time she claimed to have slept with high profile men including Britain's Prince Andrew and 'a president with a Spanish accent,' according to court papers. '[Ghislaine] was vicious. She was evil. Put it this way, Epstein was Pinocchio and she was Geppetto. She was the guy controlling the strings.' 8 Ian Maxwell has long maintained that his sister is innocent and that she did not receive a fair trial in New York. AP 8 Teresa Helm, who works as an advocate for victims of sex slavery, testified against Ghislaine Maxwell at her trial in 2021. Alec Tabak Maxwell – currently serving her sentence at FCI Tallahassee in Florida – also knows a great deal about Epstein's holdings, according to court proceedings. Cimberly Espinosa, who worked as a secretary for Maxwell in the early aughts, called Maxwell Epstein's 'estate manager,' working on his various projects, including his private island in the Virgin Islands. 8 Donald Trump and his wife Melania Trump partied with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell years before he ran for president. Getty Images 8 Ghislaine Maxwell pictured in a 2022 mugshot taken at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. At one point, Maxwell oversaw the shipping of sand and palm trees to the island, said Espinosa, who was a defense witness at Maxwell's 2021 trial and also testified she never saw her do anything untoward or illegal. Giuffre told an interviewer Maxwell organized the soirees and trips for the high-profile financiers and politicians who flew on Epstein's private plane and went to his parties. 'She was the booking agent,' alleged Spencer Kuvin, a Florida lawyer who represented some of the first victims of Epstein to come forward in 2007. 'Ghislaine would coordinate to get the girls for Jeffrey and his friends, and she would also make sure that his homes around the world were ready to receive him. She knows all the johns and she knows all of the victims, because she did all the dirty work.' 8 Ghislaine Maxwell's siblings have long said that their sister is innocent. Courtesy of Ian Maxwell Maxwell herself has always been reluctant to speak publicly and given few interviews. During a 2016 deposition in a civil case for defamation brought by Guiffre, lawyers criticized her for playing dumb — when asked about sex toys, she responded 'I need you to define a sex toy.' She also denied Prince Andrew had ever met Giuffre, despite appearing next to them in a well-circulated photo. Teresa Helm, a victim of Epstein, said she feels prosecutors will have a tough time getting the truth from her. 'She was crafty, successful and very articulate, and I think she's just going to make a deal to get released,' she said. Helm, who works as the survivor services coordinator for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation in Washington DC was recruited by Maxwell in 2002. She said she was recruited by Ghislaine, who didn't mention Epstein during their interview, then flew from Los Angeles to New York City. She says she was assaulted by Epstein upon arrival at his Upper East Side mansion, causing her to leave right away and return to Los Angeles. 8 Jeffrey Epstein and his longstanding lover and assistant Maxwell pictured in New York in 2005 Patrick McMullan via Getty Images 8 Virginia Roberts Giuffre called Ghislaine Maxwell the 'mastermind' behind the sex trafficking network started by billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. REUTERS 'I can't imagine that we are going to have to deal with another sweetheart deal that results in Ghislaine Maxwell getting released from prison,' she said. 'That would be tragic for all the women who survived.' Helm is referring to the slap-on-the-wrist plea bargain Epstein's lawyers negotiated in 2007, which saw him plead guilty to two felony prostitution-related charges, register as a sex offender and serve 13 months in jail. The deal came despite a Palm Beach police investigation providing evidence he had sexually assaulted numerous girls as young as 14. Epstein did minimum time under lock and key and was even allowed to be privately guarded at his Miami home during the daytime, and was free to travel internationally after completing his sentence. Maxwell, on the other hand, was handed 20 years in prison. She has insisted throughout that she was railroaded. Her lawyers have consistently argued she should have been covered by a non-prosecution agreement Epstein negotiated in 2007. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida shot down the Trump administration's bid to release a trove of grand jury transcripts from 2005 and 2007 connected to Epstein's case in the state. Maxwell is set to meet with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche imminently and also tentatively scheduled to sit for a deposition Aug. 11 to give further evidence.
Boston Globe
a few seconds ago
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Bondi facing Democratic calls to testify following report she told Trump he was in Epstein files
Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, responded to the report by calling on Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We need to bring Bondi and Patel into the Judiciary Committee to testify about this now,' Schiff said Advertisement The Justice Department declined to comment on the report but issued a joint statement from Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche saying that investigators had reviewed the records and 'nothing in the files warranted further investigation or prosecution.' 'As par of our routine briefing, we made the president aware of the findings,' the statement said. The mere inclusion of a person's name in Epstein's files does not imply wrongdoing and he was known to have been associated with multiple prominent figures, including Trump. Advertisement Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epstein's criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests. They include a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted she spent several hours with Epstein at Trump's Atlantic City casino but didn't say if she met Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. Trump has also said he once thought Epstein was a 'terrific guy' but they later had a falling-out. White House spokesman Steven Cheung on Wednesday said the reports were 'nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media.'
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