Justice Department plans to reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell for a meeting
'Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know? At @AGPamBondi's direction, I've contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law—and no lead is off-limits,' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an X post on Tuesday.
Blanche added in a statement posted by Attorney General Pam Bondi on social media that if 'Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.'
Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus told CNN, '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.'
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls.
Blanche said they anticipate meeting with Maxwell soon. A potential meeting comes on the heels of a request from the Justice Department to a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony against Epstein, which took place behind closed doors against Epstein.
The Trump administration has faced increasing backlash over its handling of the Epstein files. Bondi had long promised to release as many documents in the Justice Department's possession as possible, but walked that promise back in a memo earlier this month announcing that there is no evidence Epstein kept a 'client list' or was murdered.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
6 minutes ago
- The Hill
Tulsi Gabbard is setting Trump's base up for the next Epstein disappointment
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is sowing the seeds for MAGAs next Jeffrey Epstein moment and perpetuating a dangerous retaliatory cycle. She has accused former senior government officials of directing a treasonous conspiracy to undermine President Trump's 2016 campaign. Nothing Gabbard has released proves that assertion, including the 2017 House Intelligence Committee report questioning the intelligence community assessment that Russia wanted Trump to win the 2016 election. That 2017 conclusion is at odds with the unanimous and bipartisan findings of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that found Russia did in fact try to influence the campaign in Trump's favor but those efforts did not affect the outcome. Gabbard's claims reinforce a long-standing narrative prevalent among MAGA supporters that Democrats sought to destroy Trump's candidacy, and then undermine his presidency, by manipulating information about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Gabbard's unsubstantiated conclusions will come back to bite the Trump administration the same way Attorney General Pam Bondi's inability to release the Epstein client list has upset the president's supporters. Unless the Trump administration is prepared to fabricate evidence, it's unlikely enough new information will ever be discovered to prove a conspiracy of the magnitude suggested by Gabbard. MAGA supporters will be waiting for the mass arrest and imprisonment of Obama administration officials that never comes. Gabbard, and ultimately Trump, will be left to weakly explain why the conspirators aren't coming to justice. Gabbard's powerful assertions came at a delicate moment for a Trump administration already caught in the middle of a similar storm of their own making about Epstein. From the start, the investigations and public communications about Russian interference in the 2016 election were mishandled. It's important to acknowledge that fact upfront. President Obama didn't have to release the government's conclusions about Russian interference a month before the 2016 election, conclusions that lent an air of legitimacy to accusations against Trump being discussed publicly by supporters of Hillary Clinton. The FBI's probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was itself predicated on flimsy information. Even if Gabbard's wild assertions aren't true, and there's no evidence so far to suggest they are, the judgement exercised by parts of the government during and after the 2016 campaign still left a lot to be desired. The Trump campaign had been the primary victim of the government's poor judgement, but former FBI Director James Comey evened the score a bit when he announced the opening of an FBI probe into Clinton's use of an unclassified email server days before the 2016 election. Democrats botched the messaging around Russia's interference with the 2016 election, either accidentally or intentionally inflating its role and falsely insinuating the Trump campaign had been involved. But Gabbard is now recreating their mistakes with her reckless accusations. Now that both sides have weaponized intelligence for political purposes, what matters is to restore trust in the intelligence community. Gabbard would say she's doing that by leveling her accusations in the name of transparency, but her aggressive assertions go beyond where the facts are leading and perpetuate an overblown narrative of government conspiracy. Already, Democrats aren't inclined to believe what she's saying, just as most Republicans never bought into the Steele dossier or the assertions about Trump's collusion with Russia. Beyond the trust gap with Democrats, Gabbard is setting the conditions for a major falling out with the MAGA faithful. After Epstein, this will be the second time that Trump administration officials allege a massive conspiracy but aren't able to produce evidence to support their claims. Trump's core supporters believe these conspiracies are real because their leaders, officials like Bondi and Gabbard, keep telling them that proof exists. They'll demand action over Gabbard's accusations, the way they are with Epstein, then be left with no choice but to assume the Trump administration is complicit in the coverup when no action comes. This is a distraction Trump doesn't need. He would do well to direct Gabbard to tone down her assertions rather than egg her on. Going forward, the intelligence community, elected officials, the Justice Department and the government in general should take a lesson from former President Gerald Ford. Ford understood that prosecuting President Richard Nixon would divide the country and create more problems than it solved. He made the hard decision to allow what was probably criminal conduct to go unpunished to allow the nation to heal. Except in cases of the most egregious crimes supported by the strongest evidence, the U.S. government should take a break from seeking to prosecute former government officials. Democrats spent years rooting for Trump to go to jail or actively trying to put Trump in jail for perceived crimes. Gabbard seems intent on doing the same in reverse. This is a bad place for the country to be, with the intelligence community being used against former officials and sensitive information being declassified when it suits a political purpose. This type of behavior will have a chilling effect on everything the intelligence community does and further divide our country. The Trump administration should be the grown-up in the room and break this dangerous cycle now.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell set to meet today with DOJ
WASHINGTON − Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche plans to meet with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell on July 24 to find out what more she can say about her dealings with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to news reports. CNN, ABC and NBC News reported the expected meeting with the former British socialite, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse. News of the meeting date comes as President Donald Trump continues to try and contain the growing backlash over the Epstein saga and his administration's recent decision not to release Epstein investigative files in the custody of the Justice Department. DOJ officials had no comment on whether Blanche was meeting with Maxwell. Who is Ghislaine Maxwell? DOJ turns to Jeffrey Epstein's ex-partner The meeting comes as many Trump supporters, Democratic lawmakers and even some Republicans demand the release of more information about the accused sex trafficker, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell is also reportedly set to meet on Aug 11. with congressional lawmakers after the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed her on July 23. In a social media post Tuesday, Blanche – who is Trump's former personal defense lawyer – said that if 'Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.' This is a developing story and will be updated. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DOJ meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell set for today over Epstein saga Solve the daily Crossword
Forbes
37 minutes ago
- Forbes
FBI Warning To 10 Million Android Users — Disconnect From Internet Now
Discconnect now, FBI warns 10 million Android users. In March, I reported that one of the largest botnets of its kind ever detected had impacted over a million Android devices. That massive attack was known as BadBox, but it has now been eclipsed by BadBox 2.0, with at least 10 million Android devices infected. Google has taken action to protect users as best it can, as well as launching legal action against the attackers, and the FBI has urged impacted users to disconnect their devices from the internet. Here's what you need to know. The FBI, Google And Others Warn Of Android BadBox 2.0 Attacks The FBI cybersecurity alert, I-060525-PSA, could not have been clearer: ongoing attacks are targeting everything from streaming devices, digital picture frames, third-party aftermarket automobile infotainment systems and other assorted home smart devices. The devices, all low-cost and uncertified, mostly originating in China, allow attackers to access your home network and beyond by, the FBI warned, 'configuring the product with malicious software prior to the user's purchase.' It has also been noted, however, that mandatory 'software updates' during the installation process can also install a malicious backdoor. Point Wild's Threat Intelligence Lat61 Team reverse-engineered the BadBox 2 infection chain and, as a result, uncovered new indicators of compromise that have been shared with global Computer Emergency Response Teams, as well as law enforcement. 'This Android-based malware is pre-installed in the firmware of low-cost IoT devices, smart TVs, TV boxes, tablets, before they even leave the factory,' Kiran Gaikwad from the LAT61 team said, 'It silently turns them into residential proxy nodes for criminal operations like click fraud, credential stuffing, and covert command and control (C2) routing.' Google, meanwhile, confirmed in a July 17 statement that it had 'filed a lawsuit in New York federal court against the botnet's perpetrators.' Google also said that it has 'updated Google Play Protect, Android's built-in malware and unwanted software protection, to automatically block BadBox-associated apps.' FBI Recommendations And Mitigations — Disconnect Devices From The Internet Now The FBI has recommended that Android users should be on the lookout for a number of potential clues that your Chinese-manufactured smart device could be infected with BadBox 2.0 malware. When it comes to mitigation, the advice is straightforward: users should 'consider disconnecting suspicious devices from their networks,' the FBI said.
