The Justice Department made interview material public showing Ghislaine Maxwell denying any observation of sexually inappropriate interactions between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell repeatedly praised Trump and denied under questioning that she had seen him engage in sexual behavior. The administration released the interview material amid criticism for previously withholding case information and appeared to seek political repair and to placate supporters. After the interview, Maxwell was transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas to continue serving a 20-year sentence for her 2021 conviction related to luring teenage girls.
Jeffrey Epstein's imprisoned former girlfriend repeatedly denied to the Justice Department witnessing any sexually inappropriate interactions with Donald Trump, according to records released Friday meant to distance the Republican president from the disgraced financer. The Trump administration issued transcripts from interviews that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell last month as the administration was scrambling to present itself as transparent amid a fierce backlash over an earlier refusal to disclose a trove of records from the sex-trafficking case.
The records show Maxwell repeatedly showering Trump with praise and denying under questioning from Blanche that she had observed Trump engaged in any form of sexual behavior. The administration was presumably eager to make such denials public at a time when the president has faced questions about a long-ago friendship with Epstein and as his administration has endured continued scrutiny over its handling of evidence from the case.
The transcript release represents the latest Trump administration effort to repair self-inflicted political wounds after failing to deliver on expectations that its own officials had created through conspiracy theories and bold pronouncements that never came to pass. By making public two days worth of interviews, officials appear to be hoping to at least temporarily keep at bay sustained anger from Trump's base as they send Congress evidence they had previously kept from view.
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