A top Department of Justice official repeatedly questioned sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell about interactions with President Donald Trump — a former friend of Epstein — during a two-day interview in July, newly released transcripts revealed Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Friday in a social media post that the DOJ was releasing the complete transcript and audio of their sitdown "In the interest of transparency."
Read the transcripts:
Blanche, who previously served as Trump's criminal defense lawyer, asked Maxwell last month, "Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world?" according to the transcripts.
"Absolutely never, in any context," said Maxwell during the interview, which was conducted at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida.
Maxwell, at other points during the interview, said she did not know of any wrongdoing by Trump, whom she praised.
The interview was conducted near the federal prison where she had been serving her 20-year sentence for procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
The Trump administration has been criticized for weeks for reneging on promises to release investigative files about Epstein, who killed himself in August 2019 after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges during Trump's first term in the White House.
Maxwell told Blanche last month that she did not believe the official findings that Epstein committed suicide, which many of Trump's supporters have also questioned.
Trump has called the controversy over the DOJ's decision not to release the Epstein files a "hoax" created by Democrats, even as many of his fellow Republicans in Congress call for their release.
Days after Blanche's interview with Maxwell in July, Trump noted to reporters that he had the power to pardon her, although no one had asked her to do so.
Brittany Henderson, an attorney for numerous Epstein victims and survivors, in a statement Friday, said, "Ghislaine Maxwell was federally indicted on two perjury counts as a result of her testimony during" a civil deposition related to a lawsuit.
"Having been convicted of sex trafficking, she is now in jail presumably hoping that she will receive a pardon from President Trump," Henderson said. "I can't imagine that her testimony will be given much weight by anyone with any knowledge whatsoever of her involvement with Jeffrey Epstein."
Maxwell, in her interview, said, "I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting," after Blanche asked about her and Epstein's visits to the spa at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's resort and current residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
"I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody," she told Blanche. "In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects."
Maxwell also said she was unaware of any efforts by Epstein to blackmail people he knew over any interactions they may have had with women or girls in his orbit.
Maxwell said she could not recall specifics about an album of well-wishes she compiled for Epstein's 50th birthday, the existence of which was revealed after The Wall Street Journal reported that a "bawdy" letter sent to Epstein bore Trump's signature.
Trump denied sending that letter and is suing the Journal for defamation over its report.
Maxwell told Blanche said she did not remember the names of anyone who sent in letters, saying, "It's been so long."
Asked if she recalled Trump submitting a note, she said, "I don't.
Maxwell, who has asked the Supreme Court to take her appeal of her conviction, had been serving her sentence in a federal prison in Florida.
But after her interview with Blanche, she was transferred to a less-restrictive federal lockup in Texas, a move that was blasted by victims of Epstein.
Maxwell, in her interview, poured cold water on Trump's efforts to closely link former President Bill Clinton to Epstein. Trump has suggested that Clinton visited Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands multiple times, which Clinton has denied. Epstein is known to have sexually abused many victims on that island.
Clinton "absolutely never went" to the island," Maxwell said.
"And I can be sure of that because there's no way he would've gone — I don't believe there's any way that he would've gone to the island, had I not been there," Maxwell said.
"Because I don't believe he had an independent friendship, if you will, with Epstein. Did they speak? Did he go? Yes, but that's very different from going to spend time on an island."
Clinton, however, is known to have traveled on Epstein's private jet multiple times.
Maxwell's attorney David Markus, in a statement about Friday's release of Blanche's interview, said, "Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case."
"The only reason she was ever charged is that she served as a scapegoat after Jeffrey Epstein died in prison," Markus said. "Ms. Maxwell did not receive a fair trial. Jurors lied to get on the jury, and the outcome was tainted from the start."
"The materials newly released by the Department of Justice make this clear. Ms. Maxwell answered every question," the attorney said. "She did not refuse to respond and did not dodge any question. She supported her answers with documents and other objective evidence."
