DOJ Has ‘Productive’ Meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell

Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned former associate Ghislaine Maxwell met with a top Justice Department official for about five hours Thursday, her attorney said, answering every question in “a very productive day.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he would continue interviewing Maxwell on Friday.

The meeting in a federal courthouse in downtown Tallahassee, not far from the low-security federal prison where Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, comes as the Trump administration is trying to mitigate the political fallout over its handling of the case.

Attorney David Oscar Markus declined to tell reporters afterward what Blanche asked Maxwell or what she answered.

“He took a full day and asked a lot of questions,” Markus said. “She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability.”

Blanche said this week that he sought a meeting with Maxwell to discuss anyone else “who has committed crimes against victims.”

Blanche did not answer questions from reporters as he exited the courthouse Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how the Justice Department will use the information Maxwell provided in the meeting.

“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” Blanche said in a statement Thursday evening.

Maxwell has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear her appeal of her conviction. The Justice Department, which prosecuted her, has pushed back, submitting a filing last week urging the justices to reject her request and leave her conviction intact.

Epstein and Maxwell were charged with sex trafficking and other crimes in 2019 and 2020. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is serving her sentence in federal prison in Florida. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide.

Epstein and Maxwell were charged during Trump’s first administration. Maxwell was convicted during the early months of President Joe Biden’s term.

The Epstein case has long been of high interest for right-wing pundits and conspiracy theorists. Some accused the Biden administration without evidence of covering up key details of the investigation, purportedly to protect powerful people who may have participated in Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking crimes.

As Trump returned to the presidency, he and his top appointees at the Justice Department seemed to agree that the administration should release more case files related to the case. Attorney General Pam Bondi went on national television and promised to release a “truckload” of new information.

Those pledges never materialized, and the Justice Department and FBI issued a memo this month saying that they would not be releasing any more information related to the case.

Trump’s right-wing base responded with fury — and the Justice Department and White House have so far been unable to quell that outrage.

Responding to the backlash, Trump this month issued a directive calling on Bondi to release more information related to the Epstein case. Blanche cited that directive as a reason for scheduling the meeting with Maxwell.

The Justice Department also asked courts in Manhattan and Florida to release grand jury transcripts surrounding the prosecutions. A Florida judge denied 0ne of those requests Wednesday, saying she was legally barred from releasing the records from Florida grand juries that investigated Epstein in 2005 and 2007, under guidelines governing the secrecy of those proceedings.

The Manhattan court has not yet ruled.