U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, on Thursday in Florida, where she is serving time for her role in their sex trafficking scheme to abuse girls, according to a CNN report.
Blanche had announced Tuesday that he had contacted Maxwell’s attorneys to pursue any potential new leads as Trump’s MAGA base excoriates the administration over its handling of the so-called “Epstein Files.” A July 6 DOJ memo had concluded there were no more significant disclosures to be made in the case.
Maxwell will be transported from Florida Correctional Institution-Tallahassee, where she is being held, to the U.S. attorney’s office, which is located inside Tallahassee’s federal courthouse, ABC News reported.
Blanche declined to comment at the courthouse on Thursday morning but David Oscar Markus, an attorney for Maxwell, told ABC: "We're looking forward to a productive day.”
Maxwell, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in 2021 for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple girls with Epstein and is serving time at the federal prison. Her attorneys have taken an appeal of her conviction to the Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump was told in May by Attorney General Pam Bondi that his name appeared in the Epstein Files “multiple times”. The president denied to reporters earlier this month that his name was in the files.
Appearing in the files does not indicate that an individual has committed any wrongdoing, nor has Trump ever been accused of misconduct in connection with the Epstein case.
“This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the WSJ about the claims Trump was named in the files.
The president has filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the WSJ and its owners after it published a report last week claiming that Trump gave Epstein a bawdy birthday card in 2003. Trump has vehemently denied the claims.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee approved a subpoena for Maxwell. At the White House later that day, Trump said that the subpoena for Maxwell "sounds appropriate."
Maxwell’s brother praised Trump this week for making a “positive statement” about his sister, in an interview five years ago, when the president said: “I wish her well.”
Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Ian Maxwell hailed Trump’s 2020 remark. “I don’t think that anyone else showed the slightest piece of humanity, not anybody at that time, and yet he did. He didn’t need to. He’s the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. He could’ve just sloughed it off. He didn’t. He made a positive statement. I am very grateful to that and I know Ghislaine was too,” he said.
Last week, Trump requested Bondi release “any and all pertinent” grand jury transcripts related to the Epstein case. So far two judges have denied Bondi’s requests on legal grounds.
The White House has been trying to quell the uproar, including from its MAGA base, following the DOJ’s July 6 memo, which stated there was no “client list” of high-profile associates linked to Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme. The memo also confirmed the official investigation that the sex offender died by suicide in 2019 and said no further investigations were needed.
Earlier this year, Bondi has said she had a “truckload” of files to review from the FBI, and insinuated that the “client list” was sitting on her desk. In February, she released “Phase 1” of the files, a tranche of documents that included mostly publicly available information.
After the July 6 DOJ memo was released, the president’s MAGA following erupted, demanding more information. Democrats, as well as prominent members of Trump’s own party, including his former Vice President Mike Pence, joined the calls for increased transparency around the case.
Trump has pushed for the media and his supporters to move on.
“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable,” Trump replied to a reporter, who asked him about the Epstein memo at a Cabinet meeting on July 8.
The president has used Truth Social to blast his “past supporters” for buying into “this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line and sinker.” He wrote: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”
Earlier this week, a CNN reporter called Trump to ask about unearthed archived photos capturing Epstein at his 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, the president replied: “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The phone call lasted just 30 seconds before Trump hung up, the network reported.
