Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche completed a two-day nine-hour meeting with Githlane Maxwell on Friday, but what she said and the next steps in the Department of Justice’s highly critical Jeffrey Epstein investigation have not been made public.
For a second official in the department, interviewing witnesses personally is very unusual and potentially unprecedented. The secrets of criminal investigations are normal, but the prosecutors involved in the case are usually included in the question.
“I’ve never heard of the Deputy Attorney General doing this before,” said a former senior Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The victims of Epstein and Maxwell, who were convicted of recruiting and raising multiple teenage girls in 2021 and sexually abused by late investors, also questioned the lack of transparency. Jack Scola, the lawyer representing around 20 Epstein victims, asked Maxwell to attend an interview, but said it was not included.
Veritt Berger, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said that an interview with Blanche, who worked as Trump’s former defense attorney, may have performed.
“It could be a way to say, ‘Look, we dotted all me, crossed all T’s,'” she said. “It’s worth it to be able to say we tried to talk to everyone we could, including the co-defendants.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blanche and President Donald Trump himself struggled to quell the uproar since he announced that a thorough review of the Epstein case, in which the DOJ and the FBI investigated other individuals on July 6th, had not revealed any evidence of revealing. FBI Director Kash Patel and deputy director Dan Bongino both have spread conspiracy theories about the Epstein case – supported the DOJ’s decision not to publish these findings and other Epstein case documents.
Catherine Lynch, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and a legal analyst for NBC News, said Maxwell’s interview was also an effort to protect Trump, facing one of his second term’s biggest political crises in rage over Epstein’s investigation.
Trump, like dozens of other wealthy Americans, interacted with Epstein. He is among hundreds of individuals whose names are displayed in the 100,000-page Epstein Case document reviewed by the DOJ and the FBI.
“It’s hard to believe this isn’t a performance,” Christian said. “Or Todd Blanche, “Yes, President Trump had nothing to do with this. He wasn’t a client.”
What did Maxwell ask?
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Marx, is the head of Florida criminal defense attorneys and a friend of Blanche. Blanche appeared on Markus’ podcasts in 2024, with the host praised Blanche’s legal skills. After meeting with Blanche and Maxwell on Friday, Marx told reporters that the assistant attorney general had “doing an incredible job,” and asked Maxwell’s thorough questions.
“She was asked by maybe about 100 different people,” Marx said. “She answered questions about everyone, but she didn’t hold back anything,” he said. “They asked about everything you could imagine, everything.”
A senior administrator who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly said Maxwell was granted a limited immunity by the Justice Department to answer questions about the Epstein case.
It is common to grant limited immunity in criminal cases, and defendants can provide information without fear of being used against them in court.
Because immunity is “limited” and only applies if the defendant is telling the truth. If the defendant is found to have lied during the interview, the agreement will be void. The prosecutor may recommend plea bargains or tax cuts, taking into consideration the defendant’s cooperation.
This is not expected in Maxwell’s case, as she has already been convicted and has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Maxwell’s lawyer Marx argues that Maxwell’s trial is unfair and that her conviction appeal is pending in the Supreme Court.
Potential pardon or funnel
Trump, like all presidents, has the authority to forgive or commute sentences for those convicted of federal crimes. When asked about the Epstein incident on Friday morning, Trump said the focus should be on others who interact with Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president.
“We need to focus on Clinton,” the president told reporters. “We should focus on President Harvard, the former president of Harvard University. We need to focus on people from hedge funds.”
“I’ll give you the list. These people lived with Jeffrey Epstein.
When asked if he was considering giving Maxwell a pardon or notifying her of her sentence, Trump said, “That’s something I hadn’t thought of.”
“I’m allowed to do that,” he added.
Mimi Loca, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said she believes the recent firing of Mohren Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, is an effort to give Trump aides full control of the Maxwell case and limit the dissent of transparency and silence.
“That doesn’t look like a coincidence. They seemed to want Mohren to be free from the Justice Department,” Roca said. “You can make it possible to say, ‘What the hell, you can’t talk to my clients or the accused.’ ”
Loca, a Democrat who served as Westchester County District Attorney from 2020 to 2024, criticised Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell, saying he clearly failed to include prosecutors with in-depth knowledge of her crimes.
“The head of the entire agency that should be protecting the victim is giving her a platform to speak to her and give her what she knows without God verifying it,” Roca said. “The real people who can test her truth are not Todd, but the people who worked on this case.”
Laura Strickler contributed.
President Donald Trump spoke from Scotland’s Tarmac to dismiss Jeffrey Epstein’s request for transparency in his investigation. “You’re doing a very big thing about something that’s not a big thing.”
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