The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will soon meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Attorney General Pam Bondi has announced.
Bondi said Monday that Deputy Attorney Todd Blanche will meet with Maxwell sometime in the “coming days.”
“President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Blanche said in a statement posted by Bondi on X.
“No one is above the law—and no lead is off-limits,” Blanche wrote in a follow-up post on his own X account Tuesday, saying he’s contacted Maxwell’s lawyers.
“Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.”
On Tuesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee agreed to subpoena Maxwell.
“This deposition will help the American people understand how Jeffrey Epstein was able to carry out his evil actions for so long without being brought to justice,” Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said.
A lawyer for Maxwell confirmed to The Associated Press that there were discussions with the government.
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, said Tuesday in a statement: “I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”
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Blanche also wrote Tuesday that the joint statement from the Justice Department and FBI on July 6 — which said they had determined there was no Epstein “client list” and would not release any additional files on Epstein — “remains as accurate today as it was when it was written.”
The overture to lawyers for Maxwell, who in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in helping the financier sexually abuse underage girls, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of President Donald Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.
As part of that effort, the Justice Department, acting at the direction of the Republican president, last week asked a judge to unseal grand jury transcripts from the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell.
Some of Trump’s most staunch supporters in recent weeks have called on Bondi to resign, after she back-tracked on a promise she made earlier this year that the department would release additional materials, including “a lot of names” and “a lot of flight logs,” in connection with Epstein’s clients.
Legal experts, including one of Epstein’s former lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, have said that those transcripts will not likely contain the types of materials being sought by Trump’s supporters.
A judge could also deny the request.
In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Dershowitz called on the Justice Department to release other materials such as FBI reports of interviews with Epstein’s victims.
He also urged the government to grant Maxwell immunity so that she could potentially testify before Congress about Epstein’s crimes.
Epstein, who killed himself in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused children hundreds of times over more than a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14, authorities say. He couldn’t have done so without the help of Maxwell, his longtime companion, said prosecutors.
Last week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, in reference to the Epstein investigation, said “we should put everything out there and let the people decide.” This week, he’s appeared to change his tune, rebuffing pressure from Republican members clamouring for a vote to release the records.
According to the New York Times, “Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday that he would not hold a House vote this summer on whether the Justice Department should release files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, retreating from his demand last week that the material must come out.”
Johnson, who has relied heavily on Trump to hold onto leadership in the House, cast the president’s reticence to release information as out of concern for the victims of Epstein.
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Johnson decided to end the House’s legislative business early this week after he essentially lost control of the powerful House Rules Committee, which sends bills to the floor for debates and votes. Late Monday evening, business on that panel ground to a halt when the Republicans on the House Rules Committee abruptly recessed proceedings rather than risk more proposals from Democrats pushing them to release Epstein files.
“We have a moral responsibility to expose the evil of Epstein and everybody who was involved in that — absolutely — and we’re resolved to do it,” Johnson said during his weekly press conference Tuesday morning. “But we also have an equal moral responsibility to protect the innocent, and that is a fine needle to thread.”
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he was unaware of Blanche’s plan to meet with Maxwell, but said he thought it would be “appropriate.”
“I don’t know about it, but I think it’s something that would be, sounds appropriate to do,” Trump said while taking questions before a bilateral meeting with the president of the Philippines.
— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters
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Trump administration meets with jailed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell
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