The US Division of Justice has launched the transcript and audio recording of an interview performed by Todd Blanche, the deputy legal professional normal, with the convicted intercourse trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
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In a post on X, Blanche stated the supplies have been being launched “within the curiosity of transparency”, offering links to the transcript and to audio files.
The discharge contains documentation from a two-day interview performed on 24 and 25 July. The supplies comprise redacted transcripts for each days, together with a number of audio recordings – seven separate components plus check recordings for day one, and 4 components plus check recordings for day two.
The division of justice gave Maxwell restricted immunity to permit her to speak about her legal case, however did not promise anything in alternate for her testimony, in response to the transcript that was launched.
“A very powerful a part of this settlement is that this isn’t a cooperation settlement, which means that by you assembly with us at this time, we’re actually simply assembly,” Blanche advised Maxwell. He added: “I’m not promising to do something.”
Maxwell, 63, was Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime affiliate and was convicted on 5 counts, together with intercourse trafficking of minors, and sentenced to twenty years in jail in 2022 for serving to Epstein sexually abuse teenage women.
Epstein died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking prices.
Maxwell, within the launched transcript, stated that she by no means noticed Trump do something inappropriate and he or she repeatedly showered Trump with reward. That form of remark would have been welcomed by Trump and his circle who’ve been eager to dismiss considerations about this relationship with Epstein which have roiled his help base.
“I really by no means noticed the president in any kind of therapeutic massage setting. I by no means witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any method. The president was by no means inappropriate with anyone,” Maxwell stated.
However she did element the social relationship between Trump and Epstein, who cultivated a large and highly effective social circle for a few years.
“I don’t know the way they met, and I don’t know the way they grew to become associates. I definitely noticed them collectively and I bear in mind the few instances I noticed them collectively, however they have been pleasant. I imply, they appeared pleasant,” she stated.
She added: “I believe they have been pleasant like individuals are in social settings. I don’t … I don’t suppose they have been shut associates or I definitely by no means witnessed the president in any of … I don’t recall ever seeing him in his home, as an illustration,” she stated.
The justice division attorneys additionally quizzed Maxwell extensively about Epstein’s relationship with former president Invoice Clinton, who travelled a number of instances on Epstein’s aircraft and – like Trump – has denied any wrongdoing or data of wrongdoing.
“President Clinton favored me, and we acquired alongside terribly nicely. However I by no means noticed that heat or that … that heat, or nevertheless you need to characterize it, with Mr Epstein,” she stated of Clinton’s contacts with Epstein.
After her interview with justice division attorneys, Maxwell was moved from the low-security federal jail in Florida, the place she had been serving a 20-year sentence, to a minimum-security jail camp in Texas.
Neither her lawyer nor the federal Bureau of Prisons have defined the explanation for the transfer which prompted a storm of criticism and raised eyebrows as as to whether Maxwell get some form of deal for her cooperation.
One authorized professional said that the release of the transcript was Trump “getting what he desires” from the interview within the newest effort to calm the political storms round his hyperlinks to Epstein which have dogged him for weeks.
“From what we see from this transcript, Trump is getting what he desires. She is saying that Trump didn’t do something untoward, nothing legal. That’s what Trump desires. Ideally, he’d additionally like names of Democrats who did do one thing flawed, as a result of that’s what the Maga base has been promised,” Dave Aronberg, former Democratic state legal professional for Palm Seaside county, told CNN.
