Trump ‘allowed’ to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, but says now not the time to talk about it

Washington: US President Donald Trump noted he had the power to pardon convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell but said he hadn’t given it any thought, as Department of Justice officials completed a second day of interviews with the former socialite and Jeffrey Epstein accomplice.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said his client did not receive any form of clemency offer during about 10 hours of questioning by Deputy Attorney-General Todd Blanche at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, over two days.

David Oscar Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney, spoke with the media after her two-day interview with the Justice Department.Credit: AP

“They asked about every possible thing you could imagine,” he told reporters following the second meeting on Friday (Saturday AEST). “We’re not going to comment on what we’re hoping for ... No offers have been made.”

Later, Markus said: “We haven’t spoken to the president or anybody about a pardon just yet.”

But the lengthy meetings with Blanche – who used to be Trump’s personal lawyer – took place as the president comes under extreme pressure over his failure to release the so-called Epstein files, fuelling speculation that Maxwell could provide evidence that is useful to the president in exchange for clemency.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually exploit and abuse girls. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex-trafficking trial.

“Obviously, it’s no time to be talking about pardons,” Donald Trump said after landing in Scotland.Credit: Getty Images

Before jetting to Scotland for a mixture of politics, personal business and golf, Trump played down questions over whether he could pardon Maxwell, but acknowledged he had the power.

“I’m allowed to do it. But it’s something I have not thought about,” he said. He added that he never went to Epstein’s private island and said reporters should focus their attention on Epstein’s other associates, such as former Democratic president Bill Clinton (Clinton has always denied any wrongdoing, as has Trump).

Later, after landing in Scotland, Trump said he had no knowledge of what Maxwell told Blanche during their interviews.

Asked again about pardoning the convicted sex-trafficker, Trump said: “A lot of people are asking me about pardons. Obviously, it’s no time to be talking about pardons … you’re making a big thing out of something that is not a big thing.”

Trump left Washington two days after the House of Representatives went home early for their summer break after Speaker Mike Johnson headed off Democratic and Republican attempts to force the administration to release more of the records related to the Epstein investigation.

As Markus met Maxwell in Tallahassee, a plane was seen pulling a banner that read: “Trump and Bondi are protecting predators”, a reference to Attorney-General Pam Bondi, who had also promised to release Epstein documents changing her position.

Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1990s, although Trump says they had a falling out in the 2000s, and he banned Epstein from his Mar-a-Lago club.

This week, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump had been told in May that his name appears in the Epstein files. Trump has denied he was briefed as such, and is suing the newspaper over a different Epstein story.

Donald Trump and his future wife, Melania, with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2000.Credit: Getty Images

Markus said his client Maxwell answered every question and never invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself.

He also praised Trump, and speculated the president would sympathise with Maxwell’s legal argument to the Supreme Court that she should never have been prosecuted – because federal prosecutors in Florida promised immunity to any co-conspirators in a plea agreement with Epstein in 2007.

The government argues that did not bind prosecutors in New York, where Maxwell was indicted in 2020 and convicted in 2022. The Supreme Court has not said whether it will hear the appeal.

But Markus said: “President Trump is the ultimate dealmaker, he knows that a promise made on behalf of the government should bind the government.”

An airplane towing a banner that reads “Trump and Bondi are protecting predators” flew over the courthouse in Tallahassee.Credit: AP

Maxwell did not testify at her criminal trial as her defence team chose not to call her as a witness, and she was reportedly never interviewed by federal prosecutors.

“This was the first opportunity she has ever been given to answer questions about what happened,” Markus said on Saturday (AEST). “The truth will come out about what happened with Mr Epstein.”

Former Florida judge Jeffrey Swartz, now a law professor at Cooley Law School, told CNN it would be politically difficult for Trump to grant a pardon given the appearance of a quid-pro-quo.

“I don’t see how he pardons Ms Maxwell and lives with the four corners of what will be a massive attack on him for trying to buy her testimony,” he said.

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