DOJ releases Todd Blanche’s interview with Ghislaine Maxwell

The Department of Justice on Friday released a transcript and audio files of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Blanche sat down with Maxwell over the course of two days. The transcript of the first day’s interview on July 24 totals 263 pages, while the second day, July 25, is 66 pages. The transcripts are lightly redacted. The interviews were led by Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney.

Blanche interviewed Maxwell in course-correction following public uproar over an initial decision from the DOJ and FBI to not release any additional information about the Epstein matter.

In the interview, Maxwell tells the Justice Department she “never saw” Trump “in any inappropriate setting.” Trump’s critics have suggested he is reluctant to release more information about Epstein’s case because he is named in the files.

“I think they were friendly like people are in social settings,” Maxwell said of Trump’s relationship with Epstein. “I don't -- I don't think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of -- I don't recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance.

“I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” she added. “I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Release of the transcript comes as the DOJ also released a first tranche of thousands of pages documents from the “Epstein Files” to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday, pursuant to the panel’s subpoena of the DOJ. The transcript of Maxwell’s interview was included in that release to the committee, a spokesperson said.

Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was convicted in 2021 on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Earlier this year, Maxwell urged the Supreme Court to review her case. The Justice Department had pushed the court to reject that appeal.

Blanche first asked Maxwell to explain her relationship with Epstein, from the first time they met until his death. Maxwell dropped Trump’s name quickly into her response, saying that when she visited New York in 1990, she “may have met Donald Trump at that time” because her father, who had purchased the New York Daily News, was friendly with him.

“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find -- I -- I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. And I like him, and I've always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell said the last time she saw Trump in person was “mid 2000s maybe” and said that she “absolutely never” heard Epstein or anybody else say Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or anyone in that world.

Blanche asked her to clarify if she met Trump before she met Epstein and she confirmed. He then asked her about other famous politicians or individuals who were in Epstein’s life in the early 90s and Maxwell responded, Congressman [Tom] McMillen, Henry Rosovsky of Harvard University and Tom Pritzker, cousin of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D).

Blanche told Maxwell at the beginning of the interview, “whatever you talk about today, you 12 have what's called immunity. So that means that the words that you say today, we cannot use against you in a case in chief, if we were ever to bring one. Okay?”

He added that the exception is “if you say something today that's not true, that's a lie, we can bring a prosecution against you for what's called false statements.” And, he said he wouldn’t promise to talk to judges that worked on her case.