Epstein accomplice Maxwell angles for a Trump pardon. Would she lie to help him?
We don't know what Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted child sex trafficker and former paramour/accomplice to the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, said during a pair of prison interviews July 24-25 with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
And we don't know how Maxwell, now serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her despicable crimes, will respond to a subpoena issued July 23 by the Republican-controlled U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
But now seems like a good time to ask if anyone should believe anything Maxwell has to say about anything.
Ghislaine Maxwell has a history of lying about Jeffrey Epstein
Here's what we do know: Maxwell is in prison because she recruited girls under the age of 18, groomed them to be sexually abused by Epstein and then sometimes joined in.
"The victims were as young as 14," according to the Department of Justice.
Maxwell took these girls to the movies and on shopping trips. She asked them about school, while teaching them to submit to whatever Epstein desired. And then she denied all that.
Here's another thing we know: The federal grand jury in New York that indicted her in July 2020 – during President Donald Trump's first term – called her a liar. That indictment included two counts of perjury for allegedly lying while testifying under oath in a civil court case about Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls.
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The Department of Justice and Maxwell's lawyers mutually agreed to drop those perjury charges in 2022, soon after her conviction, if the court did not grant her a retrial. Prosecutors did that to help the victims whom Epstein and Maxwell abused avoid another public spectacle.
But Maxwell's grand jury indictment cites her own words from that civil case – "I don't know what you're talking about" – as she denied the kinds of sexual abuse that the trial jury later convicted her for. It's not a stretch to think the trial jury would have convicted her for perjury, too, if those charges had not been spun off into a separate case.
Why should we believe Maxwell now?
So why believe what she has to say now, as she sits behind bars in a Florida prison with a projected release date of July 17, 2037?
Doesn't it make more sense to wonder if Maxwell is willing to lie to help herself, if that also helps Trump, who was known for hanging around with Epstein, a politician who is again president and now is talking about how he has the power to pardon Maxwell?
Trump, who once exploited conspiracy theories about Epstein's 2019 suicide in federal prison – also during his first term – for political benefit, is now trapped in a quagmire of his own making.
He and the people he appointed to run the Department of Justice tried to back out of a promise to release documents about Epstein's crimes, infuriating his MAGA base and prompting a bipartisan call from Congress for more transparency.
So it's worth a close look at what Trump has said over the years about Maxwell, whom he socialized with in New York and Palm Beach, along with Epstein.
Trump, speaking at the White House in July 2020, just 19 days after the horrible allegations were made public in Maxwell's indictment, was asked if she might "turn in powerful men" while seeking leniency in court. Trump pretended that he didn't know much about Maxwell case while twice saying "I wish her well."
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Trump's kind regards for an accused child sex trafficker drew bipartisan rebukes from Congress. That didn't stop him from offering the same sentiment two weeks later, again offering good wishes for Maxwell in an HBO interview.
Will Trump's administation protect, believe Maxwell?
Five years later, Trump is still playing dumb about Maxwell – and hoping his supporters play dumb as well – as he openly floats talk of a pardon while also claiming to be out of loop in a scandal that is consuming his presidency.
Trump on July 25 noted that he has the power to pardon Maxwell while also claiming "it's something I have not thought about."
Three days later, on a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump repeated that he has the power to pardon Maxwell, while adding that "nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it.'
Well, check your social media feed, Mr. President, because Maxwell's lawyer, the same guy who sat with her for two full days of interviews by the Department of Justice, filed an appeal of her conviction on July 28 with the U.S. Supreme Court while making a direct appeal in a social media post aimed at you.
Attorney David Oscar Markus, posting on X, wrote, "We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the President himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein's crimes."
The appeal is based on the theory that a 2007 plea agreement that won Epstein a lenient prison sentence for soliciting minors for prostitution should have also protected Maxwell from prosecution.
If Maxwell is going to win some kind of protection right now, Trump is her best bet. But this scandal has metastasized for the president, and the very people he wishes to quiet down will certainly raise another ruckus if he pardons her.
This is what passes for bipartisanship now: People on the left, right and center of the political spectrum are all wondering at once why anyone would believe anything Maxwell has to say.
Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
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