Top Trump officials will discuss Epstein strategy at Wednesday dinner hosted by Vance

CNN

a day ago

JD Vance
Federal agenciesFacebookTweetLink
Follow
Top Trump administration officials will gather at the vice president's residence Wednesday evening as they continue to weigh whether to publish an audio recording and transcript of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's recent conversation with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
The administration's handling of the Epstein case, as well as the need to craft a unified response, is expected to be a main focus of the dinner, three sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The meeting will include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche.
The White House considers those officials the leaders of the Trump administration's ongoing strategy regarding the Epstein files, two of the sources said.
The meeting comes as Trump's administration is considering releasing the contents of Blanche's interview last month with Maxwell. Two officials told CNN that the materials could be made public as early as this week.
There have also been internal discussions about Blanche holding a press conference or doing a high-profile interview, possibly with popular podcaster Joe Rogan, according to three people familiar with the discussions, though those conversations are preliminary. Rogan, who endorsed Trump on the eve of last fall's election, has been highly critical of the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case and previously called their refusal release more information about Epstein a 'line in the sand.'
The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment for this story. The FBI declined to comment. Patel and Bondi have previously clashed over the administration's Epstein strategy.
Meanwhile, CNN previously reported that the Justice Department has been digitizing, transcribing and redacting the interview materials as they weigh if and when to publicly release the information from the Maxwell interview. There is over 10 hours of audio, a senior Trump administration official said. Portions of the transcript that could reveal sensitive details like victim names would also have to be redacted, one of the officials said.
One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down.
Trump on Tuesday defended Blanche's recent sit-down with Maxwell, arguing that Blanche wanted to ensure that people who 'aren't involved are not hurt' by something 'very unfair.'
Amid the clamor for more disclosures about the case, the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued nearly a dozen subpoenas to the Justice Department and high-profile Democratic and GOP figures for files and information related to Epstein — a significant show of defiance against Republican leaders.
Two of the administration officials said if they were to release the audio and transcript, it would likely be done sooner rather than later. One said the release could be several weeks from now, depending on what the most senior-level officials within the West Wing and Justice Department decide. It was not immediately clear whether the White House and DOJ were aligned on the issue.
'This is nothing more than CNN trying desperately to create news out of old news. [Trump] already addressed this issue in an interview with Newsmax, a real news outlet that routinely gets better ratings than CNN,' White House Communications Director Steven Cheung told CNN, when asked about the possibility of releasing the transcript.
A lawyer for Maxwell declined to comment.
Blanche interviewed Maxwell at the US attorney's office in Tallahassee, Florida, last month over a period of two days. Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a yearslong scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. She has continued to appeal her conviction, including with the Supreme Court.
Last week, Maxwell was moved from a Florida federal prison to a lower-security federal prison camp in Texas, a relatively uncommon move as those convicted of sex offenses are almost always deemed too high of a risk to public safety.
As Trump has faced mounting pressure from his base for transparency, the White House has repeatedly said the DOJ should release all 'credible evidence' in the Epstein files.
Asked about Blanche's meeting with Maxwell last week, Trump again said he'd like to see everything in the files released.
'We'd like to release everything, but we don't want people to get hurt that shouldn't be hurt, and I would assume that was why he was there,' Trump told Newsmax on Friday.
The president said he hadn't spoken to Blanche about his meetings with Maxwell and didn't know when that information would be made public.
'I haven't spoken about it, but he's a very talented guy, Todd Blanche, and a very straight shooter, and I think he probably wanted to know, you know, just to get a feeling of it,' Trump said.
CNN previously reported that a senior Trump administration official stated that the president is not currently considering clemency for Maxwell, though he has repeatedly left the door open on the matter in recent weeks, saying he's 'allowed to do it.'
CNN's Holmes Lybrand and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.
This story and headline have been significantly updated with additional reporting.