
EXCLUSIVE Jeffrey Epstein's brother claims the true motive behind Trump's DOJ meeting Ghislaine Maxwell is nothing to do with 'what she knows'
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed on Tuesday he expects to meet with Maxwell in the coming days to see if she has 'information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.'
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking of minors on behalf of Epstein.
The move to speak to her is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent in the Epstein case, which has been shrouded in conspiracy theories.
It follows a fierce backlash from parts of Trump's base over an earlier refusal by the administration to release additional records in the investigation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has faced mounting pressure from Trump's supporters to release all materials related to Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
A lawyer for Maxwell said she would cooperate with the Justice Department.
'I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,' her lawyer David Oscar Markus said.
'We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.'
But Mark Epstein, brother of the disgraced late financier, claimed it was the latest effort to distract attention from unpublished evidence and the circumstances surrounding the death of his brother.
Two weeks ago, a months-long review conducted by the Justice Department and FBI concluded that Epstein died by suicide. Mark Epstein maintains his brother was killed.
He said: 'They'll talk to her (Maxwell) and ask her what her favorite color is. So they can say they talked to her. It depends what the conversation is about.
'Maybe she'll be afraid to speak, afraid they'll hold it against her and turn down her appeal.'
Mark Epstein said he knew Maxwell in the 1990s but had not spoken to her for several decades.
But he believed she would have information about interactions between Epstein and Trump.
'She could certainly verify that Trump was in Jeffrey's office many times,' he said.
He claimed a White House statement on Monday that Trump had 'never been' to his brother's office was 'the biggest crap I've ever heard.'
'I would speak to Jeffrey and he'd say he was with Trump. I know people in his office saw him there,' he said.
The White House referred a request for comment to the Justice Department. The Justice Department did not comment beyond Blanche's earlier statement.
Blanche said: 'This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead.'
He said in the recent Justice Department and FBI review 'no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.'
Blanche added: 'President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.
'I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days. Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.'
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump addressed the DOJ plan to speak to Maxwell, saying he was not aware of it but it seemed 'appropriate to do.'
He said: 'I don't know anything about it. I don't really follow that too much. It's sort of a witch hunt.'
Trump has long said he was 'not a fan' of Jeffrey Epstein, that he had a 'falling out' with him around 20 years ago and never spoke to him again.
Last week, the president sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal after it published a story about Trump's alleged friendship with Epstein.
Meanwhile, some of the president's supporters have continued to pursue conspiracy theories that Epstein had a list of high-profile clients. The Justice Department and FBI review concluded there was no such 'client list.'
Trump has urged his supporters not to be taken in by what he called a Democrat 'scam' and 'hoax' which was actually 'pretty boring stuff.'
Some of Trump's most staunch supporters in recent weeks have called on Bondi to resign, after she backtracked on a promise she made earlier this year.
She had said her department would release additional materials including 'a lot of names' and 'a lot of flight logs' in connection with Epstein's clients.
Since then, at Trump's direction, Bondi and Blanche have asked a federal court for permission to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell.
However, legal experts have said that those transcripts will not likely contain the types of materials being sought by Trump's supporters.
A source who spoke with the Daily Mail said that Maxwell would be 'more than happy' to testify before Congress.
'No-one from the government has ever asked her to share what she knows,' the source said.
'She remains the only person to be jailed in connection to Epstein and she would welcome the chance to tell the American public the truth.'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
14 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Sick sci-fi sex fantasy written by Epstein's first benefactor people say inspired his twisted island... before author's SON ended up arresting him
An obscure 1970s sci-fi novel — packed with graphic depictions of teenage sex slaves, breeding clinics, and aristocratic rapists — is suddenly one of the most talked-about books on the internet. Conspiracy theorists have drawn eerie parallels between its disturbing plot and Jeffrey Epstein 's real-world sex trafficking ring. The book in question, Space Relations: A Slightly Gothic Interplanetary Tale, published in 1973 by Donald Barr — a former headmaster of a New York City prep school and father of Trump-era Attorney General Bill Barr — has found itself at the heart of a tangled web of online controversy. Fueling the speculation is the fact that Donald Barr, a former CIA officer, once served as headmaster at the prestigious Dalton School on the Upper East Side, where Jeffrey Epstein taught in the mid-1970s, despite lacking a college degree. Though Donald Barr had stepped down by the time Epstein was hired, conspiracy theorists have seized on the timing, the lurid novel, and his son Bill Barr's role in Epstein's 2019 death in custody — as proof of a sinister connection. 'The Internet is abuzz with many bizarre theories,' reviewer Justin Tate posted on Goodreads about the 250-page book, which is now being sold online for as much as $4,000 a copy. 'Some read Space Relations like it's the Da Vinci Code, with hidden clues that might even reveal who killed Epstein. Others marvel over loose connections between Barr's plot and Epstein's crimes.' What has most stunned readers is how eerily similar the fictional universe is to the real-life sex trafficking empire run by Epstein, who abused scores of underage girls in New York, Palm Beach and his now-infamous private island. The plot of Space Relations follows John Craig, an Earth diplomat captured and enslaved on a distant planet called Kossar, where the ruling aristocracy maintains a brutal regime of sexual domination and forced breeding. Craig ultimately becomes a servant to Lady Morgan Sidney, a sadistic elite described as having 'high breasts and long thighs', and is compelled to rape a teenage slave girl as part of an intergalactic breeding clinic. Critics have called the book 'cheesy', 'bad writing' and 'incredibly creepy' — but that hasn't stopped a cult following from forming among collectors, conspiracy theorists, and critics of America's ruling class, who say the novel reads more like a disturbing prophecy than fiction. Just one year after Space Relations hit shelves, Donald Barr was headmaster at Dalton. In 1974, Epstein, then a college dropout in his early 20s with no teaching qualifications, landed a job there teaching math and physics. His brief stint at the school is widely seen as the springboard for his later social climbing — and grooming. It's never been definitively confirmed that Donald Barr personally hired Epstein. But it's that foggy link — between the bizarre content of the novel, Epstein's inexplicable employment, and Bill Barr's involvement decades later — that has sent the internet into a frenzy. Following Epstein's death at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York in August 2019, then-Attorney General Bill Barr promised a full investigation, calling the circumstances a 'perfect storm of screw-ups' — including non-functioning security cameras and asleep guards. He ultimately accepted the ruling of suicide, despite widespread doubts and calls for deeper scrutiny. Recently, conservative YouTube host Tucker Carlson featured a segment exploring the connections, interviewing controversial history podcaster Darryl Cooper, who called the coincidences 'very strange and unacceptable'. Cooper questioned Bill Barr's motives for dismissing Epstein's death as a 'suicide before they'd finished the investigation.' Donald Barr's son, Bill, came under fire for his handling of the Epstein suicide investigation when he was President Donald Trump's Attorney General in 2019 'It could all be a coincidence, but the odds are against that,' said Cooper. The claims have been debunked by fact-checkers, including Snopes, which labeled the theories 'mostly false.' There is no proof Donald Barr, who died in 2004, played a role in Epstein's hiring, nor are there strong similarities between the fictional interplanetary sex ring in Space Relations and Epstein's real-life criminal enterprise. Still, for a novel that once gathered dust on the back shelves of second-hand bookstores, Space Relations has found a strange second life — not as science fiction, but as the focus of one of the strangest conspiracies of the post-Epstein era. 1999 - Virginia Roberts Giuffre is allegedly recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell to became Epstein's 'sex slave,' at 17. She also claimed that he forced her to have sex with his friend Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth. 2002 - Trump tells New York Magazine that his friend Epstein 'likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.' 2005 - A 14-year-old girl tells police that Epstein molested her at his Palm Beach mansion. May 2006 - Epstein and two of his associates are charged with multiple counts of unlawful sex acts with a minor. State attorney of the time Barry Krischer, referred the case to a grand jury who heard from just two of the 12 girls law enforcement had gathered as potential witnesses. They returned just one single count of soliciting prostitution. July 2006 - The case is referred to the FBI by the Florida Palm Beach police who were unhappy with how the case was handled. 2007 - Epstein's lawyers meet with Miami's top federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, who would later become the Secretary of Labor in the Trump administration. They secretly negotiate the 'deal of a lifetime'. June 2008 - After pleading guilty to two prostitution charges, the millionaire was sentenced to 18 months in a low-security prison in exchange for prosecutors ending their investigation into his sex acts with minors and give him immunity from future prosecution related to those charges. In reality, Epstein was able to work from his office six days a week while supposedly incarcerated at the jail. July 2008 - Accusers learned of the deal for the first time. July 2009 - Epstein is released from jail five months early. July 2018 - The Miami Herald publishes investigative journalist Julie K. Brown's exposé on Epstein's long history of alleged sexual abuse and news of the 'deal of a lifetime' after Acosta was made Labor Secretary. February 2019 - The justice department opens an internal review into Epstein's plea deal. July 7, 2019 - Epstein is arrested after his private jet lands at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport from Paris. At the same time, federal agents break into his Manhattan townhouse where they uncovered hundreds of photographs of naked minors. July 8, 2019 - Epstein is charged with sex trafficking charges which detail how he created a network of underage girls in Florida and New York, paying girls as young as 14 to provide 'massages and sex acts.' The charges carry a sentence of up to 45 years in prison. July 11, 2019 - More than a dozen women, not previously known to law enforcement, came forward to accuse him of sex abuse. July 24 - Epstein was found unconscious in his cell after an apparent suicide attempt. He was moved to suicide watch at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. August 9, 2019 - More than 2,000 documents are unsealed which reveal the lurid allegations against Epstein in detail.


The Guardian
21 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Forged signatures listed on New York City mayor's re-election campaign petition
More than 50 signatures on New York mayor Eric Adams' petition to run as an independent candidate in November's election are fraudulent, according to a report published on Friday. The Gothamist said it had found 52 signatures from people who said their names were forged, including signatures of three people who turned out to be dead. The publication cited others who said they were deceived into signing the petitions. The discovery, if confirmed, is likely to be insignificant to Adams' independent campaign, which is required to produce 7,500 signatures to qualify him as a candidate. The Adams campaign has turned in nearly 50,000 signatures. Still, the finding adds complexity to a race to lead the nation's largest city that pits the incumbent mayor against Democratic party nominee Zohran Mamdani, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and ex-prosecutor Jim Walden. Cuomo and Walden, like Adams, are running as independents. Flaws in the petition system to gain access to the ballot are likely to be tested in the future as candidates look for ways to circumvent the ranked-choice primary system, the publication said. Candidates typically employ outside contractors to harvest signatures. In the case of Adams' petition operation, the irregularities were attributed to at least nine workers who together submitted more than 5,000 signatures. A single campaign worker collected more than 700 signatures on a single day, the outlet said, adding that some appeared to be submitted in 'strikingly similar handwriting among many residents in a single building'. The Adam's campaign did not immediately respond to request for comment. But earlier it had told the Gothamist it expected the companies it hired to follow the law, and it would conduct its own review of the signatures. An attorney for Adams said the mayor did not direct anyone to break the law and that his campaign would 'determine whether any corrective action is warranted'. Veteran election law attorney Jerry Goldfeder told the publication it is not uncommon for invalid signatures to be collected. ' Every now and again, somebody tries to cut corners, and they're generally caught and sometimes those cases are referred to the district attorney or the US attorney, and there are prosecutions,' Goldfeder said. The report comes amid heightened tensions in the city after a gunman killed four people in a midtown office building on Monday, including off-duty New York City police officer Didarul Islam, Blackstone executive Wesley LePatner, security guard Aland Etienne and property manager Julia Hyman. The Adams administration has urged New Yorkers to seek help and support from mental health services if they find themselves struggling in the aftermath of the attack, while Mamdani is walking back past criticism of the city's police, saying his prior calls to defund the force were 'out of step' with his current thinking. 'I'm not defunding the police,' Mamdani said on Wednesday. 'I'm not running to defund the police. 'I am running as a candidate who is not fixed in time, one that learns and one that leads, and part of that means admitting as I have grown. And part of that means focusing on the people who deserve to be spoken about.' New York City's mayoral election is scheduled for 4 November.


Sky News
29 minutes ago
- Sky News
Steve Witkoff's sanitised Gaza tour snubbed US doctor who said people being 'shot like rabbits'
We've seen this many times before. Highly anticipated talks and meetings with America, Israel's closest ally and the one country with the power to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change course, then nothing changes. We need to give Steve Witkoff time to report his assessments back to the White House before we can give a complete verdict on this visit but what we've seen and heard so far has offered little hope. The pressure on Donald Trump to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is mounting after a small but vocal contingent of his base expressed outrage. Even one of his biggest supporters in Congress, Marjorie Taylor Green, has referred to it as a genocide. It was little coincidence Mr Witkoff was dispatched to the region for the first time in three months to speak to people on both sides and "learn the truth" to quote US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who accompanied him to an aid site in Gaza. 1:56 The pair spent five hours in Gaza speaking to people at a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation centre and it's understood saw nothing of the large crowd of Palestinians gathering a mile away waiting for food. Their sanitised tour of Gaza did not include a visit to a hospital where medics are receiving casualties by the dozen from deadly incidents at aid sites, and where they're treating children for malnutrition and hunger. A critical trauma nurse at Nasser hospital told us a 13-year-old boy was among the people shot while Mr Witkoff was in the enclave. An American paediatrician at the same hospital who had publicly extended an invitation to meet with Mr Witkoff heard nothing from the US delegation. 2:12 Dr Tom Adamkiewicz described people "being shot like rabbits" and "a new level of barbarity that I don't think the world has seen". The US delegation was defensive of the controversial GHF aid distribution that was launched by America and Israel in May, hailing its delivery of a million meals a day. But if their new system of feeding Gaza is truly working, why are we seeing images of starved children and hearing deaths every day of people in search of food? The backdrop of this trip is very different to the last time Mr Witkoff was here. In May, life was a struggle for Palestinians in Gaza, people were dying in Israeli bombings but, for the most part, people weren't dying due to a lack of food or getting killed trying to reach aid. Mr Netanyahu's easing of humanitarian conditions a week ago, allowing foreign aid to drop from the sky, was an indirect admission of failure by the GHF. Yet, for now, the US is standing by this highly criticised way of delivering aid. A UN source tells me more aid is getting through than it was a week ago - around 30 lorries are due to enter today compared to around five that were getting in each day before. Still nowhere near enough and it's a complex process of clearances and coordination with the IDF through areas of conflict. Lorries are regularly refused entry without explanation. Then there was Mr Witkoff's meeting with hostage families a day later where we began to get a sense of America's new plan for Gaza. The US issued no public statement but family members shared conversations they'd had with Mr Trump's envoy: bring all the hostages home in one deal, disarm Hamas and end the war. Easier to propose than to put into practice. Within hours of those comments being reported in the Israeli media, Hamas released a video of hostage Evyatar David looking emaciated in an underground tunnel in Gaza. 0:55 Now 24 years old, he was kidnapped from the Nova festival on 7 October and is one of 20 hostages understood to be still alive. The release of the video was timed for maximum impact. Hamas also poured water on any hopes of a deal in a statement, refusing to disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is established. Hamas has perhaps become more emboldened in this demand after key Israeli allies, including the UK, announced plans for formal recognition in the last week. It's hard to see a way forward. The current Israeli government has, in effect, abandoned the idea of a two-state solution. The Trump administration's recent boycott of international conferences on the matter suggests America is taking a similar line, breaking with its long-standing position. Arab nations could now be key in what happens next. In an unprecedented move, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt joined a resolution calling for Hamas to disarm and surrender control of Gaza following a UN conference earlier this week. This is hugely significant - highly influential powers in its own backyard have not applied this sort of pressure before. For all the US delegation's good intentions, it's still political deadlock. Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza left to starve and suffer the consequences.