logo
US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell

US Justice Department plans to interview Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, officials said Tuesday, as President Donald Trump struggles to quell a furor over the handling of the explosive case.
The former British socialite is currently serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking minors on behalf of Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own pedophile trafficking case.
"President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence" about the Epstein case, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement on X.
The surprise announcement marked the Trump administration's latest effort to defuse spiraling anger among the Republican's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of Epstein's crimes and high-level connections.
Blanche said an FBI review of the evidence against Epstein — a wealthy financier whose powerful friends once included Trump — had found nothing to suggest new leads.
But if Maxwell "has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," said Blanche, who was formerly Trump's personal lawyer. "No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits."
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell's lawyer, confirmed on X that he was in discussions with the government and said "Ghislaine will always testify truthfully."
"We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case," Markus added.
Maxwell is the only former Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs.
Trump's conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been up in arms since the FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that Epstein had committed suicide while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures, and did not keep a "client list."
Trump has tried a variety of measures to placate his base, including by ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to try to obtain release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's aborted New York case.
At a White House meeting with the Philippine's president on Tuesday, Trump dismissed the entire Epstein scandal as "a witch hunt."
However, the president's MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement has long held as an article of faith that "Deep State" elites were protecting Epstein's associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood — although not Trump himself.
While no evidence has emerged of any wrongdoing by Trump, the president had a close friendship with Epstein and he sued the Wall Street Journal last week after it published a story about a raunchy letter he purportedly sent to Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The latest developments come just days after the federal prosecutor who handled Epstein's and Maxwell's sex trafficking cases was abruptly fired by the Trump Justice Department.
Maurene Comey — the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, a prominent Trump critic — was dismissed on July 16 from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan.
The furor over Epstein has derailed business in the US House of Representatives, where Speaker Mike Johnson is sending lawmakers home early to derail demands by Democrats for a vote to release the "Epstein files."
Epstein was found hanging dead in his New York prison cell while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited dozens of underage girls at his homes in New York and Florida.
The FBI and New York medical examiner ruled his death a suicide but the determination has done little to quell speculation in right-wing circles that he was murdered.
Among those with connections to Epstein was Britain's Prince Andrew, who settled a US civil case in February 2022 brought by Virginia Giuffre, who claimed he sexually assaulted her when she was 17.
Giuffre, who accused Epstein of using her as a sex slave, committed suicide at her home in Australia in April.
Billionaire Elon Musk accused President Donald Trump on X last month of being in the "Epstein files" after the pair had a falling out, but he later deleted his posts.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Disputed borders and denied towers: Israel pushes back on monitoring plan
Disputed borders and denied towers: Israel pushes back on monitoring plan

LBCI

time13 hours ago

  • LBCI

Disputed borders and denied towers: Israel pushes back on monitoring plan

Report by Amal Shehadeh, English adaptation by Yasmine Jaroudi Israel has continued efforts to legitimize its hold over five disputed sites along the Lebanese border, releasing a "wide-ranging intelligence report' on Lebanon and the Syrian-Lebanese frontier. The report claims that Hezbollah is strengthening its presence in South Lebanon. Meanwhile, the Israeli border town of Shlomi has seen a spike in military drills and readiness for potential surprise escalations, including scenarios involving infiltration. Along the tense frontier, elite commando units, explosive experts, assault teams, surveillance personnel, and drone squads have been deployed to prevent a repeat of the October 7 incident. In parallel, the head of research at the Alma Research and Education Center revealed that Israel recently turned down a British proposal to fund the installation of more than 29 surveillance towers in Lebanon. According to the center's head, the UK has been increasing efforts to finance the construction of observation posts and monitoring systems for use by the Lebanese Army along the border with Israel. The center argued in its report that such infrastructure could compromise Israel's security and be exploited by Hezbollah. It concluded that surveillance towers would not serve as an adequate substitute for a continued Israeli military presence along the border and within the five contested sites.

Justice department official expected to meet Epstein accomplice Maxwell
Justice department official expected to meet Epstein accomplice Maxwell

MTV Lebanon

time16 hours ago

  • MTV Lebanon

Justice department official expected to meet Epstein accomplice Maxwell

Jeffrey Epstein's long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell is meeting justice department officials as pressure grows on the Trump administration to release files linked to the financier's sex trafficking network, US media report. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said he planned to speak to Maxwell about any information she had on other people whom Epstein may have helped sexually abuse girls. The meeting is expected to take place on Thursday in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, ABC News reported. Her lawyer told the BBC that Maxwell was looking "forward to her meeting", which could help determine whether she will testify before Congress. The latest developments come as interest has switched back to Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex-trafficker in prison for helping Epstein abuse young girls. Calls have grown from the public - including President Donald Trump's loyal supporters - and lawmakers for the justice department to release files related to the Epstein case. "If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche wrote in a post on X earlier this week. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump during a May briefing that his name appeared in DOJ documents related to the Epstein case. The White House has pushed back dismissing the story as "fake news". Being named in the documents is not evidence of any criminal activity, nor has Trump ever been accused of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein case. While campaigning for the presidency last year, Trump had promised to release such files about the well-connected sex offender. But his supporters have since grown frustrated with the administration's handling of the issue, including its failure to deliver a rumoured "client list" of Epstein. In a memo earlier this month, the justice department and FBI said there was no such list. Epstein died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, following an earlier conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. His death was ruled a suicide. In the years since, conspiracy theories about the nature of his crimes and his death itself have proliferated. On Wednesday, a sub-committee of the US House of Representatives voted to subpoena the justice department for the files, which must be signed off by the committee chairman. Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have also subpoenaed Maxwell to testify before the panel remotely from prison on 11 August. House Speaker Mike Johnson has warned that Maxwell - who for years helped Epstein groom and sexually abuse girls - cannot be trusted to provide accurate testimony. Her attorney, David Oscar Markus, told the BBC the concerns were "unfounded" and that if she chooses to testify, rather than invoke her constitutional right to remain silent, "she would testify truthfully, as she always has said she would". Last week, the justice department asked a federal judge to release years-old grand jury testimony related to a 2006 Florida investigation into Epstein, but a federal judge in the state on Wednesday declined to make the documents public.

White House pushes Obama 'coup' story to distract from Epstein
White House pushes Obama 'coup' story to distract from Epstein

Nahar Net

time18 hours ago

  • Nahar Net

White House pushes Obama 'coup' story to distract from Epstein

by Naharnet Newsdesk 24 July 2025, 17:28 The White House pulled out all the stops Wednesday to promote claims that Barack Obama headed a "treasonous conspiracy" against Donald Trump, seeking to redirect public attention from uproar over its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein affair. Trump's intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard told a White House press briefing there had been a "years-long coup" by Obama. The extraordinary narrative essentially rehashed Trump's longstanding argument that investigations into Russia's multi-layered attempts to disrupt the 2016 election, where he beat Hillary Clinton, were a "hoax" against him. Gabbard touted newly declassified intelligence that she said provided "irrefutable evidence" that Obama had ordered intelligence assessments to be manipulated to accuse Russia of election interference to help Trump. The Justice Department announced the formation of a "Strike Force" to examine the allegations with "utmost seriousness." But Gabbard's findings run up against four separate criminal, counterintelligence and watchdog probes between 2019 and 2023 -- each of them concluding that Russia did interfere and did, in various ways, help Trump. As a way to distract from the intensifying speculation over Trump's handling of the case against the late sex offender and reputed pedophile pimp to the powerful Epstein, the Obama accusations had some effect. White House journalists at the briefing barely asked about Epstein, focusing instead on Gabbard's claims, and Fox News heavily promoted the Obama story to its right-wing audience. However, the Epstein scandal quickly roared back, showing just how hard it is for 79-year-old Trump to maintain his usual mastery of driving news agendas -- even within his fervently loyal "MAGA" base. - Trump's name in files - Epstein was a financier and friend to numerous high-profile people -- for years, including Trump -- who was convicted of sex crimes and then imprisoned pending trial for allegedly trafficking underage girls. His 2019 prison cell death -- ruled a suicide -- supercharged a conspiracy theory long promoted by many of Trump's supporters that Epstein had run an international pedophile ring and that elites wanted to make sure he never revealed their secrets. After Trump came to power for a second term this January, his administration promised to release Epstein case files. But when US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on July 7 that she had nothing to release, Republicans were furious -- and Trump has been attempting to control the scandal ever since. Things got even more complicated for him after The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Trump had written a lewd birthday letter to Epstein in 2003. Trump denies this and has sued the Journal. On Wednesday, the Journal dropped a new story, saying Bondi had informed Trump in May that his name appeared several times in the Epstein files, even if there was no indication of wrongdoing. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called this "fake news" and said Trump had long ago broken with Epstein and "kicked him out of his club for being a creep." However, the drip-drip of reminders of Trump's close former relationship with Epstein is proving hard to stop. Several of Trump's most effective promoters over the years -- including new FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy Dan Bongino -- made careers of fanning the rumors about Epstein. Democrats are piling on the pressure. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives sent lawmakers home early for a six-week summer break Wednesday to avoid being forced into holding politically awkward votes on the affair. But some lawmakers on the "MAGA" right have indicated they are in no mood to let Epstein drop, and several bids for transparency are in the works. Just before the declared recess, Democrats on a House subcommittee panel forced a vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for documents regarding Epstein. The measure passed with bipartisan support. In another bid to satisfy his base, Trump had told Bondi to release "credible" Epstein information and to seek release of grand jury transcripts from the 2005 and 2007 investigations of Epstein. But on Wednesday a judge rejected this, citing legal secrecy protocols.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store