Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche finished nine hours of meetings over two days with Ghislaine Maxwell Friday, but made no public statement on what she said or the next stages of the highly criticized investigation by the Ministry of Justice Jeffrey Epstein.
The former prosecutors declared that it was very unusual – and potentially unprecedented – for a civil servant n ° 2 of the department Personally interview a witness. The secret in a criminal investigation is normal, but the prosecutors involved in the case would generally be included in the questions.
“I have never heard of a general vice-prosecutor doing something like that before,” said a former official of the Ministry of Justice, who spoke under the cover of anonymity.
Victims of Epstein and Maxwell, which was sentenced in 2021 Recruitment and grooming of several teenagers To be sexually abused by the deceased financial, also called into question the lack of transparency. Jack Scarola, a lawyer representing approximately 20 Epstein victims, said that he had asked to attend Maxwell interviews but was not included.
Berit Berger, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said White interviews, who worked as a former Trump’s defense lawyer, can be performative.
“It is perhaps only a way to be able to say,” Look, we have pointed all me and crossed all T, “she said. “It is possible to be able to say that we have tried to speak to all those we may, including the co-defender.”
The Attorney General Pam Bondi, Blanche and President Donald Trump himself had trouble stifling the tumult from the Doj and the FBI Announced on July 6 That an exhaustive examination of Epstein cases had not discovered evidence that justified investigating other people. FBI director Kash Patel, and deputy director Dan Bongino – who have The two distribute conspiracy theories on the Epstein case – supported these conclusions and an MJ decision not to publish any other Epstein cases.
Catherine Christian, former Deputy Prosecutor of Manhattan and legal analyst of NBC News, said that Maxwell’s interviews could also be an effort to protect Trump, who is now faced with one of the biggest political crises of her second term in the fury of Epstein’s investigation.
Trump, like dozens of other rich Americans, socialized with Epstein. He is among hundreds People whose names appear in 100,000 pages of Epstein cases examined by the DoJ and the FBI.
“It is difficult to believe that it is anything but performative,” said Christian. “Or Todd Blanche, just wanting to have it on the file saying:” Yes, President Trump had nothing to do with all this. He was not a client. “”
What did Maxwell ask?
Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus is one of the best lawyers in the Florida criminal defense and a friend of Blanche’s. Blanche appeared on the Markus podcast in 2024, where the host greeted Blanche Legal skills. After Friday’s meeting with Blanche and Maxwell, Markus told journalists that the deputy prosecutor “had done incredible work” and asked in -depth questions in Maxwell.
“Perhaps he was asked about 100 different people,” said Markus, who did not disclose which Maxwell’s individual was questioned. “She answered questions on everyone, and she didn’t hold anything back,” he said. “They asked questions about everything, everything you can imagine, everything.”
A senior administration official, who spoke under the cover of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said that Maxwell had obtained limited immunity by the Ministry of Justice to answer questions about the Epstein case.
The granting of limited immunity is common in criminal cases and allows defendants to provide information without fear that it will be used against them before the court.
Immunity is “limited” because it only applies if the defendant tells the truth. If it is determined that a defendant lied during the interviews, then the agreement becomes zero. Prosecutors can take into account the cooperation of a defendant and recommend a advocacy or reduced sentence.
This is not planned in the case of Maxwell, as she has already been sentenced and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Maxwell’s lawyer Markus argued that Maxwell’s trial was unfair and an appeal of his conviction is pending before the Supreme Court.
POSSON POSTIAL OR switching
Trump, like all presidents, has the power to forgive or have the trouble to condemn to any person sentenced for a federal crime. Asked about Epstein’s case on Friday morning, Trump said that the emphasis should be on other people who socialized with Epstein, such as former president Bill Clinton and Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary and President of the Harvard University.
“You have to focus on Clinton,” the president told journalists. “You should focus on Harvard president, former president of Harvard. You should focus on some of the guys from hedge funds. ”
“I’m going to give you a list. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein. I didn’t do it well,” said Trump.
When asked if he planned to forgive Maxwell or commute, Trump said: “This is something I didn’t think about.”
“I have the right to do it,” he added.
Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in New York, said that she believed that the recent dismissal of Maurene Comey, principal prosecutor in the Maxwell case and the daughter of the former FBI director, James Comey, was an effort to give Trump’s total control of the Maxwell affair, limit the transmission and dissent of silence.
“It does not seem to be coincident. It seems that they wanted Maurene to be present at the Ministry of Justice,” said Rocah. “To be able to say:” What cannot you go talk to my client or my accused. “”
Rocah, a democrat who was a district prosecutor of the County of Westchester from 2020 to 2024, criticized the meetings of Blanche with Maxwell, saying that his apparent failure to include a prosecutor with in -depth knowledge of his crimes was unfair to the victims of Epstein.
“The head of all this institution which is supposed to be to protect the victims speaks to him, giving him a platform to say that God knows what, without many means of verifying it or not,” said Rocah. “The real people who could test his truth are the people who worked on the case, not Todd.”
