Washington — Todd Blanche, the second highest-ranking Justice Division official, met with Ghislaine Maxwell on the U.S. lawyer’s workplace in Tallahassee on Thursday to debate convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, declined to remark “on the substance” of the assembly, however instructed reporters exterior the workplace that “there have been a number of questions and we went all day.”
“And he or she answered each one in all them. She by no means did say, ‘I am not going to reply,’ by no means declined,” he mentioned. “That is the primary time that the federal government has requested questions, so we have been grateful that the deputy lawyer normal got here and requested her questions. It is the primary time the federal government did it. So it was a great day.”
Maxwell is presently serving a 20-year sentence at a low-security federal correctional institute in Tallahassee. She was convicted in 2021 for her position in serving to Epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage women.
Blanche’s assembly comes after he said earlier this week that he deliberate to satisfy with Maxwell “within the coming days.”
“Justice calls for braveness. For the primary time, the Division of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what have you learnt?” Blanche wrote on social media Tuesday. He mentioned he contacted Maxwell’s legal professionals on the course of Legal professional Common Pam Bondi. “I intend to satisfy together with her quickly. Nobody is above the regulation — and no lead is off-limits,” Blanche wrote. Markus then confirmed that Maxwell’s authorized crew was in discussions with the federal government.
Strain has been constructing on President Trump and his administration over Epstein’s case after the Justice Division and FBI released a memo earlier this month that concluded Epstein didn’t have a “shopper record” and confirmed he died by suicide in 2019, shortly after he was indicted on federal intercourse trafficking costs.
The memo additionally concluded that there was no “credible proof” that the disgraced financier blackmailed distinguished individuals. The Justice Division and FBI mentioned they might not launch any additional details about Epstein’s case.
However the Trump administration’s conclusions rankled a few of his allies, who have been skeptical of the Justice Division’s declare that there’s nothing left to reveal.
A number of the administration’s prime officers, together with Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel, had instructed earlier than Mr. Trump returned to the White Home that Democrats have been hiding details about Epstein and his alleged record of shoppers.
In an effort to quell the backlash, the Justice Division asked federal judges in New York who dealt with Epstein and Maxwell’s circumstances to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings involving the 2.
Earlier this week, judges overseeing the requests each ordered the Justice Division to submit extra filings to the courtroom about its efforts to unseal the grand jury data. The judges gave the defendants — in Epstein’s case, his consultant — and victims till Aug. 5 to put out their positions on the proposed disclosure.
Will probably be as much as the judges to determine whether or not the grand jury materials may be disclosed. In the event that they grant the requests, the data will doubtless be closely redacted, and it’s more likely to be weeks or months earlier than the transcripts are unsealed.
Along with going through backlash from a few of his allies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have pushed to make materials associated to Epstein public.
A House panel voted Wednesday to subpoena the Justice Division for information associated to the federal probe into Epstein. The Home Oversight Committee additionally subpoenaed Maxwell to sit down for a deposition subsequent month on the federal detention heart in Tallahassee.
Mr. Trump has acknowledged he and Epstein moved in the identical social circles in Florida and New York from the late Eighties to the early 2000s. However the president mentioned in 2019, following Epstein’s arrest, that they hadn’t spoken in 15 years.
The Wall Road Journal reported final week that Mr. Trump signed a “bawdy” letter to Epstein for his fiftieth birthday that mentioned, partly, “might day by day be one other fantastic secret.” CBS Information has not independently seen or verified the letter. The president has denied that he wrote the letter, calling it “faux,” and sued the Journal and its house owners for defamation. He’s searching for no less than $20 billion in damages.
The Journal reported Wednesday that when Justice Division officers reviewed paperwork associated to Epstein earlier this yr, they realized Mr. Trump’s title appeared a number of occasions. Bondi and her deputy instructed the president at a White Home assembly in Might that his title was within the so-called Epstein information, as have been these of different public figures, in keeping with the Journal. Mr. Trump being talked about doesn’t imply he dedicated any wrongdoing.
White Home communications director Steven Cheung mentioned in response to the Journal’s report that “The actual fact is that The President kicked him out of his membership for being a creep. That is nothing greater than a continuation of the faux information tales concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, identical to the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was proper about.”
contributed to this report.
