President Trump said Monday he would have to talk to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and review the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, after the Supreme Court declined to review her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction.
Trump was asked in the Oval Office whether he was considering a pardon for Maxwell, and he repeatedly declined to rule out a pardon, instead stressing that he would need to look into the matter.
“You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that?” Trump said during an exchange with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“Well, I’ll take a look at it. I’ll speak to the DOJ,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider — I don’t know anything about it. I will speak to the DOJ.”
Asked why she might deserve clemency, Trump responded that “a lot of people have asked me for pardons,” including Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was sentenced last week to four years in prison.
“But she was convicted of child sex trafficking,” Collins said.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m going to have to take a look at it,” Trump replied. “I’d have to ask DOJ. I didn’t know they rejected it. I didn’t know she was even asking for it, frankly.”
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.
Maxwell met with a top Justice Department official over the summer amid bipartisan pressure on the Trump administration to release new information about the Epstein case. She was moved to a minimum-security prison for women soon after the meeting.
Trump, whose own relationship with Epstein has come under scrutiny in recent months, has at times expressed frustration with the focus on the case.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican leaders have refused requests from Democrats to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who was elected last month to fill her father’s House seat.
The move deprives a petition of the last signature it needs to force a vote on a bill to release files related to Epstein, a push that Republican leaders and Trump oppose.