President Donald Trump danced around questions about the Jeffrey Epstein case Friday morning, including whether he would pardon Ghislaine Maxwell for cooperating with Justice Department officials.
Maxwell, Epstein’s former lover and collaborator, is currently five years into a 20-year prison sentence for her role in the disgraced financier’s crimes. However, she sat for an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday as the administration seeks to tamp down simmering anger on the Right regarding their handling of the Epstein case. Maxwell is slated to sit for a second interview with Blanche on Friday.
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“I haven’t thought about it,” Trump answered when asked about a possible pardon for Maxwell before departing the White House for Scotland. “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.”
Trump similarly sought to distance himself from Epstein, telling reporters Friday that they “should focus on the fact that” Epstein was “really close friends” with former President Bill Clinton and a number of other high-profile Democrats.
“They should speak about that because they don’t talk about them. They talk about me,” Trump continued.
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Trump and top administration officials have spent the past week highlighting an alleged conspiracy by the Obama White House to link Trump’s 2016 campaign to Russia by “manufacturing” intelligence.
Trump has suggested that former President Barack Obama’s actions amount to treason. However, he conceded that the Supreme Court’s ruling last year on presidential immunity, which all but ended the multiple federal indictments raised against Trump after he left office, would likely shield Obama from being prosecuted.
“It probably helps him a lot,” Trump said Friday. “It doesn’t help the people around him at all, but it probably helps him a lot.”
David Markus, Maxwell’s attorney, said Tuesday that her first interview gave her an opportunity “to finally be able to say what really happened.”
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“We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated, and she’s telling the truth,” Markus added.
Blanche, who was previously Trump’s personal attorney, said Maxwell has “no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth.”