Will Jeffrey Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sing?
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi broke the news early Tuesday morning that the Justice Department (DOJ) wants to interview Maxwell. Later in the day, a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee voted to subpoena Maxwell, thanks to Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who put forth the motion.
Burchett said in a video after the vote:
We just got to get to the bottom of this thing, folks. It’s four years and we don’t need to tolerate this stuff anymore. We gotta send a message to these dirtbags that do this that this is not acceptable behavior and also a message to the victims that we believe you.… We need to bust these people who do this and send them to hell.
Earlier in the day, Bondi published a statement on social media on behalf of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, announcing: “I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department.” Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus confirmed to CNN that he was talking to the government “and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully.”
Maxwell is reportedly seeking a pardon. Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, has suggested that she receive immunity from further prosecution in exchange for her spilling the beans to Congress. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for several charges related to sex trafficking minors.
Balancing Act
The DOJ’s news that they’re seeking an interview with Maxwell appears, at least in part, to be a balancing act between quelling the intra-MAGA mutiny over this ordeal while maintaining some semblance of credibility it lost over the July 6 memo. “The joint statement by the DOJ and FBI of July 6 remains as accurate today as it was when it was written,” Blanche said in his announcement, adding, “Namely, that in the recent thorough review of the files maintained by the FBI in the Epstein case, no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
The July 6 DOJ memo concluded that Epstein did indeed kill himself, that no list of clients who paid for sex with minors exists, and that there is no “credible evidence” that he blackmailed powerful people. For many who had followed the Epstein story, those conclusions were simply unbelievable.
Release the Docs
In another front in this sprawling saga, Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a binding resolution Monday that would compel Bondi to release all documents related to Epstein and his suspected network of rapists to the public. Massie’s resolution has 20 sponsors, far from the 218 signatures needed to bypass House leadership and bring the bill for a vote.
Congressional attempts to make Epstein-related documents public have failed. Last week, Republicans in the House Rules Committee voted against forcing the entire House of Representatives to vote on whether to release the Epstein files. This week, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced he is sending legislators home early for summer recess to avoid a forced procedural vote that would compel the release of Epstein files. Johnson said there’s no reason to push for something that the administration is already doing. He also took a shot at Massie. “I don’t understand Thomas Massie’s motivation. I really don’t,” he speaker said. “Thomas Massie could have brought his discharge petition anytime over the last four years of the Biden administration. He could have done that at any time, and now he’s clamoring as if there’s some sort of timeline on it.”
Trump vs. Massie
Johnson’s criticism was mild compared to what President Trump had to say. He called the Kentuckian the “worst” Republican congressman, lazy, slow moving, and “a real loser.” He finished off his diatribe with a job posting. “Looking for someone good to run against this guy.”
Trump is backing efforts to dislodge Massie from Congress. While he’s been angry at Massie before, Massie’s opposition to Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill and the Iran bombing campaign have frustrated the president to the point where he’s actively supporting a costly effort to primary him out of Congress in 2026. Massie told The New American he believes Trump will likely fail.
Hiding Something?
The Epstein saga has created a massive crack in the MAGA coalition and has prompted many to suspect that Trump is hiding something.
Trump, as many are aware, knew Epstein and spent time with him. According to investigative journalist and author of the two-volume series on Epstein One Nation Under Blackmail, Whitney Webb, the two first crossed paths in 1987 when Epstein began “branding himself a property developer.” This is corroborated by a 2002 New York magazine article in which Trump told a reporter that he had known Epstein for 15 years.
Epstein’s interest in property, Webb writes, “may have been a new means of disguising his old financial tricks,” adding that “commercial real estate in the US has a long history of being used to launder money, and the practice is particularly common in specific American real estate markets like New York City and Palm Beach, Florida.”
Trump, according to Webb, moved in Robert Maxwell’s orbit. Robert Maxwell was a British media mogul, a suspected spy, and the father of Ghislaine Maxwell. Webb documents that Trump was photographed “attending parties in the late 1980s hosted by the media baron/intelligence asset on his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine.” Webb suspects Trump and Epstein may have met through Steve Hoffenberg, whom he worked with at the debt collection agency Towers Financial Corporation, which turned out to be the largest Ponzi scheme before Bernie Madoff broke that record.
Webb cites author Michael Wolff, who alleged that “during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Trump and Epstein, along with Tom Barrack, were a ‘set of nightlife Musketeers’ who frequently partied together.”
Party Man
Webb added that around this same time period, in 1990, Epstein bought a home in Palm Beach next to Trump, making them neighbors. There is also video of the two laughing and pointing at women during a party at Mar-a-Lago in 1992, as well as several occasions where Trump was photographed with Ghislaine Maxwell during the 1990s. Trump and Epstein were photographed together at a Victoria’s Secret party in 1997, and they attended an event in 2000 hosted by media magnate and convicted fraudster Conrad Black.
That same year, 2000, “Epstein, Maxwell, and Prince Andrew attended a celebrity tennis tournament at Mar-a-Lago, where Trump and the prince took pictures together.” Prince Andrew has been among the few powerful people alleged to have had sex with minors, specifically one trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell. Prince Andrew settled with his accuser, Virginia Giuffre, for a reported $16 million. Giuffre supposedly died by suicide earlier this year.
Trump attended Epstein’s dinner parties up until 2003, Webb reported. But in 2004, “the two men had falling out, reportedly over their rivalry to purchase a Palm Beach property called Maison de l’Amitie that was being sold out of bankruptcy.”
Webb also notes that years later, Trump was “very cooperative” when the lawyers for Epstein’s victims questioned him.
Trump and Maxwell
Webb finished the section on Trump in a way that is specially interesting given the recent development with Ghislaine Maxwell. According to Webb:
Some, such as Steve Hoffenberg, have alleged that — in the early days — Trump was not only close to Epstein, but was arguably even closer to Ghislaine Maxwell. After Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Trump attempted to distance himself from Epstein, saying he was ‘not a fan’ of the then-jailed billionaire. However, after Ghislaine was arrested roughly a year later, Trump publicly offered her well wishes instead of aiming to distance himself from her as he had with Epstein. This is despite the charges she was then facing, all of which pertained to sex trafficking of minors in connection with Epstein.
Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 for conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor. Epstein’s sex-trafficking racket, which she was central to, abused at least 1,000 victims over a period of more than two decades, according to reports. It is widely believed that other violators besides Epstein and Maxwell were involved.
What will Maxwell be allowed to divulge?
