Transcripts of the Trump administration's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell (left) were released late on Friday night. Photo / US District Court for the Southern District of New York
Transcripts of the Trump administration's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell (left) were released late on Friday night. Photo / US District Court for the Southern District of New York
The full transcripts of Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview with Donald Trump’s deputy attorney have been published.
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, was interviewed by Todd Blanche in July.
Releasing the full transcripts to the public appears to be an attemptto put an end to weeks’ worth of damaging stories which have dogged Donald Trump’s administration.
The US President has faced fierce criticism from his base for refusing to publish documents held by the Government on Epstein, the paedophile financier who died in 2019.
On Friday (local time), the Department of Justice released hundreds of pages of transcripts and audio recordings of the interview in what Blanche called “the interest of transparency”.
“Except for the names of victims, every word is included. Nothing removed. Nothing hidden,” Blanche said.
Trump ‘the perfect gentleman’
Trump has faced immense political pressure over his former friendship with Epstein, whom he fell out with over a property deal in Palm Beach.
Critics and supporters of the US President alike have called for him to release the so-called “Epstein files” – all of the files the Government holds on the late paedophile.
Asked about her knowledge of Trump and Epstein’s relationship, Maxwell said she has no incriminating evidence against Donald Trump.
She said: “I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way.
“The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
Prince Andrew and Epstein
In the recordings, Maxwell contradicted Prince Andrew’s claim that she introduced him to the paedophile Epstein.
“First of all, let’s just state, I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew. I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew or to Sarah Ferguson. That is a flat untruth. I’ll start with that.”
Ghislaine Maxwell (right) with Prince Andrew (centre) and the late Virginia Giuffre. Maxwell denied introducing the duke to Epstein. Photo / Justice Department, PA Media
The Duke was accused of sexually abusing one of Epstein’s first accusers, Virginia Giuffre, on three separate occasions in 2001, when she was 17. She had sued him for unspecified damages.
The case was settled by the Prince, who has always denied any wrongdoing. Giuffre died this year by suicide.
During a Newsnight interview to address the accusations in 2019, Prince Andrew said the British socialite was the one who acquainted him with Epstein.
Duchess of York ‘put the moves on Epstein’
Maxwell claimed the Duchess of York, who she described as her “frenemy”, pursued Epstein.
She said: “I thought that Sarah was trying to put the moves on Jeffrey, if I’m being honest, and I thought the whole thing was annoying and I was pissed off.”
She said she believed the Duchess “liked Mr Epstein”.
When asked why she thought so, Maxwell responded: “My female intuition.”
‘Epstein never loved me’
Maxwell told Todd Blanche her ex-boyfriend did not ever love her and that she wasn’t his “type”.
“There was some indications that [Epstein] would actively tell other people to lie to me or conceal things from me, and that he never loved me and I wasn’t his type,” Maxwell said.
The pair had a romantic relationship, but continued to work together after breaking up, until his arrest in 2019.
The nature of the couple’s relationship was brought under the spotlight during Maxwell’s trial.
Intimate pictures of the pair together, including the now-infamous photos of Maxwell giving Epstein a foot massage, were presented by attorneys for the US Government.
Several witnesses testified that they thought the pair were a couple, while others believed they just had a business relationship.
Financier’s death was ‘no suicide’
Maxwell stated that she does not believe Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019.
The nature of Epstein’s death is a contentious point for many Trump supporters, who believe he was murdered in order to suppress in order to cover up a so-called “client list” of high-profile figures.
“I do not believe he died by suicide, no,” she said.
Ghislaine Maxwell (right) believes Jeffrey Epstein may have been killed. Photo / Getty Images
She said she did not know who was behind his death but that it was not a difficult thing to arrange.
“In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay – somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary. That’s about the going rate for a hit with a lock today.”
No client list
Maxwell also denied that Epstein maintained a “client list” or “black book”.
“There is no list,” she told Blanche during the first day of their interviews.
The FBI and US Justice Department last month released a memo drawing the same conclusion.
‘I do not remember’ Trump birthday message
Maxwell did not recall Trump allegedly sending a lewd letter featuring a drawing of a nude woman for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Trump had submitted a note for an album Maxwell was assembling for her then boyfriend’s birthday, in which he told Epstein they had “certain things in common”.
The note allegedly concluded: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
“I do not remember,” Maxwell answered, when asked whether Trump had sent a message for Epstein’s 50th birthday. She added that she had not found a birthday letter from the President among her possessions in New York.
However, she confirmed she had put together a book of birthday messages for Epstein and that the financier had told her: “I love that idea.”
Trump has fiercely denied writing or sending the letter and has launched legal proceedings against the newspaper and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.
Name-drops, but no smoking guns
In addition to Trump and Prince Andrew, a number of high-profile individuals came up during Maxwell’s interview but she did not incriminate any of them.
Naomi Campbell: “[Campbell] may have gone – well, she certainly – well, I believe she visited him in Palm Beach, and I believe she may have gone to the island and she may have gone to see his house in New York.”
Robert F. Kennedy: “Bobby knew Mr Epstein,” Maxwell said. “We went on a trip together. Was – we went to – dinosaur-bone hunting in the Dakotas.”
Elon Musk: Asked whether Musk knew Epstein, Maxwell said: “I believe they did.” She pointed to emails seen in trial documents as the “only reason” she believed that they knew each other, rather than her memory.
George Soros: “I don’t think he [Soros] knew him [Epstein].”
Richard Branson: “I think I remember that I went to Richard Branson’s island with Mr Epstein, and maybe he went another time, but I don’t – I wouldn’t characterise Richard Branson and him as friends, but he did go and I think I went with him”.
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