“The time has come to cease any coy or sly answers about granting clemency to a convicted sex offender.”
The Supreme Court turned down her appeal last month, making a presidential pardon one of her only remaining avenues for early release.
In a leaked email to her lawyer Leah Saffian obtained by the committee, Maxwell indicated the warden of Federal Prison Camp Bryan was assisting her with the filing.
“I am struggling to keep it all together as it is big and there are so many attachments,” she wrote, “more coming to replace others ... hopefully it will all make sense.”
The President is yet to publicly respond to the Democrat’s letter, but the Independent reports he has never formally ruled out pardoning Maxwell.
In July, Trump told reporters as his Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell and her lawyers: “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about.”
The disgraced British socialite is reportedly offering to “testify openly and honestly, in public” if she receives a pardon, appealing for “the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case”.
But the possibility of Maxwell’s freedom is disconcerting for her victims – she is the only person implicated in Epstein’s offending to face justice after his apparent suicide in 2019.
Speaking with MSNBC, Epstein survivor Teresa Helm said a pardon “would mean the complete crumbling of this justice system that should first and foremost stand for, fight for and protect survivors”.
