The Department of Justice, on Friday — in an ostensible move to provide transparency in the case that has been conspicuously opaque since the start — released nine hours of interviews with Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Related: AG Pam Bondi: Still-Unreleased Epstein Files to Be Redacted for ‘National Security’
The transcript and audio recordings.
The key takeaways
Jeffrey Epstein, according to Maxwell, did not kill himself in prison, but she doesn’t believe his murder had anything to do with protecting powerful sex criminals: “I do not have any reason to believe that. And I also think it’s ludicrous, because if that — I also happen to think if that is what they wanted, they would’ve had plenty of opportunity when he wasn’t in jail. And if they were worried about blackmail or anything from him, he would’ve been a very easy target.”
Bill Clinton, who accompanied Epstein at least 26 times on the Lolita Express, never did anything untoward: “There was that, you know, the plane, they went on the plane 26 times or whatever. That would be one journey. So they spent time on the plane together, and I don’t believe there was ever a massage on the plane. So that would’ve been the only time that I think that President Clinton could have even received a massage. And he didn’t, because I was there.”
No “client list” exists: “There is no list. We’ll start with that. The genesis of that story, I can actually trace for you from its absolute inception, if that is what you’re interested in…. I'm not aware of any blackmail. I never heard that. I never saw it, and I never imagined it.” (The “client list” talking is deceptive; the claim isn’t that Epstein literally kept a little black book of his clients/blackmail targets.)
Related: Former Trump Adviser to CNN: Epstein Memo Blowback ‘Ado About Nothing’
Epstein had no intelligence ties, Maxwell claimed.
He also allegedly kept no sex tapes, despite having wired his New York residence with cameras in the bedrooms — you know, like normal non-sex trafficking blackmailers often do.
TODD BLANCHE: -- but from what you know, you do not believe a camera exists, or a video camera or a camera that takes pictures, inside any of his residences?
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) August 22, 2025
GHISLAINE MAXWELL: Correct.
Meanwhile in Epsteins bedroom: pic.twitter.com/fRQ7VDHcoq
For the record, Maxwell was charged in 2020 for perjury, and the charge was only dropped because she got strung up on the far more serious charge of sex trafficking. So what value this hours-long bilge has in the interest of pursuing actual justice isn’t entirely clear.
Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but it strikes me as both odd and convenient that all of Maxwell’s answers appear to serve her interest in getting herself a pardon; she provided no further evidence and in fact claimed that none even exists (the client list or tapes), and refused to implicate literally any high-profile person in the sex trafficking racket she was convicted of running.
Earlier this month, immediately after the newly released proffer, Maxwell was relocated to a minimum-security prison that looks more like a spa than an actual prison.
Her lawyers are now petitioning to overturn her conviction, but she could also potentially receive a pardon, a possibility that Trump did not rule out when asked about it last month.
If that happened, it would be a travesty of justice and, also, totally counterproductive if the goal is restoring any semblance of trust in the so-called justice system.
Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim; she’s arguably the most prolific sex trafficker in world history, and she’s also probably a traitor who worked with intelligence agencies to undermine American national interests by blackmailing politicians.
