The Trump administration is trying to contain fierce backlash from the US president’s base over the Epstein files
The US Justice Department’s No 2 official met with Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday, the imprisoned former girlfriend of financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The meeting in Florida, which Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Tuesday he was working to arrange, is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent following fierce backlash from parts of US President Donald Trump’s base over an earlier refusal to release additional records in the Epstein investigation.
“Ms Maxwell answered every single question. She never stopped, she never invoked a privilege, she never declined to answer. She answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability,” lawyer David Oscar Markus told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, where Maxwell met with Blanche.
In a social media post on Tuesday, Blanche said that Trump “has told us to release all credible evidence” and that if Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the Justice Department “will hear what she has to say”.
