Ghislaine Maxwell questioned whether Jeffrey Epstein died of suicide, but abandoned the conspiracy theory, suggesting that she was threatening a powerful man who joined the sex trafficking ring.
DOJ releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview audio
The Justice Department has released audio of an interview with Gislaine Maxwell, including comments on Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump.
Last month, a Department of Justice interview with the Department of Justice convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein associate Gislaine Maxwell revealed that there were no bombs in the newly released transcripts and audio files.
Hundreds of pages of edited transcripts and a handful of audio clips released on August 22 showed Maxwell questioning the prosecutor’s findings that investors committed suicide in prison in 2019. However, Maxwell abandoned a conspiracy theory that suggested someone outside the prison killed him, saying he never saw a man acting inappropriately with a woman on Epstein’s orbit.
“I’ve never seen a man doing anything inappropriate with women of all ages,” Maxwell told Associate Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former lawyer, who personally handled the interview.
The independent transcripts probably won’t satisfy those who claim that Epstein maintains a strong list of clients who have joined the sex trafficking ring. The Trump administration faces anger from members of Trump’s own base as several people in his inner circle refused to release the file with Jeffrey Epstein after fanning the flames of Epstein-related conspiracy theories over the years.
Maxwell is currently sentenced to 20 years in prison for trafficking minors for Epstein and other sex offences. Shortly after an interview in late July, she was transferred to a minimal security prison camp in Coosia, Texas.
Here are five takeaways from the newly released transcript:
Maxwell praises Donald Trump.
Maxwell seemed out of the way to praise President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s. Maxwell’s defense attorney David Oscar Marx said he hopes Trump will use his power “in rights and fair ways.”
Trump pointed out power during a reporter’s question about Maxwell in Scotland on July 28, adding that it was “inappropriate” to discuss it.
When asked about Trump’s relationship with Epstein, Maxwell said that Trump was always kind and sincere with her.
“And I just want to say I found it, I admire his extraordinary achievements as I am now president,” she said. “And I like him, and I’ve always liked him.”
Maxwell specifically said he never saw Trump get a massage. Epstein has been accused of inviting a minor girl to have sex by arranging for a massage that will make her sexual. In 2008 he was convicted of Florida prostitution involving minors.
“I have never witnessed the President in any way in an inappropriate environment. He was not inappropriate for anyone,” she said. “In the days I was with him, he was a gentleman in every way.”
Maxwell says he’s never seen Bill Clinton behave inappropriately
Maxwell characterized President Bill Clinton, who traveled by Epstein’s plane, as she was nearby, not Epstein.
“President Clinton was my friend, not Epstein’s friend,” she said.
Clinton has traveled about 26 times on an Epstein plane, she said, but she characterized it as a “one journey” and said she knows Clinton hasn’t received a massage.
“That would have been the only time President Clinton thought he had a massage,” she said. “And because I was there he didn’t.”
Maxwell questions whether Epstein died from suicide
In a two-page July memo declaring that they would not release the file on Epstein, the FBI said it concluded that Epstein had died of suicide in a solitary cell in a Manhattan prison in August 2019.
“I don’t think he died of suicide,” she said.
However, Maxwell also challenged a conspiracy theory that suggested someone outside the prison killed Epstein to silence him.
“Of course it’s possible,” Maxwell said. “But I don’t know why. And I don’t believe in either the scary mail or this. I don’t think Epstein was a hit like that.”
She added that she thought the idea was “silly” because Epstein was a “very easy target” before he was imprisoned in 2019. If Epstein is murdered, she believes it is an “internal situation” involving someone else in prison.
Maxwell says he can’t explain the massive remittance from Epstein
Blanche asked Maxwell about bank records showing that Epstein sent around $30 million in money over the years to Epstein. The relocation included approximately $18.3 million in 1999, $5 million in 2002 and $7.4 million in 2007.
By 2005, Epstein was investigating sexual offences involving minors.
Maxwell denied that Epstein was paying her to recruit minor girls to be sexually abused, as prosecutors proposed at her trial. She said it could have been sent to an account managed by an Epstein accountant, or it could have been a loan from Epstein for her business venture.
“He never paid me… for any reason,” Maxwell said. “I don’t think this money belongs to mine.”
Maxwell maintains innocence despite his beliefs
Maxwell maintained her innocence throughout the two days of interviews despite being convicted in 2021 for seducing and transporting minors for illegal sexual activity and conspiring to seduce and transport them for sex trafficking to Epstein. Maxwell is currently pending appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.
She said she never intentionally recruited anyone’s minors to do a massage for Epstein and never witnessed sexual abuse.
“I never saw a masseuse look unhappy or look at me not coming back,” she said.
The dead end, which appears to be new accountability, is unlikely to satisfy victims who have already been upset by the Justice Department’s decision to move Maxwell to a low-security prison after speaking with Blanche.
“President Trump sent a clear message today: Pedophiles deserve priority treatment and victims are not important,” the surviving brother of Epstein’s victim Virginia Giuffre, who died of suicide in April, said in a statement along with victims Annie Farmer and sister Maria Farmer.
After the release of the transcript, Maxwell’s defense attorney David Oscar Marx said in a statement on X that his client was “innocent” and that he did not participate in sexual abuse against anyone.
