Maxwell Defends Trump, Denies Witnessing Inappropriate Behavior

Ghislaine Maxwell has stated that Donald Trump "was never inappropriate with anybody" during his association with Jeffrey Epstein. Court documents released on Friday reveal that the British socialite consistently denied witnessing any sexually inappropriate behavior involving Mr. Trump. These documents contain transcripts from interviews conducted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche with Maxwell in July. The release of these transcripts followed a strong reaction to the Trump administration's earlier decision not to disclose records related to the sex-trafficking case.

Maxwell repeatedly expressed admiration for the former US President and denied ever seeing him involved in any sexual encounters. According to the transcript, Maxwell stated she never saw the President in any massage setting or any inappropriate setting. She emphasized that he was always a gentleman in her presence. She recalled knowing Trump, possibly as early as 1990, when her father, Robert Maxwell, owned the New York Daily News. She mentioned visiting Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida but hadn't seen him since the mid-2000s. When asked if she ever heard Epstein or anyone else say Trump had acted inappropriately, Maxwell replied, "Absolutely never, in any context."

Maxwell was interviewed over two days last month by Blanche at a Florida courthouse and was granted limited immunity. This allowed her to speak freely without fear of prosecution, except if she made a false statement. The Epstein case has drawn significant public attention due to the financier's connections to prominent figures, including Prince Andrew, former US President Bill Clinton, and Mr. Trump. Maxwell told Mr. Blanche that Mr. Clinton was initially her friend, and she never saw him receive a massage. She also stated that the only times they were together were during the approximately two dozen times they traveled on Epstein’s plane.

Maxwell also spoke positively of Prince Andrew and dismissed as "rubbish" the late Virginia Giuffre’s claim that she was paid to have a relationship with the Duke of York and that he had sex with her at Maxwell’s home in London. Maxwell sought to distance herself from Epstein’s conduct, repeatedly denying allegations made at her trial about her role. Though she acknowledged that at one point Epstein began preferring younger women, she insisted she never understood that to "encompass children". Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges and was found dead a month later in a New York jail cell in what officials said was a suicide. The saga has consumed the Trump administration after an announcement from the FBI and Justice Department last month. After her interview with Mr. Blanche, Maxwell was moved from a low-security prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas to continue a 20 year sentence for luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.