President Donald Trump might have thought he had some distance from the Jeffrey Epstein headlines that were dragging down his poll numbers and made his base turn on him. But, over the last few weeks, the president has seen positive economic news, taken over the streets of Washington D.C. from local police and watched as his FBI raided the home of former adviser John Bolton.
Those stories were dominating the news cycle – until Ghislaine Maxwell made her return.
The release of the transcripts of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate and onetime partner who assisted in his abuse of girls and young women, became the motherload of all Friday news dumps. It will certainly rekindle questions about what exactly Trump knew about his former friend and likely give congressional Democrats all the more reason to push for the declassification of files related to the Epstein investigation when they return from recess.
Trump, who has continuously expressed annoyance about the affair that he has called “bulls***,” so far has not commented on it. Just before the transcript dropped, he again distanced himself from it when speaking to reporters.
“I have said to Pam and everybody else, give them everything, because it’s a Democrat hoax,” he said in reference to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “That’s just a hoax. The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax.”
For the past two months, the Justice Department and the FBI specifically faced negative headlines after it released its two-page memo that said Epstein likely killed himself and that no “client list” existed. It put Attorney General Pam Bondi, one of his most ardent loyalists, under a microscope and led to her vanishing from Fox News. The takeover signaled her return to Fox as long as she faced no questions about Epstein.
The country, for the most part, had moved on from Epstein – at least until Congress returns from recess and Democrats push for the release of the Epstein files. Congress got a copy of the files Friday and said he would release them, but its unclear when.
Still, Trump seemed to push that off the front page and the world was focused on the Bolton raid.
Until the afternoon rolled around. Then, the Justice Department dropped its transcript of its with Maxwell, Epstein’s associate currently serving a 20-year sentence for her role in her and Epstein’s abuse of young girls.
In the interview, Maxwell said that she “absolutely never” saw Trump behaving inappropriately with anyone in Epstein’s circle. She praised Trump’s “extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now.” She also said that she did not believe that Epstein killed himself.
While much Maxwell’s words sound exculpatory, the fact that Trump’s deputy attorney general took the unprecedented step of interviewing her will make her words seem spurious. And Maxwell’s words must be understood through the prism of the fact that she is a known liar and convicted abuser of children who has every incentive to lie again to receive a pardon or have her case appealed.
And the new headlines – along with her vehement denial of Trump’s involvement – will only rekindle questions about how much Trump knew about Epstein’s abuse before he ran for president. It will also only add further fodder for congressional investigators as a bipartisan group of members plan to file a discharge petition to release files related to Epstein.
Trump might want to turn the page on Epstein and Maxwell, but he’ll find that tough for the immediate future.
