Chris Christie drew on his experience as a federal prosecutor Sunday as he questioned the seriousness of the Justice Department’s sudden interest in Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice and girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein.
Once considered by Trump as a potential candidate to serve as attorney general during his first presidency, Christie told ABC News’ This Week that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s direct involvement in interviewing Maxwell over the course of nine hours Thursday and Friday of last week was “highly unusual.”
He questioned whether Blanche, formerly a personal attorney for the president and a Trump loyalist, could be trusted to accurately convey what Maxwell said during their conversation.
“I have never seen this done, ever,” Christie said. “The Deputy Attorney General runs the Department of Justice, they don’t interview witnesses.”
“When…anyone’s interviewing a witness, you bring at least one agent with you, if not two, so there are a number of people taking notes and there are witnesses there. We’ve heard nothing about whether Todd Blanche brought anyone with him to verify whatever he’s going to report back, as a third independent source. This is highly unusual.”
Christie also asserted that it wasn’t clear whether Blanche had aides or other federal attorneys with him for the conversation with Maxwell, or whether the Trump administration was truly interested in pursuing charges against potential co-conspirators named by sex offender Maxwell.
“For building a case– building a case for what? And against who? She’s in jail for 20 years, and her co-conspirator is dead. So what exactly are they doing?”
The Independent reached out to the Department of Justice for comment and clarification on whether Blanche met with Maxwell alone.
Blanche has not commented publicly on the matter since Thursday, when he tweeted following his first meeting with Maxwell: “Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow. The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.”
Some have called Maxwell to testify publicly and suggested she could be given a pardon for sharing what she knows about the Epstein case. Donald Trump has denied that he is considering it. Maxwell was convicted of sexual abuse against minors and sex trafficking after Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting a trial on similar charges.
The House Oversight Committee voted this week to issue a subpoena for Maxwell after the Justice Department announced its own plans to speak with her.
Speculation about Epstein’s death and the so-called “Client List” of his co-conspirators erupted in early July. The Justice Department and FBI published a joint memo explaining that future releases from the files would not take place, and that the list of Epstein’s accomplices was not found. Epstein was rumored to have cultivated personal relationships with many powerful men.
Critics of the president have alleged that a cover-up is in the works regarding the Epstein files. Democrats have hammered the president for his administration’s reversal on releasing files from the investigation.
A pair of scoops this month from the Wall Street Journal reported on the president’s connections to Epstein, driving the accusations of the president’s involvement in a cover-up into a frenzy. The newspaper reported the contents of a message allegedly penned by Trump to Epstein as part of a 50th birthday celebration in 2003, including allusions to a shared “secret” between them. Trump firmly denied authoring the note, and sued the Journal and its reporters in response.
A second article from the Journal days later reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that he was mentioned in the Epstein investigation multiple times, but it was not clear in what context. The White House called that story “fake” and has repeatedly insinuated that Democrats including Joe Biden tampered with evidence while Trump was out of office.
Being mentioned in the files does not guarantee wrongdoing, and hundreds of names are reportedly included.
The White House responded to the growing uproar almost immediately with attempts to divert the focus of the president’s MAGA base. On social media, Trump leveled threats against Rosie O’Donnell while his intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard, released a memo accusing former President Barack Obama and his team of altering the conclusions of intelligence assessments concerning Russian election interference in 2016.
The latter issue has become the president’s weapon of choice for parrying questions about the Epstein issue, after he and Gabbard accused the former president of treason and attempting a “coup” — a telling charge given Trump’s involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol and the Biden Justice Department’s attempt to prosecute him for trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election.
“People should really focus on how well the country is doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama led a coup,” Trump told a reporter on Friday when questioned about Blanche’s marathon meeting with Maxwell.
