Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is set to face a second day of questioning from a top Justice Department official on Friday to see if she has additional information about the highly scrutinized case.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is interviewing Maxwell at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. She will be transported to the court from the nearby federal prison where she is serving her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Blanche’s interview will be a continuation of questioning from Thursday.
It’s unclear what exactly Blanche is asking Maxwell. The top DoJ lawyer said he wanted to meet with Maxwell to discuss others who may have “committed crimes against victims.”
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, declined to clarify what exactly Blanche had asked or what Maxwell had answered so far. However, he said his client answered “all of the questions truthfully, honestly, and to the best of her ability.”
“He took a full day and asked a lot of questions,” Markus said. “And Ms. Maxwell answered every single question. She never stopped, she never invoked a privilege. Never declined to answer.”
It comes at a turbulent moment for the Trump administration which has faced public uproar after the DoJ announced earlier this month there would be no further disclosures from the so-called “Epstein Files” about his sex trafficking scheme.
Many in Trump’s MAGA base had boosted conspiracy theories about those involved with Epstein – believed to be a network of high-profile individuals, including some in the government.
Senior members of the administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, had previously made claims that there was more to the Epstein case than publicly disclosed.
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, was accused of child sex trafficking and running a decades-long scheme of sexually abusing women and girls. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while being held in federal jail.
But the sudden reversal disappointed and outraged supporters. Some MAGA supporters and Democrats have accused Trump and officials in the administration of covering up information to protect those involved.
The president angrily attempted to turn attention away from the Epstein Files, which had the opposite impact.
In the days after, a public spotlight has been cast on Trump’s former relationship with Epstein. The president previously said the two were friends for many years but has denied any involvement in Epstein’s crimes. Trump has not been accused of any formal wrongdoing or charged with a crime.
A recent Wall Street Journal article reported the president sent Epstein a lewd birthday card referencing “secrets.” The president denied sending any card and filed a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the Journal.
Reports from CNN and the Journal also claimed that Attorney General Pam Bondi alerted Trump, in early spring, that his name appeared in the Epstein Files. Being mentioned in the files does not suggest any wrongdoing and hundreds of other people were also named.
The fallout over the Epstein Files has sent shockwaves throughout the Republican Party. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson sent Congress into an early recess to avoid a vote that would force the release of the files.
