On Friday, a senior US Justice Department official concluded a second day of interactions with Ghislaine Maxwell. The former British socialite is not only Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, but also a longtime accomplice of the convicted sex offender, currently serving her own 20-year prison sentence.
Back in 2022, the Department of Justice announced that she was sentenced in Manhattan federal court “for her role in a scheme to sexual exploit and abuse multiple minor girls with Jeffrey Epstein over the course of a decade.” Prior to that in late 2021, she was found guilty of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor.
Ghislaine Maxwell exposes 100 people linked to Epstein
Despite her criminal record, Epstein’s longtime accomplice met with DOJ’s Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for hours on end as scrutiny over the deceased financier’s controversial saga has only amplified under the Donald Trump government. It comes after a recent official review shocker that insisted Epstein never had a “client list” to begin with despite his run-ins with countless A-listers across fields, as documented in archival footage and pictures and his own alleged ‘Lolita Express’ flight logs.
The 63-year-old woman’s lawyer has since revealed that Maxwell answered “every single question” during the two-day development. “She was asked maybe about 100 different people. She answered questions about everybody, and she didn’t hold anything back,” attorney David Oscar Markus said Friday.
“They asked about every single, every possible thing you could imagine – everything,” he added, as quoted by CBS News.
The DOJ senior executive, on the other hand, said Thursday that the authorities would share what they’ve learned during those meetings “at the appropriate time.”
More about Epstein’s ex-girlfriend: Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
The 63-year-old Epstein associate, who was convicted of facilitating the late billionaire’s sex crimes, is the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell and French scholar, Holocaust researcher Betty. She studied at Marlborough College and later pursues modern history and languages at Balliol College, Oxford University.
She is said to have crossed paths with the controversial American figure in the ‘80s or ‘90s, as per Time. Having moved to New York City after her father’s demise, she even struck up a romantic connection with Epstein at one point.
Given her status as a socialite at the time, her vast network of famed connections helped Epstein expand his own contact list, which, according to previously reported documents and DOJ’s first phase of the ‘Epstein Files,’ includes people like Prince Andrew as well.
In a more recently reported discovery, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times exposed her for having compiled the infamous 2003 birthday book for the billionaire financier. The leather-bound collection of well-wishing letters even featured inscriptions from the likes of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, among others.
Maxwell was found to be secretly married to tech entrepreneur Scott Borgerson. Her legal team outed the word during her 2020 bail hearing. As of 2021, the former CargoMetrics CEO had called off the relationship, according to the Daily Mail.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s own criminal contributions to the Epstein saga
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, stated in a lawsuit that the British woman brought her in as a masseuse for the pedophilic fiend who died in his prison cell in 2019. At the time, she was working at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, and was just a teenager. Maxwell, however, denied allegations of recruiting her and being responsible for any wrongdoing. For quite a while, she even shrugged off knowing anything about Epstein’s sexual misconduct behind closed doors.
As implied in Giuffre’s suit, the 2022 DOJ press release foregrounded Maxwell “enticed” and “groomed” underage girls so that they could be abused. It was also noted that while Epstein offered to pay for travel and education of some of his victims, it was Maxwell who encouraged them to accept the assistance.
Just months ago, Ghislaine pushed for her conviction to be overturned in an appeal citing a 2008 deal Epstein struck with Florida prosecutors. As per the agreement, the sex offender agreed to plead guilty to two state-level prostitution-related charges while urging that federal charges not be pressed against him. The same deal extended to seemingly protect his accomplices. However, the DOJ asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Maxwell’s appeal earlier this month.
Will Ghislaine Maxwell be pardoned?
Given her meetings with Blanche, many have questioned the possibility of Maxwell being offered some legal relief. However, Trump said on Friday that no such plan was on the table as of yet. “It’s something I haven’t thought about,” he told reporters. “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
On the contrary, her lawyer affirmed that the issue of a potential pardon had not been brought up in the conversations with any official at the moment. “The president this morning said he had the power to do so. We hope he exercises that power in the right and just way.”