The Justice Department has released hours of interviews between a senior federal prosecutor and Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person convicted or found civilly liable for involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted the sessions at a federal prison in Tallahassee, where Maxwell was being held until recently. Under the terms of the interviews, she was granted limited immunity from additional prosecution, provided she did not give false statements.
During the discussions, Maxwell said she never saw President Donald Trump engage in “inappropriate” behavior with anyone. She also rejected allegations that former President Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, saying the Clintons were her personal friends rather than Epstein’s.
“I do believe that Epstein did a lot of, not all, but some of what he’s accused of, and I’m not here to defend him in any respect whatsoever,” Maxwell told Blanche. “I don’t want to, and I don’t think he requires, nor deserves any type of protection or — from me in any way, to sugarcoat what he did or didn’t do.”
Authorities released hundreds of pages of transcripts along with audio recordings of the interviews on the Justice Department’s website. In them, Maxwell denied that Epstein kept a “client list” or maintained blackmail material on prominent figures connected to him.
Maxwell also offered her own explanation for the origins of the so-called “list.” She said that in 2009, after Epstein had served a light sentence for child sex trafficking, a wave of civil lawsuits was filed against him, including some from the law firm Rothstein Adler.
According to Maxwell, a lawyer from the firm contacted the FBI claiming to have a “piece of evidence” belonging to Epstein. That, she suggested, was the basis of the “list.” She further speculated that Epstein may have become a confidential FBI informant at the time.
Maxwell claimed the list originated from a sting operation involving Epstein’s former butler, who, according to her account, stated in a deposition that he possessed “handwritten notes, or a journal, whatever.”
The law firm Rothstein Adler was later raided by the FBI, and several of its lawyers were prosecuted on charges including money laundering, fraud, conspiracy, and running a Ponzi scheme. “This is one man,” Maxwell said. “He’s not some — they’ve made him into this. He’s not that interesting. He’s a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids.”
