Ghislaine Maxwell Pleads Fifth In Deposition, Holds Out For Trump Pardon

WASHINGTON — Jeffery Epstein’s former accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell sat for a video deposition with members of Congress on Monday but refused to talk.

Appearing from the prison camp where she’s serving a 20-year sentence, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate herself — and indicated she would only speak if President Donald Trump lets her out of prison.

“Ms Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump,” Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, said in an opening statement he posted on social media.

Democrats expressed outrage that Maxwell appeared to be advertising favorable testimony in exchange for a pardon or commutation of her prison sentence. Trump has suggested he’s open to the idea.

“She is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President Trump, and this president has not ruled it out, and so that is why she’s continuing to not cooperate with our investigation,” Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told reporters. “The reality is that she is a monster. She should be behind bars.”

Maxwell was sentenced to 240 months in prison in 2022 for helping Epstein recruit, groom and eventually abuse girls as young as 14. When she was first charged in 2020, a year after Epstein died in prison while facing sex trafficking charges, Trump, a former friend of Epstein’s, said he wished her well.

Last year, the Bureau of Prisons transferred Maxwell to a minimum-security prison camp, contrary to protocols for a sex offender, after she sat for a transcribed interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. In that interview, Maxwell said she never witnessed inappropriate behavior by Trump or by former President Bill Clinton, who also socialized with Epstein and traveled on his private jet.

Bill and Hillary Clinton will sit for depositions with the House Oversight Committee later this month. The committee’s chair, Representative James Comer (R-Ky.), said he was disappointed that Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to speak as a witness against herself.

“We had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators,” Comer said.

Through her attorney, Maxwell again volunteered that Trump and Clinton did nothing wrong.

“Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” Markus said. “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”

Share Button

Donald Trump Doesn’t Rule Out Pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell

On his way out the door to a weekend golf trip that’s set to cost American taxpayers at least $10 million, Donald Trump stopped to answer a couple questions from reporters ― and he was awfully cagey when asked about Ghislaine Maxwell.

Asked if he would pardon or commute the sentence of Maxwell, sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s onetime girlfriend, Trump sure didn’t say “no.”

“I’m allowed to do it,” he told reporters. He then claimed that “it’s something I’ve not thought about.”

Presumably, Trump wouldn’t pardon Maxwell, who was convicted for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, unless it benefited him personally — perhaps by buying her silence or otherwise somehow distracting the country from his own past relationship with Epstein.

Trump deflected further when pushed on the subject.

“I don’t want to talk about that,” he said.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with her on Thursday in an attempt to quell a firestorm over the Trump administration’s backtracking on promises to release additional records from the Epstein investigation.

“What I do want to say is that Blanche is a great attorney,” Trump told reporters.

Then he launched into one of his classic redirects and encouraged the press not to investigate his own connection to Epstein, but everyone else’s. He proceeded to list names that may or may not be in the Epstein files and speculated about “hedge fund guys” and former President Bill Clinton going to Epstein’s island.

(Clinton has denied knowing anything about the “terrible crimes” allegedly committed by the billionaire financier.)

In the same back and forth, Trump also denied that he’d written a lewd birthday message for Epstein that featured a drawing of a naked woman and remarked how “enigmas never age” while wishing that “may every day be another wonderful secret.” The Wall Street Journal published the content of the note last week.

Share Button

Epstein Accuser Backs Claims He Had ‘Sex Tapes’ Of Trump, Clinton And Prince Andrew

A Jeffrey Epstein accuser is speaking out about past claims she made that the late pedophile kept video footage of his various friends having sex at his home, saying it’s absolutely true and that she only recanted her story years ago out of fear following threats.

“It’s no secret that everything was recorded,” Sarah Ransome, who settled a civil suit with Epstein and his madam Ghislaine Maxwell in 2018, told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday. “Multiple victims have come forward confirming my account, along with others. I have also seen recordings in his office.”

These recordings supposedly show former President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, and British business magnate Richard Branson having sex with an unnamed woman, Ransome claimed in 2016 emails that were published on Monday as part of a defamation lawsuit brought by fellow Epstein accuser, Virginia Giuffre.

A representative for Branson’s company, the Virgin Group, said Ransome’s claims are “baseless and unfounded” while citing a past interview she gave that called the tapes’ existence a work of fiction.

“We categorically reject all allegations made by Sarah Ransome. In 2019 she admitted to The New Yorker that the ‘tapes’ had been ‘invented,’ Any suggestion that Sir Richard Branson was involved in a ‘sex tape’ is entirely false. The allegations are baseless and unfounded,” said the representative in a statement to HuffPost. “The actions of Jeffrey Epstein were abhorrent and we support the right to justice for the many victims impacted by his abuse.”

No such tapes have been made public, nor has evidence supporting their existence.

The court documents published Monday include photos of Ransome, Maxwell, Epstein and other young women on Epstein’s private Caribbean island.

A final batch of seven documents from the court case was unsealed Tuesday.

Sarah Ransome leaves a New York courthouse in 2022 following the sentencing hearing of Ghislaine Maxwell.
Sarah Ransome leaves a New York courthouse in 2022 following the sentencing hearing of Ghislaine Maxwell.

TIMOTHY A. CLARY via Getty Images

Ransome said she recanted the tapes’ existence years ago because Maxwell, “amongst others, regularly enforced that if I ever did come forward, myself and my family would be harmed,” she told Good Morning Britain.

Epstein died in a New York City jail in 2019 while Maxwell is currently behind bars serving out a 20-year sentence related to helping him commit his sex crimes.

Ransome first came forward with her allegations to a New York Post reporter in 2016. She said the woman who allegedly had sex with the men had personally recalled her experiences with Ransome, particularly the woman’s one-on-one time with Trump, according to the court documents.

“She confided in me about her casual ‘friendship’ with Donald,” Ransome wrote of the woman in one email to the Post reporter. “Mr Trump definitely seemed to have a thing for her and she told me how he kept going on about how he liked her ‘pert nipples.’”

She added: “I also know she had sexual relations with Trump at Jeffery’s NY mansion on regular occasions.”

Ransome retracted these claims to the Post reporter shortly after, saying going public would bring “only bad things” and “pain for my family.” The story was not published.

Then in 2019, Ransome told The New Yorker that she entirely invented the video claims. She said she wanted to draw attention to Epstein’s crimes and make him believe that she had “evidence that would come out” if he went after her, according to her interview at the time.

Ransome told Good Morning Britain on Monday that she’d be willing to testify about their existence.

Share Button

Ghislaine Maxwell Would ‘Never Say Anything’ About Prince Andrew, Friend Claims

HuffPost is part of Verizon Media. Click ‘I agree‘ to allow Verizon Media and our partners to use cookies and similar technologies to access your device and use your data (including location) to understand your interests, and provide and measure personalised ads. We will also provide you with personalised ads on partner products. Learn more about how we use your data in our Privacy Centre. Once you confirm your privacy choices here, you can make changes at any time by visiting your Privacy dashboard.

Click ‘Learn more‘ to learn and customise how Verizon Media and our partners collect and use data.

Share Button