The Department of Justice released audio recordings and transcripts of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell described her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his associates and recounted seeing Donald Trump with Epstein, saying they appeared friendly and that Trump was cordial and never inappropriate in her presence. The DOJ applied redactions for victim names and identifying information. Senators Dick Durbin and Sheldon Whitehouse demanded the materials and criticized Blanche conducting the interview instead of line prosecutors. Maxwell's attorney said she answered questions truthfully. Maxwell's transfer to a Texas minimum-security facility prompted victims' outrage, and Trump has not ruled out a pardon.
"I don't know how they met, and I don't know how they became friends," Maxwell said about Trump and Epstein. "I certainly saw them together and I remember the few times I observed them together, but they were friendly. I mean, they seemed friendly."
Maxwell also said Trump "was always very cordial and very kind to me." "I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects," she said.
"It is highly unusual, if not unprecedented, for the Deputy Attorney General to conduct such an interview, rather than line prosecutors who are familiar with the details of the case and can more readily determine if the witness is lying," the letter read.
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