Updated @ 7:19 PM EDT on August 22, 2025
The full transcript and audio recording of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s talks with Ghislaine Maxwell last month were made public by the Justice Department on Friday.
Maxwell, a longstanding partner of convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein, received a 20-year prison sentence for assisting Epstein in abusing young girls sexually. In late July, Blanche spent two days with her in Tallahassee, Florida. The hundreds of pages of transcripts are labeled as “redacted.”
In her social media posts, Blanche stated that the files were published “in the interest of transparency.”
An counsel for Maxwell claimed in a statement that she is a scapegoat and that she was honest during the interview.
“Ms. Maxwell answered every question,” lawyer David Markus stated. “She didn’t sidestep any questions or refuse to answer them. She provided paperwork and other impartial proof to back up her responses. Anyone can hear her credibility and mannerisms. Despite five grueling years in prison, some of which were spent in appalling conditions, she managed to do this.
Democrats and some GOP allies have stepped up their pressure on the Trump administration to release additional details about whatever files it may have on Epstein and his case.
What she said about President Trump
During the interview, Maxwell was questioned about a wide range of officials, including President Trump, who might have known or interacted with Epstein. Trump and Epstein shared a Palm Beach social circle, but Trump has consistently maintained that their association ended when the scandal-plagued financier was charged with prostitute solicitation in 2006.
Maxwell informed Blanche that since Trump had been acquainted with her father, she might have seen him sometime in 1990. According to her, Trump “was always very cordial and very kind to me,” and she never saw him in a “inappropriate setting.”
In fact, I have never seen the President get a massage of any kind. I never once saw the President in any unsuitable situation. The President never treated anyone improperly. “He was a gentleman in every way when I was with him,” Maxwell remarked.
When asked about Trump and Epstein’s relationship, Maxwell stated that she didn’t believe they were “close friends.”
She told investigators, “I don’t remember ever seeing him in his house, for instance.”
Epstein’s reach
Additionally, Maxwell was questioned regarding Epstein’s contacts with former President Bill Clinton. Maxwell denied receiving a massage when Blanche asked if Clinton had.
The only time Epstein and Clinton spent time together, she added, was on Epstein’s plane. “I don’t believe he did,” she claimed.
I don’t think there was ever a massage on the plane, but they did spend some time together. Therefore, I believe that President Clinton could only have gotten a massage at that particular moment. And because I was present, he didn’t,” she remarked.
Even while such interactions were not known to have been corrupt, the interviews shed light on the contacts Epstein was able to establish with some of the most prominent and powerful people in business, government, and culture.
Bill Gates, actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy are just a few of the people who are discussed in the interview. Maxwell disclosed that she and Epstein had gone “dinosaur bone hunting in the Dakotas” with Kennedy, but she denied knowing of any improper behavior involving any of them.
An unusual meeting
It was very unusual for Blanche to meet with Maxwell, a senior official in the Justice Department. Deputy U.S. Marshal Mark Beard, FBI special agent Spencer Horn, and acting assistant deputy attorney general Diego Pestana were also present at the interview.
In one way or another, Maxwell and her legal team seem to be arguing for clemency. Trump has exercised his authority as president to pardon those who have previously shown him support and to reduce or lessen existing prison sentences. She was transferred from a federal jail in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas within days of speaking with Blanche. The cause for the move was not disclosed by officials.
The transcripts were made public on Friday, the same day that members of the House Oversight Committee received the first batch of papers from the Justice Department’s investigations into Epstein and Maxwell. Earlier this month, the committee subpoenaed the agency for the records.
Democrats and some Republicans have criticized the panel’s chairman, James Comer, R-Ky., who says he intends to make at least some of the information public. They say they are concerned that the release will be far from complete.
Copyright 2025 NPR
