President Donald Trump has held no official discussions with the Justice Department’s clemency office about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, the Daily Beast has learned.
Trump has turned to Maxwell—who was convicted in December 2021 for her role in disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence—as he seeks to quell a rising revolt from his base over the Epstein files.
The Trump administration moved Maxwell to a lower-security prison camp in Texas following talks with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal attorney. The meeting has led to feverish speculation that the president is considering pardoning the 63-year-old.
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The president continues to face widespread, bipartisan calls to release the Epstein files after the Justice Department (DOJ) and Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded in a July memo that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 and no “client list” of wealthy co-conspirators exists. Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly told Trump his name appears in the Epstein files.
While Trump has not commented on whether he might pardon Maxwell—only admitting he has the power to do so if he wishes—the Beast can reveal no official talks have been held between his administration and its pardon attorney regarding Maxwell since her arrest in July 2020.
On August 2, the Beast submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA), which advises the president on clemency, asking for “any documentation that discusses the potential pardoning of Ghislaine Maxwell, since July 1, 2020.” Led by the pardon attorney, the office operates under the deputy attorney general and, in consultation with the attorney general, reviews and processes clemency petitions.
The OPA replied Wednesday: “Please be advised that a search has been conducted in the Office of the Pardon Attorney but no responsive records subject to the Freedom of Information Act were located.”
However, Trump has repeatedly bypassed the Justice Department’s normal clemency review.
In 2017, Trump issued a pardon for Joe Arpaio—a former sheriff of Maricopa County, who has drawn rebuke for his treatment of undocumented immigrants in custody—before he was sentenced for criminal contempt, bypassing traditional DOJ review.
On his Inauguration Day, Trump also issued sweeping pardons for all participants in the Jan. 6 riots.
Trump appointed Edward R. Martin Jr.—a former chair of the Missouri Republican Party who helped organize Stop the Steal rallies and served as an attorney for Jan. 6 defendants—as pardon attorney in May.
Martin’s selection came after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche fired Elizabeth G. Oyer in March after she declined to recommend restoring gun rights to Trump supporter Mel Gibson, who was convicted of a misdemeanor for domestic violence in 2011.
Within days, Martin discussed full pardons for several far-right figures—including Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and several Proud Boys members—as well as for two former Jan. 6 defendants in prison for unrelated charges.
Martin described in an X post the rationale for granting pardons as “No MAGA left behind.”
Epstein’s shadow continues to follow Trump.
After a major trawl of the Epstein files, which Trump pledged to release during his presidential campaign, Bondi told Trump in May that his name came up “multiple” times. Trump has denied engaging in any criminal conduct with Epstein and Maxwell, and no evidence exists to suggest otherwise.
During his first term in 2020, when asked about Maxwell after her arrest, Trump said, “I wish her well.”
After her conviction in New York, Maxwell was convicted in June 2022 and handed a 20-year sentence. She and her family continue to protest her innocence and are pushing forward with an appeal.
Earlier this month, she was transferred to the lower-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, days after she met with Blanche. Speculation over a Maxwell pardon has grown ever since.
Any such move would cause further fury—not least among Trump’s MAGA voter base, which is already irate that Trump’s electoral promise to release the files remains unfulfilled.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House, the Department of Justice, and Maxwell’s representatives for comment.
Maxwell’s family declined to comment.
