Ghislaine Maxwell claimed she never saw Donald Trump do anything inappropriate as a known associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and gushed over his presidency.
The Justice Department on Friday released the transcript of its interview with Epstein’s accomplice, which lets Trump off the hook amid questions about his relationship with the disgraced financier who the president once praised.
The interview was conducted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as the president’s personal criminal defense attorney.
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Blanche traveled to Florida in July to meet with Maxwell amid fallout over the administration’s failure to release the Epstein files. Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking.
“Did you ever observe President Trump receive a massage?” Blanche asked Maxwell during the interview.
“Never,” she responded.
“Did you ever hear Mr. Epstein or anybody say that President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world?” he also asked.
“Absolutely never, in any context,” Epstein’s former accomplice said.
Critics have blasted Maxwell as an unreliable witness who would lie to get what she wants.
After she met over two days with Blanche last month, Maxwell was moved to a minimum security prison in Texas, raising further questions about a sweetheart deal.
During the interview, Maxwell praised Trump as her legal team has openly pressed for a pardon from the president.
“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find -- I -- I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript.
“I like him, and I’ve always liked him,” Maxwell continued of Trump. She said that was the extent of her relationship with him.
Blanche asked Maxwell what Epstein’s relationship was with Trump. She said that she did not know how they met or became friends.
“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 said, noting it took place in social settings, not private settings, when asked for specifics by Blanche.
Maxwell claimed she did not know the nature of the president’s friendship with Epstein.
“I think they were friendly like people are in social settings. I don’t -- I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the President in any of -- I don’t recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance,” she said.
She insisted she never saw Trump in “any type of massage setting” and said, “I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way.”
Maxwell called Trump a “gentleman in all respects.”
There are photos of Epstein and Maxwell with Trump, including at a Mar-a-Lago party in 2000.
The convicted sex-trafficker recalled that she loved going to the Florida club and that she often did so alone without Epstein.
The British socialite revealed that she had met Trump through her father and that it happened before she took up with Epstein.
“I just want to say that I met him, or I believe I may have, because of my father in the ’90s,” she said of the president.
When pressed over whether masseuses from Mar-a-Lago’s spa gave massages to Epstein, Maxwell responded “I don’t recall.”
As the White House struggled to address the Epstein crisis following its botched release of documents, Trump claimed in recent weeks that he had a falling out with the convicted sex offender because Epstein stole employees for him and specifically indicated the spa at Mar-a-Lago.
One of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre, had worked at Mar-a-Lago. Giuffre tragically died by suicide in April. She had said she had been approached by Maxwell in 2000 and was eventually hired by her as a masseuse for Epstein.
“I’ve never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for that, as far as I remember. I can’t ever recollect doing that,” Maxwell told Blanche.
Maxwell also could not recall if Trump had contributed to a book for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump sent a sexually suggestive drawing for the book. While Maxwell confirmed that she had helped put together a birthday book for Epstein similar to one her mother made for her father, she said she could not remember if Trump submitted a letter or card.
After the bombshell report, Trump denied the allegation, claiming he did not draw pictures, but numerous doodles by the president from that timeframe appeared to dispute that.
Maxwell said there was no letter from Trump during discovery for her trial in New York, but it only involved portions of the book.
“Do you remember one way or the other whether President Trump submitted a letter for his 50th birthday?” Blanche asked.
“I do not remember,” Maxwell said.
When pressed further that the report suggested it was a drawing of a naked woman and whether she had any recollection of that, Maxwell said “I do not.”
The release of the Blanche-Maxwell interview transcript comes the same day the Justice Department began to turn over troves of Epstein files to the House Oversight Committee in response to a subpoena.
Maxwell said the last time she had seen Trump was in the early or mid 2000s in a social setting, as far as she could recall.
