By Isabelle Wils0n-
U.S President, Donald Trump, has said he may pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, after the US Supreme Court rejected an appeal request . Maxwell, the imprisoned ex-girlfriend of the late notorious paedophile.
Although the president also mentioned Sean Combs(known as P Diddy), the likely impression in the court of public opinion may be that Trump is rewarding an accomplice of a vile paedophile, for speaking nicely about himself recently, in a bid to quell negative rumours.
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She told a top official of the U.S. Justice Department that President Donald Trump was “a gentleman in all respects” and that she never saw him do anything inappropriate with anyone associated with Epstein. “Absolutely never, in any context,” Maxwell said.
A transcript released in August indicates that Maxwell’s lawyers initiated the request for the meeting with Blanche, but her representatives have insisted that no promises were made by the administration in connection with the interview.
“We haven’t spoken to the president or anyone about a pardon just yet,” Maxwell’s attorney David Markus said outside the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee, where the interview took place last month.
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“Of course, everybody knows Ms. Maxwell would welcome any relief,” he added.
The suggestion of a pardon by the U.S president may be viewed as amounting to a reciprocal gesture courtesy of her vindicating words for him. Although, t could also just be a sign of the presidents appreciation of her comments, the indication of a pardon will have a varied resonance with different groups of individuals.
The decision brings an end to Maxwell’s legal effort to have her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges overturned – and leaves presidential clemency as her only option for early release from a 20-year prison sentence handed to her in 2022.
The FBI and justice department said they had “laboured to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession”.
Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison after being convicted in December 2021 on sex trafficking charges associated with Epstein, but her lawyers have now argued that she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.
The US President Donald Trump and his administration, which urged the court not to accept the case, have been condemned for refusing to publicly release all the files from Epstein’s case. Maxwell was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed by deputy attorney general Todd Blanche in July.
David Oscar Markus, said in a statement his team was “deeply disappointed” by the court’s decision. He said “this fight isn’t over”, without explaining what he meant, but insisted there were still “serious legal and factual issues” in the case.
Maxwell’s legal team argued she shouldn’t have faced prosecution because of a deal that Epstein, who took his own life while in prison in 2019, made with federal prosecutors in Miami.
The 2007 agreement protected his “potential co-conspirators” from federal charges anywhere in the country, they said. Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there ruled that the prosecution was proper. A jury found her guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges.
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