US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters on the South Garden earlier than boarding Marine One on the South Garden of the White Home on July 25, 2025, in Washington, DC en path to Turnberry, Scotland.
Jim Watson | Afp | Getty Photographs
President Donald Trump on Friday deflected questions on his former buddy Jeffrey Epstein as Epstein’s convicted intercourse offender confederate Ghislaine Maxwell was set to satisfy with a high Division of Justice official in Florida for the second day in a row.
“I’ve nothing to do with the man,” Trump mentioned of Epstein, with whom he had socialized for years earlier than falling out with the now-dead pedophile within the mid-2000s.
Trump as a substitute mentioned individuals ought to give attention to others who, like him, had beforehand socialized with Epstein, amongst them former President Invoice Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who additionally served as president of Harvard College.
Individuals “do not speak about them. They speak about me,” Trump griped earlier than departing for a visit to Scotland.
“It is best to give attention to Clinton. It is best to give attention to the president of Harvard, the previous president of Harvard, it’s best to give attention to a few of the hedge fund guys,” Trump mentioned.
“I will offer you a listing. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I certain as hell did not.”
Requested if he was contemplating a pardon or sentence commutation for Maxwell — who’s serving a 20-year jail sentence for procuring and grooming younger ladies to be sexually abused by Epstein — Trump mentioned, “It is one thing I have not thought of.”
“I am allowed to do it,” he added.
Trump has confronted rising strain to launch details about Epstein after the DOJ earlier this month reneged on guarantees by Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi and high FBI officers to reveal recordsdata felony investigators assembled of their intercourse trafficking probe of Epstein.
Trump final week ordered Bondi to hunt the unsealing of grand jury transcripts associated to investigations of Epstein and Maxwell, shortly after The Wall Avenue Journal reported he had despatched a “bawdy” letter to Epstein in 2003 for the cash supervisor’s fiftieth birthday.
“I do not even know what they’re speaking about. Now, any individual may have written a letter and used my title, however that is occurred loads,” Trump mentioned concerning the letter on Friday.
On Tuesday, Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche mentioned he would search to satisfy Maxwell and ask her if she had details about different individuals who had doubtlessly abused underage ladies and younger girls linked to Epstein. Blanche is a former felony protection lawyer for Trump.
Blanche met for hours with Maxwell and her legal professional on Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Tallahassee, Florida, the identical metropolis the place she is serving her jail time period.
A second sit-down was scheduled for Friday.
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, spoke to reporters on his means into the courthouse Friday.
‘”We’re hoping for an additional productive day,” Markus mentioned, earlier than including: “Ghislaine has been handled unfairly for over 5 years now.”
“When you seemed up scapegoat within the dictionary, her face could be subsequent to the definition subsequent to the dictionary definition of it,” he mentioned. “So, you realize, we’re grateful for this chance to lastly be capable to say what actually occurred, and that is what we’ll do yesterday and at present.”
Markus mentioned that Maxwell has “been in horrible, terrible circumstances for 5 years. We would not hold animals the best way she’s been saved in jail.”
“We simply ask that people have a look at what she has to say with an open thoughts, and that is what Deputy Legal professional Basic Todd Blanche has promised us, and the whole lot she says might be corroborated and and she or he’s telling the reality,” Markus mentioned.
“She’s bought no cause to lie at this level, and she or he’s going to maintain telling the reality.”
