Jeffrey Epstein’s brother has accused the White House of a ‘cover up’ after Donald Trump’s Justice Department said it would speak to Ghislaine Maxwell in jail.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed on Tuesday he expects to meet with Maxwell in the coming days to see if she has ‘information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.’
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking of minors on behalf of Epstein.
The move to speak to her is part of an ongoing Justice Department effort to cast itself as transparent in the Epstein case, which has been shrouded in conspiracy theories.
It follows a fierce backlash from parts of Trump’s base over an earlier refusal by the administration to release additional records in the investigation.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has faced mounting pressure from Trump’s supporters to release all materials related to Epstein, who killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
A lawyer for Maxwell said she would cooperate with the Justice Department.
‘I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,’ her lawyer David Oscar Markus said.
‘We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.’
But Mark Epstein, brother of the disgraced late financier, claimed it was the latest effort to distract attention from unpublished evidence and the circumstances surrounding the death of his brother.
Two weeks ago, a months-long review conducted by the Justice Department and FBI concluded that Epstein died by suicide. Mark Epstein maintains his brother was killed.
He said: ‘They’ll talk to her (Maxwell) and ask her what her favorite color is. So they can say they talked to her. It depends what the conversation is about.
‘Maybe she’ll be afraid to speak, afraid they’ll hold it against her and turn down her appeal.’
Mark Epstein said he knew Maxwell in the 1990s but had not spoken to her for several decades.
But he believed she would have information about interactions between Epstein and Trump.
‘She could certainly verify that Trump was in Jeffrey’s office many times,’ he said.
He claimed a White House statement on Monday that Trump had ‘never been’ to his brother’s office was ‘the biggest crap I’ve ever heard.’
‘I would speak to Jeffrey and he’d say he was with Trump. I know people in his office saw him there,’ he said.
The White House referred a request for comment to the Justice Department. The Justice Department did not comment beyond Blanche’s earlier statement.
Blanche said: ‘This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead.’
He said in the recent Justice Department and FBI review ‘no evidence was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.’
Blanche added: ‘President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence. If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.
‘I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days. Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.’
Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump addressed the DOJ plan to speak to Maxwell, saying he was not aware of it but it seemed ‘appropriate to do.’
He said: ‘I don’t know anything about it. I don’t really follow that too much. It’s sort of a witch hunt.’
Trump has long said he was ‘not a fan’ of Jeffrey Epstein, that he had a ‘falling out’ with him around 20 years ago and never spoke to him again.
Last week, the president sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal after it published a story about Trump’s alleged friendship with Epstein.
Meanwhile, some of the president’s supporters have continued to pursue conspiracy theories that Epstein had a list of high-profile clients. The Justice Department and FBI review concluded there was no such ‘client list.’
Trump has urged his supporters not to be taken in by what he called a Democrat ‘scam’ and ‘hoax’ which was actually ‘pretty boring stuff.’
Some of Trump’s most staunch supporters in recent weeks have called on Bondi to resign, after she backtracked on a promise she made earlier this year.
She had said her department would release additional materials including ‘a lot of names’ and ‘a lot of flight logs’ in connection with Epstein’s clients.
Since then, at Trump’s direction, Bondi and Blanche have asked a federal court for permission to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases of both Epstein and Maxwell.
However, legal experts have said that those transcripts will not likely contain the types of materials being sought by Trump’s supporters.
A source who spoke with the Daily Mail said that Maxwell would be ‘more than happy’ to testify before Congress.
‘No-one from the government has ever asked her to share what she knows,’ the source said.
‘She remains the only person to be jailed in connection to Epstein and she would welcome the chance to tell the American public the truth.’
