President Trump Doesn’t Rule Out Pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell as She Appeals to SCOTUS

President Donald Trump said Friday that he hasn’t ruled out a pardon or commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell, though he claimed he hasn’t seriously considered it yet, according to a report published by CNN.

“It’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump told CNN. “I am allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”

Asked later at the White House if clemency was on the table, he told the network, “I can’t talk about that now… it’s very sensitive,” before shifting to praise Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, his former defense lawyer, who met with Maxwell in Florida on Thursday.

“I don’t know about the meeting. I know it’s taking place, and he’s a fantastic man. He is a great attorney,” Trump added.

Maxwell Appeals Supreme Court to Overturn Conviction

Meanwhile, Maxwell is appealing to the US Supreme Court to overturn her 20-year sentence for helping disgraced financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls, Reuters reported.

her lawyers argue that a 2007 non-prosecution deal Epstein struck with federal prosecutors in Florida also shielded his co-conspirators like Maxwell and should have barred her prosecution in New York.

“This isn’t just about Ghislaine Maxwell,” her attorney David Markus told Reuters.

“It’s about whether the government is held to its word.”

Legal experts say Maxwell’s appeal raises a legitimate question: Does a plea deal in one district bind federal prosecutors in another?

“The question has split the circuits,” former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner told the news agency, increasing chances that the Supreme Court may hear the case.

SCOTUS Faces Legal and Political Pressure

The justices are currently on summer recess but are expected to decide by late September whether to take up Maxwell’s appeal. With a 6–3 conservative majority, including three Trump-appointed justices, political implications are hard to ignore.

“There were many strange things about this deal,” Reuters quoted Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman as saying, in reference to Epstein’s unusually broad plea deal.

Still, he warned that the oddities of that agreement may make it a poor test case for the Supreme Court.

“A decision that would allow Maxwell to protect herself probably would not be something they would be interested in,” Richman reportedly said.

Epstein Fallout Continues

The push for clemency and renewed interest in the case come as Trump’s MAGA base is seemingly pressuring his administration to release more Epstein-related documents. The administration had recently backtracked on earlier promises to make those files public.

Meanwhile, Maxwell’s legal team has a Monday deadline to file their final brief, and a court decision on whether to proceed with the appeal could arrive this fall. If the case moves forward, oral arguments would likely begin in October, with a decision likely by June 2026.

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