The US Justice Department on Friday released transcripts of interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed former associate and girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The release is part of thousands of pages of documents handed over to the House Oversight Committee after a subpoena from Chairman James Comer.
In the transcripts, Maxwell spoke about her connections to several high-profile figures, including US President Donald Trump. She recalled possibly meeting Trump for the first time in 1990, when her father, newspaper owner Robert Maxwell, was friendly with him.
“I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” Maxwell said. She added that her father was also fond of Trump’s then-wife Ivana, as they both had roots in Czechoslovakia.
Maxwell stressed that she never saw Trump act inappropriately. “The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects,” she told investigators. She also said she never saw him in a “massage setting” and emphasised that there was “no Epstein list.”
On Epstein’s death, Maxwell repeated claims that he “didn’t kill himself.”
The interviews took place over two days last month at a Florida courthouse with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 for helping Epstein lure underage girls who were later sexually abused.
The newly released documents are expected to fuel further political and public debate as lawmakers and the public continue to examine Epstein’s network of powerful connections.
Shivam Verma is a journalist with over three years of experience in digital newsrooms. He currently works at NewsX, having previously worked for Firstpost and DNA India. A postgraduate diploma holder in Integrated Journalism from the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, Shivam focuses on international affairs, diplomacy, defence, and politics. Beyond the newsroom, he is passionate about football—both playing and watching—and enjoys travelling to explore new places and cuisines.
