Justice Dept. Reaches Out to Ghislaine Maxwell, a Longtime Epstein Associate

Top Justice Department officials have contacted lawyers representing Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a prison term for sex trafficking, to address lingering questions about the case that have fueled a furious right-wing backlash.

Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general, announced on social media early Tuesday that he had requested a meeting with the disgraced former socialite, Mr. Epstein’s loyal co-conspirator and enabler who also interacted with the rich and powerful men he courted — including President Trump.

“I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department,” Mr. Blanche wrote in a statement on social media.

“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,” he wrote, misspelling Ms. Maxwell’s first name and adding that he was acting on Mr. Trump’s instruction to release all “credible” evidence.

The announcement came hours before a major committee in the Republican-controlled House voted to subpoena Ms. Maxwell, and days after The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Trump sent Mr. Epstein a salacious birthday greeting in 2003 in which he expressed close friendship. The overture is the latest in a flurry of frantic efforts by Trump subordinates intended to quell a political crisis precipitated by Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement earlier this month that she was shutting down the Epstein investigation.

The unexpected furor over the case has forced the Republican-controlled Congress to confront a divisive political crisis in the middle of a victory lap after the passage of Mr. Trump’s signature domestic policy bill. House Republicans have been stymied from advancing an immigration bill and a rollback of Biden-era regulations after Democrats on a critical panel threatened to force a vote on an Epstein-related measure.

It is not clear how, or when, the department would release any information about an interview with Ms. Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison after a jury in Manhattan convicted her of sex trafficking and other crimes in 2022.

Mr. Blanche suggested the highly unusual move was motivated by factors other than investigating previously uncharged malefactors. In his statement, he said the department’s July 6 memo declaring Mr. Epstein’s jailhouse death a suicide and reversing course on releasing additional files “remains as accurate today as it was when it was written.”

No evidence “was uncovered that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties,” he added.

There are other indications that Ms. Maxwell will not be a hostile witness, at least not to Mr. Trump and his team. While Mr. Trump has tried to distance himself from the case, he had a longstanding social relationship with the financier and his fixer, Ms. Maxwell. Mr. Blanche, a former criminal defense lawyer for Mr. Trump, also has a friendly relationship with David Oscar Markus, Ms. Maxwell’s lawyer

“I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,” Mr. Markus wrote on social media, omitting that one of the initial charges against Ms. Maxwell was perjury.

“We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case,” he added.

Since taking office, Mr. Trump has used the vast power of the presidency to redefine criminality to suit his needs — using pardons to inoculate criminals he happens to like and downplaying corruption and fraud as crimes, most notably by issuing clemency to the Jan. 6 rioters and dismissing bribery charges against Mayor Eric Adams of New York.

In April, Ms. Maxwell asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of her criminal conviction. In her brief to the court, she argued that a 2007 agreement by federal prosecutors in Florida barred her criminal prosecution; under the agreement, government lawyers agreed that they would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Mr. Epstein.

The Justice Department, in a reply brief, urged the justices to reject the appeal, arguing that the nonprosecution agreement did not bind the entire Justice Department — in this case prosecutors in New York — from bringing charges against her. The justices have not announced whether they will hear the case.

Pressure to address the Epstein fiasco has jumped from the fervid world of right-wing media to Republicans in Congress who are feeling the heat from Mr. Trump’s base.

Shortly after Mr. Blanche posted his invitation, the House Oversight Committee voted to subpoena Ms. Maxwell. The motion was introduced by Representative Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, who has pushed for the Trump administration to release more of its material tied to Mr. Epstein’s case.

Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wanted to give Mr. Trump breathing room on the Epstein case, and Republican leaders have suggested they might not be able to address the matter until after a planned five-week recess.

Mr. Blanche, for his part, cast the Maxwell move as a brave assertion of his commitment to transparency — one that entailed an unspecified risk.

“Justice demands courage,” he wrote on social media.

Reporting was contributed by Abbie VanSickle, Michael Gold and Adam Goldman from Washington and Matthew Goldstein and Benjamin Weiser from New York.

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