The US Justice Department on Friday released hours of interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell – the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, in which she denied claims linking prominent political figures to Epstein’s alleged sex crimes. Speaking to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche inside a federal prison in Tallahassee, Maxwell insisted she had never witnessed US President Donald Trump “doing anything inappropriate with anybody.” She said the president “seemed friendly” with Epstein, but added that she only recalled seeing the two together in “social settings” and not in “private settings”.“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects”, she said.She also rejected suggestions that former President Bill Clinton had visited Epstein’s private island in the US Virgin Islands, saying the Clintons were “her friends, not Epstein’s.” Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, acknowledged Epstein’s criminal conduct but distanced herself from any responsibility. “I do believe that Epstein did a lot of, not all, but some of what he’s accused of, and I’m not here to defend him in any respect whatsoever,” she said, adding that he did not deserve “any type of protection” from her. The Justice Department made public hundreds of pages of transcripts and audio from the interviews on Friday, which were conducted under terms that gave Maxwell limited immunity from further prosecution unless she provided false statements. Maxwell also dismissed long-running speculation about Epstein maintaining a secret “client list” or stockpiling compromising material on powerful associates. “There was no blackmail operation,” she told investigators.
