Audio tapes and transcripts of Maxwell’s chat with Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer are being considered for release
Transcripts of prison interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell could be released within weeks.
Meanwhile, a congressional committee issued a legal order for US Justice Department files related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation to be released to them.
Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison on sex trafficking charges linked to her relationship with dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was interviewed twice last month by Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Blanche is Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer.
The Mirror revealed this week that Maxwell was quizzed about “high profile” Brits during the interview.
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According to CNN, an audio recording of the conversation exists, as well as transcripts which the Justice Department are considering releasing.
The broadcaster cited three senior administration officials, who said they are currently discussing whether to release the transcript.
Trump is under increasing pressure for transparency over the Epstein scandal.
This pressure ramped up yet further last week as it emerged Maxwell had been moved to a cushier prison in the weeks following the interviews.
“A final decision has not been made,” one of the officials is quoted as saying.
Two officials are said to have told CNN the release would “likely be sooner rather than later.”
One said it could be “several weeks from now.”
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said: “This is nothing more than CNN trying desperately to create news out of old news. [Trump] already addressed this issue in an interview with Newsmax, a real news outlet that routinely gets better ratings than CNN.”
Trump said during the Newsmax interview that he would “like to release everything, but we don’t want people to get hurt that shouldn’t be hurt, and I assume that was why [Blanche] was there.”
But he did not specifically mention interview transcripts.
“I haven’t spoken about it, but he’s a very talented guy, Todd Blanche, and a very straight shooter, and I think he probably wanted to know, you know, just to get a feeling of it,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department today for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to Trump and other former top officials.
The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.
The committee’s actions showed how even with lawmakers away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high.
Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and claimed he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation.
But lawmakers from both major political parties, as well as many in the Republican president’s political base, have refused to let it go.
Since Epstein’s 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein — and who else could have been involved.
Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee nodded to that line of questioning last month by initiating the subpoenas for the Clintons, both Democrats, as well as demanding all communications between President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein.
The committee is also demanding interviews under oath from former attorneys general spanning the last three presidential administrations: Merrick Garland, William Barr, Jeff Sessions, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales. Lawmakers also subpoenaed former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller.
However, it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to successfully initiate the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee.
“Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption of Donald Trump,” Rep. Robert Garcia, who is the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last month. “What is Donald Trump hiding that he won’t release the Epstein files?”
The committee had previously issues a subpoena for an interview with Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend.
But the committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. James Comer, has indicated he is willing to delay that deposition until after the Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal to her conviction. She argues she was wrongfully prosecuted.