Exclusive:
Insiders told the Mirror that Ghislaine Maxwell has been asked about Prince Andrew’s friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein as she’s quizzed by Donald Trump’s lawyers
Ghislaine Maxwell was today quizzed about Prince Andrew’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein by US government lawyers.
Insiders told the Mirror how the convicted teen sex trafficker was questioned about the royal as she was asked about her knowledge of “100 different people” related to the late child Wall Street financier. A source said: “No one was off limits. The interview was meticulous as it was long. Ghislaine was quizzed about everyone she knew in Epstein’s circle, including the Duke. Nothing was left on the table.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison after being sentenced in 2022. She is not due for release until July 2037. After being questioned by Donald Trump’s Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, for two days, Maxwell’s lawyer confirmed she had not held back from answering questions about anyone.
“We started this morning (Fri) right around 9 o’clock, and went to now lunchtime, and we’re finished after all day, yesterday and today,” her attorney David Oscar Markus said. “Ghislaine answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half, she answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability. She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question.” He added: “They asked about every single, every possible thing you could imagine. Everything.”
The meeting with Maxwell came just weeks after the Department of Justice announced it would not release any Epstein files – a move that has sparked outrage among survivors. It has also, more critically for Trump, sparked a civil war among his MAGA supporters, seeing thousands turn on him after he campaigned for the White House on a promise to release all information on the sex offender.
The president, now scrambling to contain the political fallout, is said to be furious at the backlash from his own base. Markus said Maxwell was being used as the “scapegoat” in the entire Epstein case and has been “treated unfairly for the last five years.”
Her attorney said that they had not put in a formal request with the White House for a pardon for Maxwell, 63, following the conclusion of her questioning. But Markus didn’t rule one out completely, saying, “Things are happening so quickly. The president said earlier he has the power to do so, we hope he exercises that power in the right way,” he added.
Last night, a source told the Mirror that in addition to being quizzed about Andrew, she was also questioned about Bill Clinton.
Both the Duke of York and the former president are documented as flying on Epstein’s private “Lolita Express” jet and pictured with him at various times. Andrew famously refused to speak to the FBI.
In 2020, when he was the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman made the extremely rare decision to publicly blast the Duke. He accused the Prince of “seeking to falsely portray himself” as eager to help his Epstein inquiry before he accused Andrew of providing “zero cooperation.”
Berman claimed that despite public statements to the contrary, the royal had “repeatedly declined” requests to schedule an interview.
Andrew’s legal team denied his claims, insisting that the Duke offered to assist authorities on at least three occasions. He was later accused of having sex on three separate occasions with Epstein’s “teen sex slave” Virginia Giuffre, which the Duke emphatically denied.
In 2019, she accused the royal of sexually abusing her on three occasions when she was 17 – claims he vehemently denied. Facing a civil lawsuit in New York, Andrew opted to settle out of court in early 2022, reportedly paying Giuffre £12 million.
He issued no apology and continued to protest his innocence, insisting he had no memory of ever meeting her despite the now-infamous photo of them together with Maxwell grinning in the background. It was unclear whether Blanche intends to question her further. Markus said he did not know whether the discussions would have any impact on her case.
With Maxwell’s questioning finished, Markus added: “We don’t know how it’s going to play out. We just know that this was the first opportunity she’s ever been given to answer questions about what happened and so the truth will come out about what happened with Mr Epstein, and she’s the person who’s answering those questions.”
Epstein committed jail cell suicide in August 2019 as he awaited trial for child sex offences.