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The Justice Department on Friday released transcripts of interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice, as the Trump administration scrambles to blunt mounting criticism over its handling of the sex-trafficking case.
The disclosure comes after weeks of turmoil inside the administration, fueled by frustration among President Donald Trump’s supporters who had expected sweeping revelations about Epstein’s connections to powerful figures. Instead, officials had repeatedly delayed or refused to release records they previously suggested existed, sparking outrage from conspiracy theorists and right-wing influencers who accused the government of orchestrating a cover-up.
The transcripts document two days of interviews conducted last month in Florida by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for aiding Epstein’s abuse of teenage girls, described her earliest recollections of Trump in the 1990s, when her father, British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, was friendly with the New York real estate mogul.
“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 admired Trump’s then-wife, Ivana, because they shared roots in Czechoslovakia.
Administration divisions and shifting narratives
After the interviews, Maxwell was quietly transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas. Officials offered no explanation for the move.
The release of the transcripts marks a sharp reversal for Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Justice Department, which only weeks earlier had said no further disclosures from the Epstein investigation were “appropriate or warranted.” That announcement — combined with Bondi’s earlier claims that she had a “client list” from Epstein’s files — ignited fury among Trump’s base.
The episode has also deepened rifts inside the administration. Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, along with co-deputy director Dan Bongino, have faced criticism for raising expectations about dramatic disclosures. Both Patel and Bongino, before joining government, had publicly speculated that Epstein’s “black book” and other records were under FBI control.
In February, the White House invited far-right influencers and distributed binders labeled “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” that contained mostly public documents, a move widely derided as a political stunt. Bondi later said a “truckload” of new evidence was under review — only to reverse course when the DOJ concluded most of it was sealed to protect victims.
Trump seeks to move on
The president has since tried to shut down the controversy. At a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump dismissed questions about Epstein as “a hoax” and criticized supporters he said were duped by conspiracy theories.
Still, the administration’s uneven handling of the case underscores the political risks of overpromising disclosures on a matter that has long fueled suspicion and speculation.
Epstein, who was arrested in 2019 on sex-trafficking charges, was found dead a month later in a New York jail in what officials ruled a suicide. His connections to Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew continue to cast a shadow over the case — one the administration has struggled to navigate.
