Washington — Todd Blanche, the second highest-ranking Justice Division official, will meet with Ghislaine Maxwell on the U.S. legal professional’s workplace in Tallahassee on Thursday to debate convicted intercourse officer Jeffrey Epstein, a supply aware of the plans confirmed to CBS Information.
Maxwell is at present serving a 20-year sentence at a low-security federal correctional institute in Tallahassee after she was convicted in 2021 for her function in serving to Jeffrey Epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage women.
Blanche’s assembly comes after he stated earlier this week that he deliberate to fulfill with Maxwell, an affiliate of Epstein’s, “within the coming days.”
“Justice calls for braveness. For the primary time, the Division of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what are you aware?” Blanche wrote on social media Tuesday. He stated he contacted Maxwell’s attorneys on the route of Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi. “I intend to fulfill along with her quickly. Nobody is above the legislation — and no lead is off-limits,” Blanche wrote.
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, then confirmed that her authorized crew was in discussions with the federal government.
Stress has been constructing on President Trump and his administration over Epstein’s case after the Justice Division and FBI launched a memo earlier this month that concluded Epstein didn’t have a “shopper listing” and confirmed he died by suicide in 2019, shortly after he was indicted on federal intercourse trafficking costs.
The memo additionally concluded that there was no “credible proof” that the disgraced financier blackmailed distinguished folks. The Justice Division and FBI stated they might not launch any additional details about Epstein’s case.
However the Trump administration’s conclusions rankled a few of his allies, who had been skeptical of the Justice Division’s declare that there’s nothing left to expose.
A few of the administration’s high officers, together with Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel, had instructed earlier than Mr. Trump returned to the White Home that Democrats had been hiding details about Epstein and his alleged listing of shoppers.
In an effort to quell the backlash, the Justice Division requested federal judges in New York who dealt with Epstein and Maxwell’s circumstances to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings involving the 2.
Earlier this week, judges overseeing the requests every ordered the Justice Division to submit extra filings to the court docket about its efforts to unseal the grand jury data. The judges gave the defendants — in Epstein’s case, his consultant — and victims till Aug. 5 to put out their positions on the proposed disclosure.
It will likely be as much as the judges to determine whether or not the grand jury materials could be disclosed. In the event that they grant the requests, the knowledge will probably be closely redacted, and it’s more likely to be weeks or months earlier than the transcripts are unsealed.
Along with going through backlash from a few of his allies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have pushed to make materials associated to Epstein public.
A Home panel voted Wednesday to subpoena the Justice Division for information associated to the federal probe into Epstein. The Home Oversight Committee additionally subpoenaed Maxwell to take a seat for a deposition subsequent month on the federal detention middle in Tallahassee.
Mr. Trump has acknowledged he and Epstein moved in the identical social circles in Florida and New York from the late Nineteen Eighties to the early 2000s. However the president stated in 2019, following Epstein’s arrest, that they hadn’t spoken in 15 years.
The Wall Road Journal reported final week that Mr. Trump signed a “bawdy” letter to Epstein for his fiftieth birthday that stated, partially, “could day-after-day be one other fantastic secret.” CBS Information has not independently seen or verified the letter. The president has denied that he wrote the letter, calling it “faux,” and sued the Journal and its homeowners for defamation. He’s in search of at the least $20 billion in damages.
The Journal reported Wednesday that when Justice Division officers reviewed paperwork associated to Epstein earlier this yr, they discovered Mr. Trump’s title appeared a number of instances. Bondi and her deputy advised the president at a White Home assembly in Could that his title was within the so-called Epstein information, as had been these of different public figures, in accordance with the Journal.
That Mr. Trump was talked about doesn’t imply he dedicated any wrongdoing.
White Home communications director Steven Cheung stated in response to the Journal’s report that “The actual fact is that The President kicked him out of his membership for being a creep. That is nothing greater than a continuation of the faux information tales concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media, similar to the Obama Russiagate scandal, which President Trump was proper about.”
