Epstein files latest: Maxwell may avoid subpoena as Trump says he hasn’t thought about pardoning her
President also says he has not thought about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, but adds he has power to do so
A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, says his client is unsure whether she’ll comply with a congressional subpoena to testify about his abuse of girls and whether others were involved.
“We have to make a decision about whether she will do that or not,” her attorney David Oscar Markus told Politico. “That’s been scheduled for the week of August 11th and we haven’t gotten back to them on whether we’ll do that.”
The lawyer’s comments came after he and Maxwell met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, where she’s serving 20 years behind bars for her role in Epstein’s scheme to sexually exploit girls, to discuss the Epstein case that has rattled the Trump administration for weeks. Maxwell had initiated the meetings and was granted a form of limited immunity to talk to the Justice Department, ABC News reported.
Upon arriving in Scotland for a golfing trip, the president said: “A lot of people asking me about pardons ... this is no time to be talking about pardons.”
The president, who has never been accused of wrongdoing in the Epstein case, has tried to distance himself from his former friend.
House Democrats are now trying to get the so-called “birthday book” that has been at the center of recent fallout. In a letter to Epstein’s estate, they asked for a “complete, unredacted copy” of the book by August 10. The Wall Street Journal first detailed a reported Trump letter in the book. Trump has sued the outlet for $10 billion over the report.
Even the MAGA crowd sees it: Trump’s ‘coverup’ in the face of Epstein scoops is making his problems so much worse
Trump’s approval tanks amid Epstein fallout - now less than 30% of independent’s approve
Trump blasts Democrats over what he calls the ‘Epstein SCAM’ and ‘CON JOB’
Bill Clinton wrote a birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein, according to bombshell report
Ghislaine Maxwell given ‘limited immunity’ in meetings with deputy attorney general: reports
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Trump is en route to Scotland — why?
Donald Trump will be visiting the UK for the first of two scheduled trips this year as he plans to land in Scotland on Friday for a five-day private trip.
This will be followed by an official state visit only a few months later, with King Charles III set to welcome the US president from 17 to 19 September.
Here’s Albert Toth with what’s happening on this trip:
Why is Trump visiting the UK?
Trump’s ‘coverup’ in the face of Epstein scoops is making his problems so much worse
John Bowden writes:
The firestorm continued on the MAGA right this week as the political focus on the Epstein files just would not dissipate and Donald Trump dug himself deeper into a hole.
With his administration scrambling to explain why it isn’t releasing files from an investigation that its own members and supporters have said for years should be made public, the president spent the past two weeks reigniting old conflicts with foes ranging from Rosie O’Donnell to Barack Obama.
On Wednesday, those efforts escalated to the point where the U.S. director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declared from behind the White House briefing room podium that former President Obama had attempted a “coup” on American soil.
But Trump and his closest advisers are coming to quickly realize that they and the mainstream media both greatly underestimated the staying power of the Epstein issue.
Read on...
Trump’s ‘coverup’ in the face of Epstein scoops is making his problems so much worse
ICYMI: Trump blasts Democrats over what he calls the ‘Epstein SCAM’ and ‘CON JOB’
A furious President Donald Trump has once again blasted “Radical Left Democrats” over the ongoing fallout of the so-called “Epstein files,” describing it as a “SCAM” and a “CON JOB.”
In a late-night post on Truth Social Thursday, the president fumed over what he claims is an attempt to “distract and obfuscate” from his administration’s first “GREAT six months of service to America ... the results of which many are saying is the BEST six months in Presidential history.”
Mike Bedigan reports.
Trump blasts Democrats over what he calls the ‘Epstein SCAM’ and ‘CON JOB’
Amid Epstein furore, does South Park’s savage takedown show Trump has picked a fight he can’t win?
Louis Chilton writes:
Of all the dubious achievements of Donald Trump’s time in office, the most surprising may be this: the US president has made South Park relevant again. The long-running animation – just days ago signing a record-breaking $1.5bn deal with Paramount to produce 50 new episodes over the next five years – used its long-awaited season premiere to launch a characteristically pugnacious critique of the president.
Read on...
South Park’s savage takedown shows Trump has picked a fight he can’t win
Maxwell lawyer claims 'scapegoat' client 'treated very unfairly'
Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, said his client “has been treated very unfairly” for more than five years and has no reason to lie when answering questions from Justice Department officials.
Markus was speaking to reporters ahead of a second day of meetings in Tallahassee, Florida, between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, formerly Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
“If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her face would be next to the definition, next to the dictionary definition of it,” Markus said. “So, you know, we’re grateful for this opportunity to finally be able to say what really happened, and that’s what we’re going to do, yesterday and today.”
Maxwell has experienced “terrible, awful conditions for five years,” he claimed.
“We wouldn’t keep animals the way she’s been kept in prison,” Markus said, adding that “it’s unbelievable that she can keep her spirits up this high, and we’re proud of her.”
“We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated, and she’s telling the truth. She’s got no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth.”
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking by a federal court in late 2021 after a high-profile trial in which lurid details of her personal role in grooming young girls for Jeffrey Epstein were presented to the jury that ultimately convicted her.
She is currently serving a 20-year sentence for her crimes.
Here’s a look at the prison in which she is incarcerated:
Filth, rats and fear of reprisals: Life inside Ghislaine Maxwell’s prison
Full story: Trump says he could pardon Ghislaine Maxwell ‘but hasn’t thought about it’
President Donald Trump said Friday he has not thought about pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted enabler of financier sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — but noted that he could — as she prepares for a second consecutive day of questioning from his former attorney, who is now a top Justice Department official.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump told reporters outside the White House on his way to Scotland.
Ariana Baio reports.
Ghislaine Maxwell set for second day of grilling by ex-Trump lawyer Blanche
Gender-justice organization flies banner over Tallahassee as Maxwell meets with Blanche for second day
UltraViolet, a national women-led gender-justice organization, has arranged for a plane to fly over Tallahassee today with a banner that reads: “TRUMP AND BONDI ARE PROTECTING PREDATORS,” as Ghislaine Maxwell meets for a second day with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement in early July that no more files related to the investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein would be published has outraged supporters of President Donald Trump. The MAGA base widely expected them to be released after years of conspiracy theories regarding their contents.
In an effort to tamp down the anger, the president instructed Bondi to ask judges to release grand jury transcripts relating to the case — requests that were denied — and Blanche was dispatched to meet with Maxwell.
There is intense speculation as to what they are discussing, and Democrats in Congress are furious that she is not testifying publicly under oath before speaking to the Justice Department. She is set to be deposed in prison on August 11 by the House Oversight Committee.
The aircraft will fly over the Downtown Tallahassee State Capitol Building, as well as the Joseph Woodrow Hatchett United States Courthouse and Federal Building on North Adams Street, and around the Federal Correctional Institution in northeast Tallahassee, where Maxwell is serving her 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking minors with her boyfriend, Epstein.
Maxwell-Blanche meeting has ended
CNN reports that the second day of meetings between Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell, and her lawyer has concluded.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, was spotted leaving the Tallahassee, Florida, federal courthouse where the meeting took place and spoke briefly with the media.
Stand by.
Report: Bill Clinton wrote a birthday note to Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein's birthday album included a letter from former President Bill Clinton, according to a new report.
Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died in jail in 2019, has been at the center of controversy in recent weeks after the Justice Department and FBI released a memo earlier this month stating there was never any Epstein client list of powerful people who may have participated in his crimes.
Rachel Dobkin reports.
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