The Justice Department released interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, notorious human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s only convicted associate, conducted by Deputy AG Todd Blanche at her Florida prison.
Maxwell denied trafficking, witnessing abuse, or seeing sex with minors during her years with Epstein. She also said President Trump never acted “inappropriately” and dismissed claims former president Bill Clinton visited Epstein’s island, calling the Clintons her friends, not Epstein’s.
“I do believe that Epstein did a lot of, not all, but some of what he’s accused of, and I’m not here to defend him in any respect whatsoever,” Maxwell told Blanche. “I don’t want to, and I don’t think he requires, nor deserves any type of protection or – from me in any way, to sugarcoat what he did or didn’t do.”
Authorities released transcripts and audio of Maxwell’s DOJ interview, which gave her limited immunity unless she lied. She denied Epstein had a “client list” or blackmail trove, and offered her own explanation for how those claims began.
In 2009, Maxwell said Epstein had just served a light sentence for child sex trafficking when civil suits, including from Rothstein Adler, began piling up. A lawyer from the firm told the FBI he had “a piece of evidence” tied to Epstein—what became known as “the list.” She claimed Epstein may have become an FBI informant through a sting involving his former butler, who mentioned handwritten notes or a journal in a deposition. Rothstein Adler was later raided, and its lawyers were prosecuted for crimes including fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and a Ponzi scheme.
“This is one man,” Maxwell said. “He’s not some – they’ve made him into this. He’s not that interesting. He’s a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids.”
Maxwell repeated her belief that Epstein didn’t kill himself and claimed he once told her a heart condition prevented normal sexual activity. She said they met in the early 1990s, worked together, and had a sexual relationship until 1999, adding she later realized he “wasn’t very into her.”
“There was some indications that he would actively tell other people to lie to me or conceal things from me, and that he never loved me, and I wasn’t his type,” she said.
“In the early ’90s, I don’t remember traveling so much with other people,” she added, mentioning that Epstein began traveling increasingly with “masseuses” and used massages as a cover for sex. “There would be a masseuse or a yoga person, but now he started to travel with more, always a masseuse.”
“He started doing testosterone, and that altered his character,” she further revealed to Blanche. “And I believe that started in the late ’90s. And I believe that the FBI has his medical records, and you may see that on his medical records.”
Maxwell also said she never saw Prince Andrew act inappropriately and claimed the photo of him with her and 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre is “literally a fake,” insisting she doesn’t know if Andrew and Giuffre ever met. Giuffre, who accused Andrew of forcing her into sex at Maxwell’s London home, died by suicide earlier this year. Andrew denied wrongdoing but gave her a 2022 settlement and pledged to support her charity. Maxwell said she didn’t introduce them, claiming they may have met at a Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket dinner party in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after her 2021 conviction for aiding Epstein in trafficking teen girls, following his 2019 jailhouse death ruled a suicide—a finding his brother disputes. She is appealing and open to interviews with prosecutors and Congress. Her lawyer, David Oscar Markus, argues she was made a scapegoat after Epstein died before trial.
“Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case,” Markus wrote. “She never committed or participated in sexual abuse against minors, or anyone else for that matter.”
