A Day After Explosive Epstein-Trump Report, Convicted Sex Trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell Meets with DOJ Official By Ben Brachfeld

Top officials at the Department of Justice are scheduled to meet Thursday with convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, reportedly in hopes of obtaining information about potential criminal activity by associates of her late confidante, Jeffrey Epstein.

The meeting between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is taking place at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Tallahassee, Fla., near where Maxwell is incarcerated, ABC News reported Thursday morning, citing sources. Blanche declined to speak with reporters as he walked into the building, which is housed in Tallahassee’s federal courthouse.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, told reporters he was “looking forward to a productive day,” ABC reported.

Maxwell was convicted on child sex trafficking charges in 2021 in relation to her activities as a “madam” for Epstein, the billionaire financier and convicted child sex criminal. Maxwell recruited girls, including minors, for Epstein to sexually abuse.

Maxwell has appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court, arguing she is immune from prosecution through a 2007 deal that required Epstein to plead guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and register as a sex offender.

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It’s unclear whether Maxwell may attempt to use the meeting to secure a lighter sentence or even a pardon from the government in exchange for cooperation.

The meeting with Maxwell comes one day after the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena for her deposition and voted to subpoena the DOJ, ABC reported.

In response to the subpoena, Markus said it “remains a big if” whether she would testify before Congress and not invoke her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination — but if she did, she would “testify truthfully, as she always has said she would.”

The Trump administration has faced significant blowback over its handling of the Epstein scandal. Months after claiming Epstein’s long-rumored “client list” was sitting on her desk, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s DOJ effectively closed the case, claiming no such client list existed and there was not enough evidence to prosecute any potential Epstein co-conspirators.

Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged with sex trafficking but died a month later in a Manhattan jail cell, leaving unanswered questions about his associates and alleged crimes. His death was ruled a suicide but the ruling has generated suspicion.

President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years before a falling out, has urged his followers to forget about the disgraced financiar, to little avail, as questions swirl over whether the commander-in-chief is named in the government’s “Epstein files.”

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that one such file in the government’s possession is an alleged birthday card from Trump to Epstein, drawn inside the outline of a naked woman, where the president allegedly wrote to the disgraced financier that they have “certain things in common.” PEOPLE has been unable to verify this information.

Trump called the letter fake and sued the Journal for $20 billion.

On Wednesday, the Journal reported that DOJ officials told Trump he was named in the Epstein files as far back as May, before the administration publicly announced there was no client list.

Trump’s team again called the story “fake” on Wednesday.