WASHINGTON — President Trump stunned reporters Friday by offering them “a list” of Jeffrey Epstein associates and telling them he hasn’t thought about whether he will pardon the dead pedophile’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump commented on the case as Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell, 63, for a second day in Tallahassee, Fla. — as the administration seeks to put to bed three straight weeks of renewed controversy over the late sex trafficker.
“You should focus on [Bill] Clinton. You should focus on the president of Harvard, the former president of Harvard [Larry Summers], you should focus on some of the hedge fund guys. I’ll give you a list,” the president said as he departed the White House for a trip to Scotland.
“These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I sure as hell didn’t.”
“You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton, who went to [Epstein’s private isle in the US Virgin Islands] 28 times. I never went to the island,” the president scolded the White House press corps.
Asked whether he would pardon Maxwell, with whom Trump socialized along with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, Trump said first that he “can’t talk about pardons” and then that “it’s something I haven’t thought about.”
The president said he wasn’t worried that Blanche could be misled by Maxwell in a gambit to win her freedom, calling Blanche, his own former personal attorney, a “professional lawyer who’s been through things like this before.”
On Friday afternoon Maxwell’s attorney David Markus said that she gave Blanche information on about 100 people linked to Epstein.
Trump also addressed a crude note he purportedly wrote in 2003 to Epstein on the occasion of his 50th birthday as part of a bound book assembled by Maxwell, saying: “Somebody could have written a letter and used my name.”
Upon arriving in Scotland, Trump faced more questions on Epstein — denying a report that the Justice Department briefed him that his name was in the files.
“I’m focused on making deals. I’m not focused on conspiracy theories that you are. I mean, I watch you people, it’s so sad,” Trump said.
Public interest in the Epstein case was revived this year by Attorney General Pam Bondi publicly teasing bombshells and even at one point appearing to indicate she had possession of a client list.
Prince Andrew, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, and Victoria’s Secret billionaire Les Wexner are among Epstein’s former friends, as are Clinton and Trump, who reportedly had a falling out with the sex pervert in late 2004 due to competitive bidding on a Palm Beach mansion, though various alternate triggers have circulated.
Trump has struggled to strong-arm fellow Republicans, including members of Congress and grassroots allies, to move on from the matter after Bondi issued a July 6 memo saying there is no Epstein client list and that evidence indicates he died by suicide in jail on Aug. 10, 2019.
The Justice Department memo said that more than 1,000 young women and girls were victimized by Epstein and Maxwell, but that a review of evidence found no grounds to criminally charge any of their powerful associates.
