The US justice department has asked Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, for a meeting with its prosecutors, officials said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said prosecutors planned to ask Maxwell, “What do you know?”, and that he intends to meet her “soon”.
Maxwell’s legal team told the BBC they were in discussions with the government and she would “always testify truthfully”.
Calls for more transparency in the Epstein case have intensified recently, including from supporters of President Donald Trump. Despite the pressure, House Speaker Mike Johnson said his chamber would not vote on the release of further files in the case until September.
Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal attorney in his 2024 criminal trial, said that DOJ and FBI’s 6 July statement on Epstein “remains accurate”.
That statement noted that a recent, thorough review of FBI records related to the Epstein case uncovered “no evidence to predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties”.
“This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead,” Blanche said on Tuesday.
“If Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” he added.
Speaking to the media from the Oval Office, Trump said interviewing Maxwell “sounds appropriate to do.”
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019 while he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Last week, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask a court to release all relevant grand jury testimony in the case.
Maxwell was found guilty of helping Epstein sexually abuse young girls. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
On Tuesday, her lawyer David Oscar Markus said in a statement: “We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”
Earlier this year, Maxwell urged the Supreme Court to review her case. The justice department pushed the court to reject that appeal last week.
Throughout the course of Maxwell’s 2022 trial, four women testified that they had been abused as minors at Epstein’s homes in Florida, New York, New Mexico and the Virgin Islands.
One of those women, Annie Farmer, said her only sense of justice came from the conviction of Maxwell.
She told the BBC in an interview this week that the “rollercoaster” of the Epstein saga was a “real weight” on accusers, adding that too much focus has been paid to the abusers with little new information emerging, leaving her feeling “used”.
The justice department’s meeting invitation has already been critiqued by some in the MAGA world.
Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist who has the ear of Trump, questioned why the Maxwell interview was not done “on day 1”.
“I guess what I want to know is whether the DOJ is basically saying they have never met with Ghislaine Maxwell to ask her or interview her about whether she has information about sex crimes committed against minors,” Ms Loomer wrote on social media.
But Speaker Mike Johnson announced he would suspend House votes until September, a decision widely seen as an effort to quell demands for the release of Epstein files.
He said votes would end on Wednesday evening in what he called an effort to avoid “political games” related to the files.
His statement came just after a Congressional oversight committee voted to subpoena Maxwell for a deposition.
By BBC News
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