WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump considered granting a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, over concerns about what she might disclose regarding their long association, according to claims by author Michael Wolff. But Trump’s team sharply denied the assertion, calling it a fabrication.
Speaking on the Daily Beast podcast, Wolff said Trump grew increasingly anxious after Maxwell was arrested by the FBI in July 2020 on charges she helped Epstein operate a sex-trafficking network that targeted underage girls.
“What could she say—what would she say?” Wolff recalled Trump asking advisers at the time.
Trump and Epstein had maintained a close friendship dating to the 1980s, which Wolff described as “two guys joined at the hip for a good 15 years.” According to Wolff, the pair frequently socialized, traveled together, and even shared at least one girlfriend for an extended period, until a falling-out over a Palm Beach real estate deal in 2004.
As Maxwell’s trial approached, Wolff claimed Trump seriously contemplated using his presidential powers to shield her from prosecution.
“Everybody around him was kind of like, ‘God, we hope she won’t say anything, but we really hope he doesn’t pardon her,’” Wolff said, adding that aides warned such a move would generate massive public backlash.
Trump ultimately did not issue a pardon. Asked in July 2020 about Maxwell’s arrest, he offered what many observers described as an unusual note of goodwill.
“I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump said at the White House. “I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach.”
Reached for comment, Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, forcefully rejected Wolff’s account.
“Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s— and has been proven to be a fraud,” Cheung said in a statement. “He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain.”
A senior White House official also denied any discussions about pardoning Maxwell, telling the Daily Beast that no such conversations occurred and none would take place.
Maxwell, now 63, was convicted in 2021 on five federal counts, including sex trafficking of a minor, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. She did not testify at her trial in New York.
A recently disclosed Justice Department memo cited by the Daily Beast concluded the government had closed its investigation into Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019. The document stated authorities found no evidence he was murdered or maintained a “client list” of influential associates.
Source: thedailybeast
