Trump deflects Jeffrey Epstein questions; Maxwell meets DOJ

President Donald Trump on Friday deflected questions on his former pal Jeffrey Epstein as Epstein’s convicted intercourse offender confederate Ghislaine Maxwell was set to fulfill with a prime Division of Justice official in Florida for the second day in a row.

“I’ve nothing to do with the man,” Trump mentioned of Epstein, with whom he had socialized for years earlier than falling out with the now-dead pedophile within the mid-2000s.

Trump as a substitute mentioned individuals ought to give attention to others who, like him, had beforehand socialized with Epstein, amongst them former President Invoice Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who additionally served as president of Harvard College.

Individuals “do not speak about them. They speak about me,” Trump griped earlier than departing for a visit to Scotland.

“You need to give attention to Clinton. You need to give attention to the president of Harvard, the previous president of Harvard, it is best to give attention to among the hedge fund guys,” Trump mentioned.

“I will provide you with an inventory. These guys lived with Jeffrey Epstein, I certain as hell did not.”

Requested if he was contemplating a pardon or sentence commutation for Maxwell — who’s serving a 20-year jail sentence for procuring and grooming younger women to be sexually abused by Epstein — Trump mentioned, “It is one thing I have never thought of.”

“I am allowed to do it,” he added.

Trump has confronted rising stress to launch details about Epstein after the DOJ earlier this month reneged on guarantees by Legal professional Common Pam Bondi and prime FBI officers to reveal recordsdata legal investigators assembled of their intercourse trafficking probe of Epstein.

Trump final week ordered Bondi to hunt the unsealing of grand jury transcripts associated to investigations of Epstein and Maxwell, shortly after The Wall Road Journal reported he had despatched a “bawdy” letter to Epstein in 2003 for the cash supervisor’s fiftieth birthday.

“I do not even know what they’re speaking about. Now, any person may have written a letter and used my identify, however that is occurred quite a bit,” Trump mentioned in regards to the letter on Friday.

On Tuesday, Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche mentioned he would search to fulfill Maxwell and ask her if she had details about different individuals who had doubtlessly abused underage women and younger girls linked to Epstein. Blanche is a former legal protection lawyer for Trump.

Blanche met for hours with Maxwell and her lawyer on Thursday in U.S. District Courtroom in Tallahassee, Florida, the identical metropolis the place she is serving her jail time period.

A second sit-down was scheduled for Friday.

Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, spoke to reporters on his manner into the courthouse Friday.

‘”We’re hoping for one more productive day,” Markus mentioned, earlier than including: “Ghislaine has been handled unfairly for over 5 years now.”

“If you happen to appeared up scapegoat within the dictionary, her face could be subsequent to the definition subsequent to the dictionary definition of it,” he mentioned. “So, you realize, we’re grateful for this chance to lastly be capable to say what actually occurred, and that is what we will do yesterday and as we speak.”

Markus mentioned that Maxwell has “been in horrible, terrible situations for 5 years. We would not hold animals the way in which she’s been stored in jail.”

“We simply ask that folk take a look at what she has to say with an open thoughts, and that is what Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche has promised us, and every thing she says might be corroborated and and he or she’s telling the reality,” Markus mentioned.

“She’s bought no purpose to lie at this level, and he or she’s going to maintain telling the reality.”