Roughly 35 years since becoming friends with Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell’s relationship with the president is paying off. After agreeing to an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Maxwell was moved from the low-security Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee to the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp, Bryan in Texas.
The prison in Tallahassee has a history of sexual abuse and poor conditions. FPC Bryan has puppies, although Maxwell is not allowed to touch them. According to the organization that runs the dog training program at FPC Bryan, it’s to protect the animals. Camp Bryan is supposed to be for people who can be trusted around puppies but the Administration had other ideas.
According to ABC News sources familiar with the content of the interview, Maxwell did not disclose anything that would be incriminating or harmful to the president – you mean to tell me that she didn’t trash the one person who can get her out of prison? Trump and his team are now considering whether to release a transcript of the interview. The president has also refused to rule out a pardon for Maxwell.
To summarize, Trump needed something to quell the growing anger over his handling of the Epstein files (independent of whether he had anything to do with the Epstein abuses) and Maxwell could secure a move to a nicer prison and possibly even a presidential pardon for saying whatever was most useful to the administration.
I’m certainly not accusing the administration of staging a cover-up or of a lack of transparency but it’s worthwhile to note that Maxwell has zero motivation for saying anything that would incriminate the president during the interview.
In fact, it’s very clear that all of the incentives are in favor of clearing Trump of any wrongdoing and saying whatever the administration thought would help with the crisis. Given that Maxwell was convicted of grooming and trafficking dozens of minors (some as young as 14) so that Epstein and others could rape and molest them, I wouldn’t put much stock in her integrity. No, if the Bible is right, she’s going straight to hell barring any last-minute repentance.
This is all stating the obvious and I believe that it is obvious to most people, including the Trump supporters who are troubled by his handling of this Epstein saga. It would mean that from the perspective of the Trump administration, this was all for naught – releasing the exculpatory transcripts or pardoning Maxwell would both backfire.
Making the transcripts public would again bring the Epstein files back to the forefront while MAGA supporters decide what to make of them – likely unsatisfied. Pardoning or commuting the sentence of a prolific child sex trafficker would probably not sit well with many.
Treacherous podcasters like Joe Rogan, Andrew Shultz, and Tim Dillon may never get invited to the White House again once they get a chance to opine.
CNN reported that an Epstein strategy meeting was supposed to take place at Vice President JD Vance’s house with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel attending although a spokesperson for Vance denied that a meeting was scheduled.
Reportedly, some of these Trump officials have been resisting the idea of releasing the transcripts in favor of simply letting the story die on its own. The problem with this strategy is that the administration was incredibly vocal about how much transparency they were creating by interviewing Maxwell.
By refusing to release the transcripts, they are only making the administration seem increasingly guilty of covering for pedophiles (in the minds of those who believe in the conspiracy) despite the fact that the transcripts are unlikely to contain any interesting information.
The entirety of the conundrum that the Epstein files have presented to the Trump administration was created because Trump and his subordinates continuously dangled the carrot of releasing the Epstein files and of holding elites accountable for their fiendish behavior.
After each failure to deliver, their response was to dangle another carrot, only ensuring that they’ll have more carrot-dangling in their future – if it’s true that there is a network of elites whose pedophilic activities were facilitated by Epstein, it’s clear that the Trump administration has no interest in holding them accountable.
It’s a bit disconcerting that all of the minds at the head of the administration only produce strategies to buy themselves a few days before they’re forced to scramble again.
For those like Rogan and Dillon who wholeheartedly believe that there are elite pedophiles connected to Epstein who have not faced justice, there is nothing that the Trump administration can give them that would make the controversy disappear – either because releasing the sort of information that would satisfy believers in the conspiracy would hurt the Trump administration or because there’s simply no additional information that isn’t already public from all of the civil cases that have been previously unsealed.
All of the lies and exaggerations have resulted in the Trump administration permanently labeling themselves as the presidency that promised a populist revolt against the evil elites and then canceled it.
Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group.
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