President Donald Trump on Monday said he’d consider a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who conspired with the president’s late friend, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, to traffic and abuse minor girls in multiple states.
He also said he’d been asked for a pardon by Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison following a federal prostitution conviction last week.
Speaking in the Oval Office during an event on approving a new mining road in Alaska, Trump was asked whether he’d consider clemency for Maxwell, a British socialite who was indicted on sex trafficking charges after Epstein, who once described himself as Trump’s best friend, hanged himself in a New York detention cell while awaiting trial on similar charges in 2019.
“You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look,” Trump said.
He then said he would have to “speak to the DOJ” and stressed that he did not know “anything” about the matter despite the case dominating headlines for months over a bipartisan effort to force release of case files from the Justice Department’s attempt to prosecute Epstein.
President Donald Trump talked about potential pardons for Diddy and Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday. (Getty Images)
“I’ll look at it … a lot of people have asked me for pardons,” he added.
Trump also said Combs, who he called “Puff Daddy” — a nickname the rapper hasn’t used since being acquitted of weapons and bribery charges a quarter-century ago — had asked him for a pardon as well.
The president’s comments about Maxwell came hours after the Supreme Court denied her appeal, which her attorneys had file on the grounds that she should never have been prosecuted because a prior non-prosecution agreement prosecutors reached with Epstein in Florida should have been applied to her as a co-conspirator with the deceased pedophile.
The Department of Justice had called on the justices to reject that argument, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer arguing that the U.S. attorney who oversaw that agreement would have needed to obtain permission for the terms to apply outside that district.
Maxwell was indicted in New York federal court in 2020 for crimes associated with Epstein’s decades-long scheme to recruit young women and girls — some as young as 14 years old — then sexually abuse them.
From 1994 to 2004, Maxwell and Epstein worked together to recruit young girls and entice them to travel to Epstein’s properties, according to prosecutors. During a monthlong trial in 2021, survivors testified in federal court in Manhattan that Maxwell had groomed them, taken their passports, and sexually abused them.
President Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell has come under renewed scrutiny after the Justice Department sought to draw investigations to a close despite the president’s pledge to release the so-called “Epstein files” that critics argue could expose a wider conspiracy implicating powerful figures.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, told The Independent in a statement that her legal team was “deeply disappointed” that the court had declined to hear her case.
“But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done,” he added.
Maxwell, who is now 63, is not scheduled to be released from prison until 2040. Her best chance of early release is a presidential pardon, though legal experts warn that public statements suggesting that a pardon is even remotely on the table could encourage Maxwell to do anything she can to secure one.
Markus, her attorney, has previously said Maxwell would “welcome” one, though she has not formally sought a pardon from Trump.
Alex Woodward contributed reporting from New York
