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US Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Department of Justice would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted longtime associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr Blanche was asked about Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and whose lawyers have been pushing for clemency, during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, US time.
During the hearing, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen was asked whether he or the department could commit to not recommending a pardon for the former British socialite.
“Yes, I can commit to that, of course,” said Mr Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer.
Elsewhere in the hearing, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley asked if the Epstein investigation remained open or if it had been closed.
“I guess I don’t understand what ‘Epstein investigation’ means,” replied Mr Blanche.
“Epstein himself? Yes, he’s dead. Any investigation into potential other bad guys will always be open if we have evidence that supports in any way, shape or form that we can make a case.”
Mr Trump hasn’t ruled out pardoning Maxwell – the only person convicted of a crime in connection with Epstein.
“I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about,” he told reporters outside the White House when asked if he thought about issuing a pardon or clemency for Maxwell last July.
When later pressed again for an answer, Mr Trump said: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Months later, in October, the US Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell’s appeal against her conviction, leaving presidential clemency her only option for an early prison release.
Earlier this year, the 64-year-old was subpoenaed by the House Oversight Committee to discuss her relations with Epstein.
Seated in a Texas prison, she was asked about her and Epstein’s co-conspirators, whether they surrounded themselves with the rich and famous in order to “curry favour” and avoid scrutiny, and whether Mr Trump ever engaged “in sexual activity with an individual introduced to him by you or Jeffrey Epstein.”
However, she refused to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right to stay silent.
Her lawyer, David Markus, said she would be prepared to speak publicly if granted clemency by Mr Trump.
“If this Committee and the American public truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened, there is a straightforward path,” Mr Markus said in a statement.
Mr Markus added Mr Trump and former US President Bill Clinton, who were both once friendly with Epstein, were “innocent of any wrongdoing.”
“Ms Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation,” he said.
Her deposition came amid the Justice Department’s release of millions of documents related to the government’s investigation into Epstein, many of which have been heavily redacted.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) passed by Congress in November compelled the Justice Department to release all of the records in its possession related to Epstein.
It required the redaction of the names or personal identifying information about Epstein’s victims, who numbered more than 1,000 according to the FBI.
But the EFTA said no records could be “withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
Maxwell and Epstein visited Colombia
Last week, Colombia’s immigration authorities revealed that Maxwell and Epstein visited Colombia in 2002, and Maxwell visited again in 2007.
The first visit took place during the term of former Colombian president Andres Pastrana, who is mentioned several times in the documents released by the US Justice Department regarding Epstein’s crimes.
On Monday, an administrative court in Cundinamarca, central Colombia, ordered Migracion Colombia to make public details about Epstein and Maxwell’s visits, with the immigration authority subsequently sharing the information with media outlet Casa Macondo.
According to the publication, Epstein left Bogota’s El Dorado airport for Miami on July 20, 2002, although there is no record of his entry.
It remains unknown how many days Epstein spent in Colombia, or what he did there.
Maxwell entered the country on March 19, 2007, and left three days later for Panama, according to Casa Macondo.
“Migracion Colombia confirms that Epstein was in Colombia during the government of Andres Pastrana,” President Gustavo Petro wrote on X.
According to the Epstein files, Mr Pastrana was a passenger on the sex offender’s private plane in 2003 and appears in emails that suggest a close relationship with both Epstein and Maxwell.
He also appears in a photograph with Maxwell from 2002, both wearing Colombian air force uniforms.
In declassified emails, she claimed to have flown a Blackhawk military helicopter in Colombia and to have fired from the air at a guerrilla group in the Amazon.
Mr Pastrana acknowledges having met with Epstein and Maxwell on several occasions but insists that the meetings were formal in nature.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of supplying underage girls to Epstein.
Epstein, who had longstanding ties to the world’s political and business elite, pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor. He died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
– With AFP
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