Just before departing for a five-day trip to his golf properties in Scotland while the Epstein files scandal swirls around him, President Donald Trump left the door open to possibly issuing a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein scandal has plagued the Trump administration for weeks, fueled by the President’s refusal to release the government’s files in the case—despite a campaign pledge to do so. Many believe the documents could contain the names of Epstein’s clients. According to The New York Times, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed President Trump in May that his name appears in the files, though the context remains unclear and numerous individuals are mentioned, including in unverified or hearsay references.
Reporters surrounded the President on Friday morning on the White House lawn as he headed for Marine One, the helicopter that took him to Andrews Air Force Base as he began his overseas voyage.
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Asked if he would consider a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, Trump told reporters, “Well, I don’t want to talk about that,” before attempting to divert their attention to other high-profile people whom he alleged were friends of Epstein.
“You ought to be speaking about Larry Summers, you ought to be speaking about some of his friends that are hedge fund guys that are all over the place. You ought to be speaking about Bill Clinton, who went to [Epstein’s] island twenty-eight times—I never went to the island,” Trump claimed.
Multiple reporters asked Trump about pardoning Maxwell. His former personal attorney who is now the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, went to speak with Maxwell in prison this week.
Asked again if he would “consider a pardon or commutation” for Maxwell, Trump said, “It’s something I haven’t thought about,” and then, “I’m allowed to do it.”
When asked if he would rule it out, Trump appeared to ignore the reporter.
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Critics were stunned and outraged by the President’s remarks, with some suggesting they believe his remarks are a trial balloon, and others suggesting they think he will offer Maxwell some form of clemency.
“He’s going to do it, isn’t he?” wrote conservative commentator Charlie Sykes.
“The president won’t rule out a pardon for a convicted child sex trafficker and Epstein’s co-conspirator,” observed U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA). “Says he is allowed to do it. Nothing suspicious about that…”
“The fix is in,” wrote The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson. “Just for the record, Donald Trump is going to pardon the woman who ran one of the largest known child sex trafficking pedophile rings in history.”
“Ruling out a pardon for a convicted child sex trafficker seems like the lowest of bars, and yet…” added Andrew Weinstein, an Obama and Biden appointee.
MSNBC columnist Michael A. Cohen, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS), noted: “We’ve now reached the point in Trump’s presidency when pardoning a convicted child sex trafficker is on the table.”
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