On August 22nd local time,
It was reported that the US Department of Justice had released audio recordings and hundreds of pages of written records of an interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of late wealthy American businessman Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell denied in the interview the existence of the so-called “Epstein client list.”
According to Fox News, Deputy Attorney General Todd Branch conducted hours of questioning of Maxwell in a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. The interview agreement granted her limited immunity, but she could still be prosecuted if she lied during the process.
Epstein died in prison in 2019, officially ruled as a suicide. Maxwell stated in the interview records of the US Department of Justice that she did not believe Epstein died by suicide.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021 for facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking of underage girls and is currently serving her sentence while appealing the decision. She expressed willingness to cooperate with federal prosecutors and Congress for further interviews. The release of this information was carried out without warning, just days after a federal judge refused the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand jury materials.
Maxwell claimed she never saw Trump engage in improper behavior
During her questioning, Maxwell stated that she “never saw US President Trump in any improper situations.”
She also said that she never saw Epstein take photos or videos of others for extortion, nor had she ever heard anyone accuse Epstein of extortion while she was present.
US Department of Justice hands over “thousands of pages” of Epstein case files to Congress
The US Department of Justice handed over the first batch of “thousands of pages” of documents related to the Epstein case to the House Oversight Committee on the 22nd.
Republicans on the committee said the documents were part of about 100,000 pages of material, and would be released to the public after a thorough review of their content, with the removal of information related to victims’ identities and underage sex assault, and after consultation with the Department of Justice to avoid affecting ongoing cases.
More documents will be handed over in batches in the future, but neither the Department of Justice nor Congress has provided a specific timeline. (By Cao Jian)