WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he "hasn't thought about" pardoning Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell but that he's "allowed to do it."
"I haven't thought about it," Trump said when asked by reporters outside the White House if he had thought about a pardon or clemency for Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. "I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about."
Pressed again later, Trump said, "I don’t want to talk about that" before praising Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who met with Maxwell and her attorneys this week in a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. He later added that he "never went to his [Epstein's] island."
So far in his second term, Trump has granted 58 pardons and 12 commutations, including blanket clemency for the hundreds of people convicted or awaiting trial for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The president's comments before he left for a trip to Scotland come as the White House has been dealing with the Epstein saga for weeks now and can't seem shake it, despite Trump's attempts to change the subject.
Maxwell's attorney David Oscar Markus told reporters Friday: "We just ask that folks look at what she has to say with an open mind, and that’s what Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has promised us, and everything she says can be corroborated and she’s telling the truth. She’s got no reason to lie at this point, and she’s going to keep telling the truth."
Trump told reporters Friday that he didn't know "exactly what's happening" with the Justice Department's meeting with Maxwell. Asked if she should be trusted since she's eager to get out of prison, Trump said Blanche is "a professional lawyer" and "he's been through things like this before."
But issues surrounding the Epstein case likely won't dissipate anytime soon. The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Maxwell for a deposition at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee in Florida on Aug. 11. The House Oversight Committee will subpoena the Justice Department to release files tied to Epstein, a committee spokesperson said this week, after three Republicans on a subcommittee joined Democrats to vote on the matter Wednesday.
House Republican leaders also decided this week to recess early for the summer, which Democrats say was meant to avoid a floor vote on whether to compel the Justice Department to release Epstein-related files. The Trump administration has faced pressure, including from some Republicans, to be more transparent after the Justice Department said this month that it had no Epstein client list despite Attorney General Pam Bondi's statement in February that she had it on her desk.
As calls for transparency grow, Trump and the White House have focused on other issues, including former President Barack Obama and files related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Trump accused Obama this week of "treason" as Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently declassified a report that she said says shows that Obama manufactured the intelligence community's 2017 report about Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Obama's office pushed back against the allegations this week, calling them "ridiculous" and "bizarre."
Asked Friday if last year's Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity benefits Obama, Trump said: "It probably helped him a lot — the immunity ruling, but it doesn't help the people around him at all, but it probably helps him. He's done criminal acts, there's no question about it, but he has immunity."
