Fri August 22, 2025
What we're covering here
• Happening now: The Justice Department has released a transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. CNN is going through the transcript now, and we’re posting updates. Here are the two files, Day 1 and Day 2.
• Terms of the interview: The Justice Department gave Maxwell limited immunity so that she could discuss her criminal case but did not promise any other benefits in exchange for her testimony, according to the transcript.
• Trump and Epstein: In the transcript, Maxwell said she never witnessed anything untoward in Donald Trump’s friendship with Epstein and never heard of any allegations that he acted inappropriately. Shortly before the release, Trump told reporters that he supported transparency in the case.
• Records transfer: Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee has received the first batch of records related to Epstein from the Justice Department, and it contains “thousands of pages of documents,” a spokesperson said this afternoon.
Maxwell says she didn't see “inappropriate” cameras in Epstein's homes
Ghislaine Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she was responsible for hiring electricians for all of Jeffrey Epstein’s properties around the world, and that she was not aware of any secret surveillance systems.
Rumors have long swirled around accusations that Epstein covertly recorded powerful men illegally engaging with underage girls and then used that footage as blackmail.
No such videos have ever been made public, though pictures have emerged about alleged cameras hidden inside his Manhattan townhouse.
He had a few cameras installed “where he kept his briefcase” on the ground floor of his Palm Beach home, Maxwell said, because he “noticed money was being stolen.”
Attorneys joke about "birthday book" during Maxwell meeting
As Ghislaine Maxwell tried to recount different financial clients that Jeffrey Epstein kept, she referred back to notes she had made in preparation for the interview kept inside a “book.”
“What book are you using,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asked her as she rifled through her notes. “What is that?”
Maxwell responded, “I wrote some notes for the meeting… is that alright?
Blanche assured Maxwell that it was fine, saying that he was “just curious” what she was “looking at.”
“Not the birthday book,” Maxwell’s attorney David Markus said, appearing to crack a joke about a reported collection of letters Maxwell had compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday that included one bearing Donald Trump’s name. Trump has repeatedly denied writing the letter and sued The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the letter, for defamation.
Maxwell agreed, saying, “It’s not the birthday book. We are going to come to that, I’m sure.”
“Yeah,” Blanche responded.
More key lines from Ghislaine Maxwell's interview with the Justice Department
We are recapping the key findings from a transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell last month.
The Justice Department released the 337-page transcript today, and it features the names of prominent figures, including President Donald Trump.
Here’s what it says:
- Prince Andrew: Maxwell told the DOJ she did not introduce Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein. “That is a flat untruth. I’ll start with that,” Maxwell said.
- Distancing from Epstein: Regarding the allegations that Epstein abused underage girls, Maxwell said, “I never saw that with them at all,” but added “I’m not saying that Mr. Epstein did not do those things.” In an attempt to distance herself from him, Maxwell said, “I am not here to defend him.”
- Recollections: Maxwell struggled to remember parts of her relationship with Epstein, which began more than 30 years ago. She frequently told Blanche that she didn’t remember details of her conversations.
- Criticizing testimony: Maxwell criticized one of the underage victims who testified against her at trial. “I actually don’t think that the testimony is correct,” Maxwell said at one point, insisting that Epstein had never met the girl before she was 16, and she never met her until the victim was 20 or 21.
- Epstein’s death: In the interview, Maxwell said, “I do not believe he died by suicide, no.” She was asked to speculate on who might have killed him, and she said she didn’t know, though did suggest it could have been an unrelated attack in prison.
Maxwell says she has no recollection of Trump being in Epstein’s 50th birthday book
Ghislaine Maxwell was asked by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in her interview if she recalled Donald Trump being included in a 50th birthday book that she made for Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday.
“I don’t,” Maxwell said when asked if she remembered if Trump submitted a letter or card for the book. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this summer that the collection of letters included one with Trump’s name on it. The president has repeatedly denied writing the note and filed a libel lawsuit against the news outlet.
Maxwell assembled the book for Epstein’s 50th birthday.
“Epstein would talk about his 50th, he said, I don’t know what I’m going to do. And I said, well, these are nice things, my mom did this book for my dad. He said, I love that idea,” she said.
Maxwell recalled seeing parts of the birthday book during discovery before her trial.
“President Trump, there was nothing from President Trump,” Maxwell said.
She also said she did not remember seeing any picture of a naked woman, a detail that was previously reported by the Journal.
“Did he seem to you to be a sexual deviant?” DOJ asked Maxwell about Epstein
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche challenged convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell on the sexual behavior of her longtime associate and alleged co-conspirator, Jeffrey Epstein.
“Did he seem to you to be a sexual deviant?” Blanche said, grasping for the right term.
The deputy attorney general continued, “Young women were everywhere. Multiple massages on some days. Flew with the women to the island, to New York, Paris. There’s always women, they’re always rubbing him, giving him massages. I think it would be an understatement to say that that’s not normal?”
“I agree,” Maxwell replied.
In one bizarre exchange, Maxwell acknowledged that Epstein preferred younger women, of legal age, but said he liked them not because of anything sexual but because they were “invigorating” and “up to date on music” and brought new “ideas” to the table.
“If he had been creepy… I don’t think the women would have been there,” Maxwell said.
Inside the Trump team's debate on what to do with the Epstein files
President Donald Trump’s team had been discussing releasing the audio and transcripts of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interview with Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell for several weeks, keeping a close eye on public attention surrounding the matter as they debated multiple options for what to do, officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
White House officials began discussing ways to get ahead of the story, including potentially releasing the audio and transcripts.
While many in the administration argued against resurfacing the Epstein story, officials said, others insisted the White House needed to be more proactive in dealing with the fallout of the Epstein files, and they believed releasing the materials from the Maxwell interview would help them better control the narrative.
Another concern with publishing the transcript and audio was that many parts of it would need to be redacted, two White House officials told CNN. One of the officials said that Maxwell shared a number of names of victims that had never been made public.
The Trump administration decided at some point this month that they wanted to release the audio and transcript of Blanche’s interview with Maxwell, sources familiar with the decision tell CNN. In early August, the Justice Department was going through the materials and digitizing, transcribing and redacting the audio, CNN previously reported.
Today, when the story was likely to take center stage anyway — with the Department of Justice set to deliver a tranche of Epstein-related documents to the House Oversight Committee — the Justice Department published the transcripts.
"Trump is getting what he wants" out of the Blanche-Maxwell interview transcript, former state attorney says
As CNN reads through the transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, it appears that President Donald Trump is “getting what he wants,” said Dave Aronberg, former Democratic state attorney for Palm Beach County.
He also underscored that Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with the disgraced financier to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. “You had multiple individuals say she was part of the abuse,” Aronberg said. “You can’t believe anything this woman says.”
Maxwell: Bill Clinton didn't go to Epstein's island
Ghislaine Maxwell said to her knowledge that President Bill Clinton never received a massage while in her presence and never went to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island.
Clinton traveled on Epstein’s plane several times. He has maintained he never did anything wrong and didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes.
“So they spent time on the plane together, and I don’t believe there was ever a massage on the plane. So that would’ve been the only time that I think that President Clinton could have even received a massage. And he didn’t, because I was there,” Maxwell said.
“President Clinton was my friend, not Epstein’s friend,” Maxwell told Blanche. Maxwell attended the wedding of Chelsea Clinton as a guest of her boyfriend.
Maxwell said she did not believe Epstein had “an independent friendship” with Clinton outside of the charity work. She said she had “no memory” of him in any of Epstein’s properties, including his private island, known as Little St James.
“He never. Absolutely never went. And I can be sure of that because there’s no way he would’ve gone – I don’t believe there’s any way that he would’ve gone to the island, had I not been there. Because I don’t believe he had an independent friendship, if you will, with Epstein,’ Maxwell said. She said she saw no warmth between Clinton and Epstein saying, “He was a rich guy with a plane.”
And when asked if Epstein had any “dealings” with Hillary Clinton,” Maxwell said no, though Maxwell said she herself had been to the Clintons’ house multiple times.
She said the last time she recalled seeing President Clinton was as recently as 2018 in Los Angeles and they had dinner.
Maxwell expressed admiration for Trump in DOJ interview
Ghislaine Maxwell also was complimentary of Donald Trump during her interview with Department of Justice officials, according to the transcript.
Maxwell said that she believed she had met Trump beginning in the 1990s, through her father, and was in touch with him socially for about a decade.
She described that Jeffrey Epstein was closer in touch with Trump than she had been.
She said she only visited Mar-a-Lago once or twice, for an event, alone. Epstein visited separately.
“I don’t know Epstein’s – if he had – whatever the nature of the President’s friendship, if you will, or however you want to define that with Epstein, I was – never witnessed,” she told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on the first day of her two-day interview.
“I think they were friendly like people are in social settings,” she added. “I don’t think they were close friends.”
Maxwell says there is no client list; explains origin of the client list story
Ghislaine Maxwell said in her interview with the Justice Department that there is no Jeffrey Epstein client list.
“There is no list. We’ll start with that. The genesis of that story, I can actually trace for you from its absolute inception, if that is what you’re interested in,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell goes on to explain to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche the origin of the “client list” story.
In 2009, Epstein was facing civil lawsuits. An attorney named Brad Edwards, who was working for the law firm Rothstein, Rosenfeldt & Adler, became a confidential informant for the FBI. The FBI was able to then obtain a list from one of Epstein’s former butlers, Alfredo Rodriguez.
“The truth is that Alfredo Rodriguez was deposed twice, once in July and once in August. And in the July deposition, told Brad Edwards that he had handwritten notes or a journal, whatever, in the deposition,” Maxwell said.
According to the transcript, Blanche was confused by Maxwell’s explanation of the origin of the list, asking if the list was “manufactured” or “fake.” Maxwell said that there are five people controlling the narrative of the story behind the client list, which creates the confusion.
Maxwell also said Edwards marked up a book of people who were involved, but noted that she does not remember Trump being involved.
“Brad Edwards says that he got Alfredo Rodriguez to mark up the book of 19 all the people who were involved … I don’t remember what it does with Donald Trump. I don’t – I don’t know. You’d have to look. I don’t have it,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell ended her story emphasizing again she was not aware of a client list.
“Absolutely no. There is no list. There is no – I’m not aware of any blackmail. I never heard that. I never saw it and I never imagined it,” Maxwell said.
“I do not believe he died by suicide, no,” Maxwell says of Jeffrey Epstein's death
Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have sought to tamp down conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein. But on at least one major count – Epstein’s suicide – it’s likely to fuel them.
Maxwell was asked to speculate on who might have killed him, and she said she didn’t know.
Maxwell did differ from many conspiracy theories about Epstein’s suicide in that she said she didn’t believe he was killed because he was blackmailing people. Instead, she suggested it could have been an attack unrelated to that.
“In prison, where I am, they will kill you or they will pay – somebody can pay a prisoner to kill you for $25 worth of commissary,” Maxwell said. “That’s about the going rate for a hit with a lock today.”
A recent Reuters-Ipsos poll found Americans said 60-12% that the think the government is hiding information about Epstein’s death.
House Oversight Committee says it's received "thousands of pages of documents" from DOJ related to Epstein
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that the panel has received the first batch of records related to Jeffrey Epstein from the Justice Department and it contains “thousands of pages of documents.”
The committee also reiterated what it has previously said: That it plans to make the records public, but will first review them to ensure that victims’ are protected.
Maxwell criticizes testimony from underage victim who helped put her away
In her interview with top Justice Department officials, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell criticized one of the underage victims who testified against her at trial.
The victim – known as Jane – testified in graphic detail that Maxwell and longtime associate Jeffrey Epstein both sexually abused her in Florida when she was 14, 15 and 16 years old.
“I actually don’t think that the testimony is correct,” Maxwell said at one point, insisting that Epstein had never met the girl before she was 16, and she never met Jane until Jane was 20 or 21.
Blanche, who was interviewing Maxwell, responded, “I don’t want to get into he-said, she-said.”
Maxwell said she didn’t want to get into that either – but then said two more times that she believed the testimony from Jane was “not accurate.”
CNN is reading the Maxwell and DOJ transcript right now. Here's what we learned so far
The Justice Department has released a transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell.
It is more than 300 pages long and CNN is reading through the transcript right now, but here’s what we learned so far:
- No promises: The DOJ gave Maxwell limited immunity so that she could discuss her criminal case, but did not promise any other benefits in exchange for her testimony, according to the transcript.
- Millions of dollars: Maxwell told Blanche the $30 million prosecutors say she earned from Epstein for finding and recruiting young women was actually part of loans Epstein would give her for real estate and other investments.
- Trump: She said she never witnessed anything untoward in Donald Trump’s friendship with Epstein and never heard of any allegations that Trump acted inappropriately — “absolutely never, in any context,” she said.
- Massages and Mar-a-Lago: Maxwell said didn’t see Trump in any massage setting or in Epstein’s house. She also said she didn’t recall, but it was possible, that masseuses from the spa at Mar-a-Lago, where Epstein visited, had given private massages to Epstein. Maxwell denied ever recruiting a woman from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
There are several resources available to the public for sexual assault and abuse victims to use in times of crisis. Click here.
Maxwell struggled to remember decades-old events
Transcripts of the DOJ’s interview with Ghislaine Maxwell show her struggling to remember parts of her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, which began more than 30 years ago.
She frequently tells Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that she doesn’t remember details of her conversations. For example, she recounted learning in 2006 that Epstein had been arrested by local police but could not recall who told her about it.
At several points, Maxwell offered several possibilities for why she may have been in certain locations and the status of her relationship with Epstein at different times.
"I am not here to defend him": Maxwell distances herself from Epstein
At one point during her meeting with top Justice Department officials, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell distanced herself from her longtime associate Jeffrey Epstein.
Regarding the allegations that Epstein abused underage girls, Maxwell said, “I never saw that with them at all.” But she added, “I’m not saying that Mr. Epstein did not do those things… I don’t feel comfortable saying that today, given what I now know to be true.”
“I am not here to defend him,” Maxwell said. She insisted, however, that she “did not participate in that activity” with underage girls.
After a trial in 2021, Maxwell was convicted of conspiring with Epstein to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, among other crimes, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The Blanche-Maxwell interview transcript is about 337 pages long
The Justice Department’s publicly released transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell is about 337 pages long, spread across four different files.
The DOJ has made some redactions across the files and there is an appendix at the end.
Maxwell says she "never witnessed" Trump "in any inappropriate setting in any way"
Ghislaine Maxwell told the Justice Department in her interview last month that she never witnessed anything untoward in Donald Trump’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and never heard of any allegations that Trump acted inappropriately – “absolutely never, in any context,” she said.
Maxwell also said didn’t see Trump in any massage setting or in Epstein’s house.
“I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody,” Maxwell said. “In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”
She also said she didn’t recall, but it was possible, that masseuses from the spa at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where Epstein visited, had given private massages to Epstein. She also said she never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for a private massage for Epstein.
The interview was conducted over two days by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also one of Trump’s former personal lawyers.
DOJ pressed Maxwell on millions found in her accounts
Starting out the second day of interviews, Blanche pushed Maxwell on the $30 million prosecutors say she earned from Epstein for finding and recruiting young women.
Maxwell told Blanche the money was part of loans Epstein would give her for real estate and other investments.
Blanche asked Maxwell if “the idea that you were paid $30 million between ’99 and 2007” by Epstein “to reward you for recruiting young women … is categorically, completely false?”
“That is categorically false, correct,” she replied.
Epstein, she said, “loaned me all the money to enable me to do this and then I reaped the profits, which I don’t remember now, because we varied over the deals that we did, that I would give him 50 percent or 25.”
Maxwell also denied ever recruiting a woman from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Maxwell says she did not introduce Epstein to Prince Andrew
In her interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell said she did not introduce Prince Andrew to Jeffrey Epstein.
“First of all, let’s just state, I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew. I did not introduce him to Prince Andrew or to Sarah Ferguson. That is a flat untruth. I’ll start with that,” Maxwell said.
Blanche attempted to correct Maxwell and said that he believed the prince met Epstein through Maxwell.
“So, the allegation, I have to go with the allegation. The allegation was that at my house in London, in March, whatever that was, 2001 I believe, we went to London, especially so that [REDACTION] could have a – or [REDACTION] could have a relationship with Prince Andrew and she was paid a vast amount of money for that purpose.”
Soon before transcript's release, Trump had endorsed transparency on Epstein files
Soon before the Justice Department released the transcript Friday, President Donald Trump told reporters that he supported transparency in the case.
“Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt. But I’m in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn’t care less. You got a lot of people that it could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be,” he said in response to a question from CNN’s Alayna Treene. “Because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don’t know anything about that.”
Trump said he had told Attorney General Pam Bondi to give Congress as much information as possible.
“The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax. So we had the greatest six months, seven months in the history of the presidency, and the Democrats don’t know what to do, so they keep bringing up that stuff,” Trump said.
House Oversight Chair James Comer said Thursday that his panel would “work as quickly as we can” to make records public.
“You know, this is sensitive information. We want to make sure we don’t do anything to harm or jeopardize any victims that were involved in this, but we’re going to be transparent,” Comer told reporters on Capitol Hill.
When pressed by CNN on why the committee would not immediately release the files since DOJ was instructed by the House subpoena to redact victims’ identities and other sensitive information, Comer responded: “I can’t imagine very many scenarios where we would further redact anything.”
DOJ did not promise Maxwell "anything" in exchange for meeting, transcript says
The Justice Department gave Ghislane Maxwell limited immunity so that she could discuss her criminal case, but did not promise any other benefits in exchange for her testimony, according to the transcript.
“The most important part of this agreement is that this isn’t a cooperation agreement, meaning that by you meeting with us today, we’re really just meeting,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told Maxwell, according to a transcript of the interview released Friday. “I’m not promising to do anything.”
If Maxwell lied in the interview, however, she could face additional charges, Blanche said.
Justice Department says it has transmitted Epstein records to Congress
Separately, the Justice Department says it has transmitted records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the House Oversight Committee.
This comes in response to its subpoena issued by the committee to the DOJ for Epstein records.
The committee has said that it planned to make records public after receiving materials from DOJ, but would review the files first to ensure victims’ identities were redacted.
DOJ releases interview transcript with Ghislaine Maxwell interview
The Justice Department has released a transcript of the interview that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche conducted with Ghislaine Maxwell.
“In the interest of transparency, @TheJusticeDept is releasing the complete transcript and audio of my proffer of Ms. Maxwell. The transcript and audio are linked below,” Blanche said on X.
Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, is Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant that was convicted of aiding him in his years-long scheme of sexually abusing and trafficking underage girls.
Maxwell faced trial in 2021 in New York federal court and was found guilty by a jury of five federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three conspiracy counts. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence.
For years, Maxwell has attempted to overturn her conviction, most recently asking the Supreme Court to take up her pending appeal.
Maxwell recently sat with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for an interview regarding the case. The Trump administration has faced scrutiny from the public on the release of the files following the administration’s promise to publicly release more information regarding Epstein’s case.
Maxwell was moved to a lower-security federal prison camp in Texas following her interview with Blanche. It has remained unclear why Maxwell was transferred prisons, but she has repeatedly tried to be moved to more comfortable prisons in the past.
Todd Blanche, Trump's former criminal lawyer
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has found himself at the center of one of President Donald Trump’s major controversies of his second term in office.
Blanche served as Trump’s personal defense attorney before being appointed to one of the top officials within the Justice Department. He was hired in 2023 by Trump to work on three of his four major legal battles: his New York criminal hush money case, his federal classified documents case in Florida, and his federal election interference case in Washington, DC.
Trump’s criminal hush money case went to trial in April 2024, and Blanche argued a majority of the case. Trump was ultimately found guilty by a jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Blanche was tasked with interviewing Epstein’s longtime partner Maxwell to shed new light on Epstein’s case and tamp down controversy surrounding the administration’s handling of the Epstein files.
Resources for survivors
The controversy surrounding the release of the Epstein files has caused many victims of his sex-trafficking scandal to have to relive some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
There are several resources available to the public for sexual assault and abuse victims to use in times of crisis. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours, seven days a week, and can connect callers with local resources and immediate support. Call 1-800-799-7233 or text LOVEIS to 22522. They also have an online chat tool.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline is provided by Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, or RAINN. It is also available 24 hours, seven days a week and can be reached at 1-800-656-4673 or by their online chat tool.
Another option is the Crisis Text Line if someone is unable to speak over the phone but needs support. They can be reached by texting HOME to 741741.
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