Chuck Schumer blasted Donald Trump for sending his “personal lawyer” to interview Ghislaine Maxwell in prison in what he described as a clear “conflict of interest.”
“Sending Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to interview Ghislaine Maxwell while she’s in prison, a woman who’s been convicted of abusing people, to offer some kind of corrupt deal so that she can exonerate Donald Trump just stinks of high corruption,” the Senate minority leader said in a video posted on X.
Blanche was appointed deputy attorney general in March, serving under Attorney General Pam Bondi, but he is most famous for having served as Trump’s lead counsel in his criminal case a year earlier.
The 50-year-old lawyer traveled to the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee on Thursday and spoke with Maxwell for several hours, in a meeting that was widely criticized on social media.
In his own post on X Thursday, Blanche confirmed the meeting and announced a follow-up session: “Today, I met with Ghislaine Maxwell, and I will continue my interview of her tomorrow. The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time.”
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking under-age girls for Jeffrey Epstein. The social links between her and Epstein with Trump continue to dog the president.
Blanche did not disclose what was discussed during the six-hour meeting.
However, Maxwell was said to have “answered every single question” during Thursday’s interview with Blanche, according to her lawyer David Markus. “She answered all questions and did not take the Fifth,” he added.
Amazingly, it appears to be the first time Maxwell—who declined to testify at her trial in 2021—has ever been formaly interviewed about the Epstein case.
Jonathan Turley, a leading legal commentator and professor at the George Washington University Law School, wrote on X that he had recently spoken with Maxwell’s counsel, Leah Saffian, and she “surprisingly maintained that neither state nor federal investigators ever interviewed Maxwell.
He added: “That struck me as curious in a scandal involving a myriad of state and federal investigations. If so, she may have new information.”
Within minutes of Schumer’s first tweet, the 74-year-old fired off a second, aimed at House Republicans, who had just departed Washington for their August break.
“It’s the first day of House Republicans fleeing town for their Epstein Recess. They high-tailed it out of here hoping to hide the story. But the story is growing louder by the hour with Trump and the administration’s lies.”
The House’s early getaway heightened Democratic accusations of a Republican Trump-Epstein cover-up.
The Daily Beast has contacted the Justice Department for comment.
