Washington — Todd Blanche, who holds the second-highest position in the Justice Department, is set to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell at the U.S. attorney’s office in Tallahassee this Thursday. This meeting aims to discuss details pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein, a well-known convicted sex offender, as confirmed by a reliable source to CBS News.
Currently, Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a federal correctional institute in Tallahassee. She was convicted in 2021 for facilitating the recruitment, grooming, and abuse of underage girls by Epstein.
This upcoming discussion follows an announcement earlier this week where Blanche shared his plans to connect with Maxwell, stating, “in the coming days.” He emphasized the pursuit of truth: “Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know?” In his post on social media, Blanche mentioned he reached out to her legal team as directed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
David Oscar Markus, who represents Maxwell, has also verified that discussions between her legal team and the government are currently underway.
Pressure mounts on President Trump and his administration concerning the Epstein case, particularly following a recent memo from the Justice Department and FBI. This document clarified that Epstein didn’t keep a “client list” and confirmed that he died by suicide in 2019 just after his federal sex trafficking charges were filed.
Furthermore, the memo stated there was no credible evidence to support claims that Epstein had been blackmailing influential individuals. As a result, no further details about Epstein’s activities will be disclosed by the Justice Department and FBI.
This conclusion, however, has sparked discontent among some of Trump’s allies, who question the Justice Department’s assertions regarding the existence of undisclosed information.
Top officials, including Vice President JD Vance and FBI Director Kash Patel, previously implied that the Democrats might be hiding critical details related to Epstein and an alleged list of clients.
In efforts to address these concerns, the Justice Department has requested federal judges in New York overseeing the Epstein and Maxwell cases to unseal the transcripts from related grand jury proceedings.
Recently, judges in charge of these requests ordered the Department to provide further information about its attempts to disclose grand jury records. They’ve given the defendants—specifically representatives of Epstein—and the victims until August 5 to present their stances concerning this proposed disclosure.
The outcome will rely on the judges’ decision regarding whether these grand jury materials can be made public. If permitted, it’s expected that any disclosed documents will be extensively redacted and may take weeks or months before they become available.
Along with backlash faced from certain allies, some congressional members have urged for the release of materials connected to Epstein.
A House panel voted on Wednesday to issue a subpoena to the Justice Department for documentation related to the federal investigation into Epstein. The House Oversight Committee also issued a subpoena for Maxwell to provide a deposition next month at the federal detention site in Tallahassee.
Mr. Trump indicates that he and Epstein shared mutual social circles in Florida and New York from the late ’80s through the early 2000s. However, following Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Trump stated they hadn’t communicated in 15 years.
Recent reports by the Wall Street Journal highlighted that Trump had penned a “cheeky” birthday letter to Epstein for his 50th, saying, in part, “may every day be another wonderful secret.” CBS News has not confirmed or verified the existence of the letter. The president refutes having written it, labeling it as “fake” and has launched a defamation lawsuit against the Journal, seeking upwards of $20 billion in damages.
The Journal disclosed that during this year’s review of Epstein-related documents, multiple mentions of Trump surfaced. At a White House meeting in May, Attorney General Bondi and her deputy informed him about his name being present within the victim files alongside other public figures.
Notably, the mere mention of Trump does not imply wrongdoing on his part.
White House communications director, Steven Cheung, responded to the Journal’s reporting, stating: “The fact is that the President expelled him from his club due to creepiness. This is simply another chapter in the ongoing fake news propagated by Democrats and the liberal media, similar to the Obama Russiagate debacle, where President Trump was justified in his concerns.”
