Trump Adversary Backs Proposal To Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell in Exchange for Epstein Testimony

As President Trump weighs pardoning the convicted sex offender and Jeffrey Epstein colleague, Ghislaine Maxwell, one of the president’s biggest Republican tormentors in Congress says he would support the president’s decision if it meant getting to the truth. Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who introduced a bill to release all the purported Epstein files held by the Justice Department, said it is up to Mr. Trump to grant a pardon, but the priority is to get what Maxwell knows into the public domain.“Whatever they need to do to compel that testimony, as long as it’s truthful, I would be in favor of,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”Mr. Trump is awaiting a decision from a Manhattan federal court to unseal grand jury records requested in a motion filed by Attorney General Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche. A Florida judge last week denied a request to release federal grand jury transcripts from a 2008 case involving Epstein in which he pleaded to two state charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting sex from a minor instead of more severe federal sex trafficking charges.Maxwell’s attorney is appealing her 20-year sentence, saying that the non-prosection agreement in that deal also covered her.Mr. Blanche met for two days with Maxwell last week, during which she reportedly provided the names of 100 people associated with the financier. It is unclear whether those names are of associates or clients of Epstein, whose alleged underage prostitution ring is believed to have catered to rich and powerful business leaders, celebrities, and politicians. Though the president said on Friday that he has not given much thought to a pardon for Maxwell, Mr. Blanche is reportedly working on pardon documents. The move would be a rare point of agreement between Mr. Massie and the president, who has vowed to find a candidate to challenge Mr. Massie in next year’s congressional primary.However, Mr. Massie’s Democratic colleague, California’s Ro Khanna, who co-sponsored the legislation to release the Justice Department documents, said he would not support giving Maxwell a pardon in exchange for her testimony. “I agree with Congressman Massie that she should testify, but she’s been indicted twice on perjury. This is why we need the files. This is why we need independent evidence,” said Mr. Khanna, who spoke on the Sunday program with Mr. Massie.Appearing on the same show after his colleagues, House Speaker Johnson said that if it were up to him, Maxwell would have received life in prison for her “unspeakable crimes” but that it is not his decision to grant her a pardon.“I have great pause about that as any reasonable person would,” he said. “Obviously that’s a decision of the president. He said he had not adequately considered that. I won’t get in front of him. That’s not my lane.” Congress adjourned last week before taking up Mssrs. Massie and Khanna’s legislation. Mr. Johnson said that efforts by Democratic lawmakers on the Rules Committee to force a vote prior to the August recess was a “shameless” attempt to use the issue for political purposes. “They hijacked the Rules Committee and they tried to turn it into an Epstein hearing. That’s not what the Rules Committee is about,” he said. Mr. Johnson did not say whether the House would take up the bipartisan discharge petition when Congress returns in September, instead suggesting that another draft resolution in the works would address privacy concerns for the victims. He added that House Oversight Committee Republicans, led by committee Chairman Comer, have already issued a subpoena for Maxwell to appear. Mr. Massie suggested that without a vote to release the documents, Mr. Trump’s credibility will be damaged among Republican supporters.“The release of the Epstein files is emblematic of what Trump ran for and why he got the populist vote. There seems to be a class of people beyond the law, beyond the judicial system that operates outside of all of that. And we all thought that when Trump was elected, he would be the bull in the china shop and that he would break that up and bring transparency,” he said.

Trump Adversary Backs Proposal To Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell in Exchange for Epstein Testimony

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