Todd Blanche Rules Out Pardon Recommendation for Ghislaine Maxwell, Serving 20-Year Sex-Trafficking Sentence
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 19
Todd Blanche Rules Out Pardon Recommendation for Ghislaine Maxwell, Serving 20-Year Sex-Trafficking Sentence
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 19
At a Senate budget hearing, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers he would not recommend clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell when pressed by Senator Chris Van Hollen.
The pledge lands after Maxwell exhausted her appeals, with the US Supreme Court declining in October to hear her bid to overturn her 20-year sex-trafficking conviction.
Clemency speculation had persisted because Maxwell's lawyer told Congress she would cooperate with the House Epstein inquiry only if she received clemency, and reports in April said committee members were split on that idea.
Blanche also denied Trump personally sent him to interview Maxwell last year and said he did not know whether she was receiving favorable treatment after her transfer from a Florida prison to a minimum-security Texas camp.
Any prospect of clemency has drawn sharp backlash from Epstein survivors' advocates, who say trading relief for Maxwell's testimony would reward a central enabler of the abuse.
With the Attorney General vowing no pardon, could President Trump still grant clemency to Maxwell for her potentially exonerating testimony?
Who authorized Ghislaine Maxwell’s controversial prison transfer, and why does the official justification for this unprecedented move remain concealed?