Pardon Me?

It was billed as a major step in transparency in the Jeffrey Epstein case. On Friday, after months of pressure to release new evidence related to the notorious sex offender, the Justice Department published a transcript of an interview it recently held with Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime accomplice and a convicted sex trafficker now serving a 20-year sentence, used the opportunity to praise Donald Trump and deny that any prominent Epstein associates—including Trump himself—were involved in wrongdoing.



The revelations, if you can call them that, were designed to surprise no one. Maxwell, who has been angling for a pardon from Trump, dutifully delivered the script. She said there was no “client list,” no blackmail scheme, and that she had no knowledge of high-profile associates who committed crimes alongside Epstein—all claims MAGA Media has spent years feeding its audience.

She also went out of her way to absolve Trump of any wrongdoing. “I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting,” Maxwell told Todd Blanche, the former Trump lawyer now serving as deputy attorney general. “I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

And she went on to shower Trump with praise. “President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” she recalled. “And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now. And I like him, and I’ve always liked him.”

It was a clean sweep of exoneration for Trump, and his biggest boosters wasted no time celebrating the release.

“Boom 💥,” MAGA mouthpiece Benny Johnson wrote along with a snippet of the transcript. “Liberals are going to explode,” added Chaya Raichik of the anti-LGBT Libs of TikTok. "If Trump was an Epstein client, the Deep State would've already leaked it. He's clean,” added Rogan O'Handley, aka DC Draino.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene also chimed in: “President Trump has been vindicated once again!!!”

Vindicated, of course, is a generous reading. What Maxwell actually did was deliver a political favor for Trump, minimizing his connection to Epstein and helping to quell the outrage brewing within MAGA’s own ranks.

As ABC News reported Friday, Blanche “was encouraged by some top administration officials to seek information that could lead to criminal investigations that might quiet the outrage from some of Trump’s most vocal supporters.” In other words, the Maxwell interview wasn’t about pursuing truth or accountability. It was about feeding fresh meat to his hungry MAGA base that they could point to as proof that Trump was delivering on his promise.

For months, Trump and his Justice Department led by Pam Bondi and Kash Patel have been under fire from their own supporters for failing to release the so-called Epstein Files and expose the elites who victimized children. The demand has become a rallying cry among Trump’s supporters who were convinced by right-wing media that explosive revelations about elites remain buried in the documents. When Bondi and Patel failed to deliver on their promises, even Trump’s fiercest defenders had grown restless.

While the interview release was an attempt to placate that base, what remains glaringly absent is what Trump once promised—a full, transparent release of the government’s Epstein Files. Those documents would provide actual insight into how one of the most notorious sex offenders in American history was able to operate for decades, and who enabled him. But instead, the public was handed an interview with an Epstein associate with a clear motivation whose credibility is already compromised.

And in that sense, the Maxwell transcript may end up backfiring. Asked if she believed Epstein killed himself, she replied: "I do not believe he died by suicide, no,” offering the MAGA Media yet another breadcrumb to keep Epstein conspiracy theories alive.

By trying to extinguish the outrage with a hollow release, Trump’s team has only underscored the perception that the real Epstein Files are too explosive to ever see daylight. Until they are, Trump and his Justice Department will have to contend with the monster of their own creation.

In other words, in trying to smother the outrage, Trump has only stoked it further, reminding his supporters that the secrets of Epstein’s world remain buried, and raising the question of what, exactly, he still doesn’t want unearthed.

As O’Handley wrote, “Now release the Epstein Files and let’s arrest the real bad guys.”