Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer says she has a “good chance” of a Trump pardon, sparking fury from victims
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer has said “there’s a good chance” her old friend Donald Trump will grant a presidential pardon for the teen sex trafficker.
The disgraced British socialite is serving 20 years behind bars after being convicted of recruiting girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse. “I don’t know what the percentages are,” said David Oscar Markus. “There’s a good chance and for good reason that she would get a pardon.”
Markus described Maxwell as “a scapegoat” who would not have faced prosecution had Epstein not died in custody in 2019, though he indicated no direct contact has yet been made with the White House and suggested any move towards clemency may take time. “[Maxwell] obviously wants clemency,” he said. “There’s no secret about that. I don’t think now is the best time to do it, with everything going on.”
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The White House has previously played down the prospect of a pardon, with officials pointing to earlier comments from Trump indicating he had not seriously considered it, though he has not ruled it out.
The suggestion has drawn fierce opposition from lawmakers and victims’ families. Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia said granting clemency would be “disgusting and outrageous,” adding that Maxwell “helped Jeffrey Epstein traffic young women and girls.”
The brother of Virginia Giuffre, Epstein’s ‘teenage sex slave’, warned that a pardon would be “the biggest slap in the face for us as a family and to these girls.” “I don’t think 20 years is enough,” Sky Roberts added. “I think that people that are able to put that kind of evil out into the world…should be locked away forever.”
Maxwell, 64, was convicted in December 2021 of sex trafficking a minor and related offences, becoming the only one of Epstein’s co-conspirators to be tried and found guilty.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison and has maintained her innocence. Since her imprisonment, Maxwell’s legal options have narrowed significantly. Repeated attempts to have her conviction overturned have failed, and the Supreme Court of the United States rejected her appeal last year, leaving presidential clemency as her clearest remaining route to release.
But her time behind bars is not without controversy. While serving her sentence in Tallahassee, Florida, she held a lengthy meeting with Todd Blanche, the then Deputy Attorney General and a former personal lawyer to Trump.
During the interview, she said she had never witnessed the president, who is a friend of hers, engage in inappropriate behaviour.
The meeting proved highly controversial, with critics questioning why Trump’s Department of Justice (DoJ) needed to speak with her despite her conviction.
Many believed Blanche was sent to Florida to discover what Maxwell knew about Trump’s relationship with Epstein. DoJ officials have not publicly detailed the full purpose of the discussion. Days after that meeting in July last year, Maxwell was transferred from Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan, America’s lowest security facility for women.
Inmates at the prison, some 95 miles northwest of Houston, can enrol in puppy-training programmes and enjoy work-release privileges.
They are allowed to cook, garden, and even take vocational courses while waiting out their sentences.
Since the Epstein files were released, victims have demanded that Maxwell give evidence to lawmakers. In February, she invoked her Fifth Amendment rights and refused to answer questions during a virtual appearance before the House Oversight Committee.
At the time, Markus said his client was “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.”
