Day: August 22, 2025

• The Justice Department released transcripts of its interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell.
• The convicted sex-trafficker said only positive things about Donald Trump and Bill Clinton.
• She dropped a hint about a mystery female billionaire she said Epstein worked for.

Ghislaine Maxwell had a tough time recalling anything specific about what happened between Jeffrey Epstein and a number of powerful people, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and Bill Gates.

In a two-day interview on July 24 and 25, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche peppered Maxwell with questions about her long relationship with Epstein, his business practices, his sexual abuse of girls, and conspiracy theories surrounding his life and death.

The Justice Department granted Maxwell an unusual “queen for a day” proffer agreement, which allows people to speak to prosecutors without worrying about facing additional criminal charges. On Friday, the department made transcripts and audio recordings of the interview public, with some victim information redacted.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking girls to Epstein for sex. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan also accused her of perjury for lying about sexual abuse in a deposition, but dropped those charges after her sex-trafficking conviction. Maxwell is appealing her conviction.

Blanche, who was one of Trump’s personal attorneys before being appointed second-in-command at the Justice Department, led the two-day interview.

None of the prosecutors in Maxwell’s criminal trial, nor Epstein’s own sex-trafficking cases, which ended when he died in jail awaiting trial, were present.

Maxwell was represented by her longtime personal attorney, Leah Saffian, and her criminal appeal lawyers, David Oscar Markus and Melissa Madrigal.

Her answers in the interview largely hewed to the main argument her defense attorneys presented in her Manhattan criminal trial: that Epstein compartmentalized his life and that she was not aware of any potential sexual abuse.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case,” Markus said in a statement. “She never committed or participated in sexual abuse against minors, or anyone else, for that matter. “

In the interview, Maxwell said she had been acquainted with several tech billionaires — including Elon Musk, Sergey Brin, and Reid Hoffman — but did not accuse any of wrongdoing.

After the interview, Maxwell was moved from her prison in Florida to a lower-security one in Texas.

The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Here are the biggest takeaways from the transcript of Maxwell’s interview.

Maxwell had nothing but praise for Trump

Maxwell told Blanche she first met Trump shortly after she moved from Europe to the United States in 1990, while working for her father, the British media baron Robert Maxwell.

“I may have met Donald Trump at that time, because my father was friendly with him and liked him very much,” Maxwell said. “And I think should be said that he also very much liked Ivana because she was also from Czechoslovakia, where my dad was from.

Maxwell also praised the “extraordinary achievement” of Trump’s ascent to the presidency. When journalists asked in recent weeks whether he would pardon Maxwell, Trump said, “It would be inappropriate to talk about it.”

“Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me,” Maxwell said in her Justice Department interview. “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. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him.”

Asked whether “President Trump had done anything inappropriate with masseuses or with anybody in your world, Maxwell responded, “Absolutely never, in any context.”

Maxwell said a mysterious female billionaire from Ohio was one of Epstein’s business clients

Maxwell denied Epstein had any sort of “client list” of men to whom he arranged girls for sex.

She said Epstein’s clients were wealthy people to whom he provided valuable financial services, and that he took fees for that work.

Epstein’s fortune — he had $630 million in assets at the time of his death, according to court filings — came largely from his work for Les Wexner, the Ohio billionaire who previously ran Victoria’s Secret, and former Apollo Global Management CEO and Chairman Leon Black.

Maxwell said Epstein had another significant client, a female billionaire whose name she couldn’t remember. “There’s a woman in Ohio. I just can’t think of her name,” Maxwell said on the first day of her interview.

Maxwell said she would check her notes and try to remember her name for the interview’s second day. But she didn’t revisit the subject on July 25, and Blanche did not ask her about it, according to the interview transcript.

Attorneys for Maxwell declined to comment on the record.

Epstein’s services for Wexner were extensive, Maxwell said. She said he did everything from managing investments to drafting contracts for maids.

“He said no detail was too small,” Maxwell said. “Because everything that affected how they lived and how they managed their life, was something that he felt he was — if they want, he would be responsible for.”

Maxwell also said Epstein provided financial services to Johnson & Johnson heiress Elizabeth Johnson and Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a British businesswoman.

“I know that he helped Lynn Forester, who became Lynn de Rothschild,” Maxwell said. “She’ll deny it and she has.”

A spokesperson for Rothschild has previously denied that Epstein provided her any financial assistance. Both Wexner and Black have denied any wrongdoing linked to Epstein and have said they regret their past associations with him. It’s not clear what services Epstein provided to Johnson, who died in 2017 and whose association with Epstein in the 1990s has been previously reported.

Maxwell said Jeffrey Epstein didn’t work for intelligence agencies

Maxwell disputed the widely held theory that Epstein did work for an intelligence agency. She said she did not believe he worked for Israel’s Mossad, and that the idea he worked for the CIA was “bullshit.”

“I think if he was for real, I think he would’ve bragged about it to me as a show off, because he could be a show off,” Maxwell said. “And if he wasn’t, he might have dropped it like he was cool. And I don’t think — I don’t remember him doing either.”

Business Insider previously spoke to four people with access to the vast trove of material the FBI seized from Epstein’s properties during its sex-trafficking investigation, who all said they saw no signs of any connections to intelligence agencies.

Maxwell said Epstein didn’t record any blackmail videos

Maxwell said she didn’t believe Epstein ever blackmailed anyone with sexual videos, another long-held theory.

She also said he didn’t have secret cameras in bedrooms or bathrooms — with one exception.

Maxwell said Epstein worked with the police to install security cameras in some rooms of his Palm Beach mansion. He ultimately caught an employee stealing money and fired him.

“In Palm Beach, Epstein was having money stolen. He noticed money was being stolen from his briefcase. And he called in the Palm Beach police, and they — the Palm Beach police — installed cameras on where he kept his briefcase,” Maxwell said.

Photos of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion obtained by The New York Times appear to show a camera in one of its bedrooms.

Maxwell disputes some of the most damning allegations about her and Epstein

In the interview, Maxwell said again that Virginia Giuffre — one of the most outspoken Epstein accusers, who died earlier this year — is a liar.

Maxwell said an infamous photo of her, Prince Andrew, and Giuffre in her London home was fabricated. She said Giuffre’s story about having sex with the British royal in her home didn’t make sense because her house was really small.

“The idea of him doing anything of that nature in my house, that’s the size of this room, is so mind-blowingly not conceivable to me,” she said.

In 2022, Prince Andrew settled a civil lawsuit where Giuffre accused him of repeatedly sexually abusing her.

Maxwell couldn’t remember Trump sending a birthday letter to Epstein

In the interview, Blanche repeatedly pressed Maxwell about a book of letters written by Epstein’s friends and acquaintances for his 50th birthday.

The celebration took place in 2003, well before Epstein was publicly accused of sexual misconduct.

The Wall Street Journal reported in July that a “bawdy” letter from Trump was included in the book.

“Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter, which featured a drawing of a nude woman and Trump’s signature, said, according to the Journal.

Trump’s attorneys have said the letter does not exist and filed a defamation lawsuit against the Journal and executive Rupert Murdoch, which remains ongoing.

Maxwell said she didn’t remember one way or another whether Trump contributed a letter for the book.

“It’s been so long,” she said. “I want to tell you, but I don’t remember.”

Maxwell, not Epstein, was friends with Bill Clinton

Blanche also repeatedly pressed Maxwell about Clinton’s relationship with Epstein. Flight records show the former president flew on Epstein’s private jet 26 times. According to White House visitor logs, Epstein visited 17 times during Clinton’s presidency.

Maxwell said that she was the personal glue of that relationship. Maxwell had attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding, and she said in the Justice Department interview that she was “very central” to starting the Clinton Global Initiative. She also said she found Epstein’s painting of Clinton wearing a blue dress “hideous.”

“President Clinton was my friend, not Epstein’s friend,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell also said she didn’t see Clinton ever getting a “massage” while with Epstein, and that she didn’t believe Clinton had any involvement with Epstein after she left the financier’s orbit in the early 2000s.

“President Clinton liked me, and we got along terribly well. But I never saw that warmth, or however you want to characterize it, with Mr. Epstein — so I didn’t see that,” Maxwell said. “I didn’t see President Clinton being interested in Epstein. He was just a rich guy with a plane.”

Blanche didn’t ask about lingering mysteries with Epstein’s finances

The interview transcripts don’t show Blanche asking Maxwell about Epstein’s investments with figures like tech billionaire Peter Thiel. Nor do they ask about Darren Indyke and Richard Kahn, Epstein’s longtime personal lawyer and accountant, who are now the executors of his estate.

Court records filed in the US Virgin Islands show that the estate will eventually convert into a successor estate, where Epstein’s remaining assets will be administered to beneficiaries.

It’s not clear who will be a beneficiary of Epstein’s remaining millions, and whether Maxwell will receive any funds.

• Kimbal Musk supports Elon Musk’s pay package and plan to invest in xAI.
• Musk’s pay and Tesla’s investment in xAI are key issues ahead of Tesla’s shareholder meeting.
• Some investors are skeptical of Musk’s interim pay package and of Tesla’s pivot into robotics.

Kimbal Musk weighed in on his brother’s Tesla pay package and Tesla’s potential investment in xAI.

“I think my brother deserves to be paid,” the younger Musk said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “He has zero pay for the past six to eight years. I don’t think that’s right. I’ll let Tesla shareholders make that decision, but I believe that it does need to be. He needs to be paid.”

“Tesla can’t go without a deep, deep understanding of AI. We have a great business relationship with xAI,” Kimbal Musk, who sits on the Tesla board, added. “I will again let the shareholders decide that, but we are Tesla, an AI company. As any advanced technology company — Nova, Tesla, others — AI is built into everything you do.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The question of Elon Musk’s pay and whether Tesla should invest in xAI, which is Musk’s AI company, are both contentious issues ahead of the company’s November shareholder meeting.

Musk doesn’t receive a salary or cash bonuses at Tesla. Instead, he receives stock-based performance awards tied to milestones the EV maker achieves.

A Delaware judge struck down Musk’s $56 billion pay package in January 2024, ruling that Tesla’s board had failed to properly justify what would be the highest pay a public company CEO has ever received in the US. Even though the shareholder upheld his pay package, the judge upheld her ruling again in December 2024.

Tesla has been appealing the ruling since, and the legal limbo has left Musk without compensation until earlier in August, when Tesla’s board granted Musk an interim package worth roughly $29 billion in stock, equal to about 96 million shares.

The move was to incentivize Musk to focus on the company, and he can only claim the new award if he remains in a top executive role for another two years. The company would be voting on a long-term pay plan for Musk in the November shareholder meeting, according to an August 4 shareholder letter.

Musk also made clear his desire for Tesla to continue to invest in xAI, in a tweet in July that said Tesla would have invested in his AI company “long ago” if it were entirely up to him. The issue will also be put to a shareholder vote in November, according to Musk’s post on X.

Not every shareholder is in agreement with the board and Musk’s plan.

The SOC Investment Group, which represents union pension funds, urged Nasdaq on Wednesday to investigate whether Tesla violated listing rules by not securing shareholder approval for the interim pay package.

Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management, who manages between $60 and $70 million worth of Tesla shares, previously told Business Insider that he is skeptical of Tesla’s pivot away from its core EV business into robotics and cab services.