Ghislaine Maxwell: angling for a Trump pardon

No one was closer to Jeffrey Epstein than British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US for recruiting, grooming and trafficking girls as young as 14 to be sexually abused.

Maxwell's lawyers are appealing her conviction, and have also requested a pardon from Donald Trump in exchange for testifying "openly and honestly" about Epstein's circle before Congress. "I'm allowed to give her a pardon," the US president has said. "But it's something I have not thought about." Five years after saying, "I wish her well" when she was arrested, "Trump is still playing dumb about Maxwell," said Chris Brennan in USA Today.

'A carrot' to testify

Maxwell has been subpoenaed for questioning before the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee. (She has requested immunity before testifying.) Republicans, many of whom have long exploited conspiracy theories about the Epstein files, have an incentive to let her think that the possibility of clemency exists. It serves better as "a carrot" than it would as a reality, said CNN's Aaron Blake. "What better way to guide what she says than to have her believe maybe the administration could do her a solid?"

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But Maxwell "clearly has credibility issues" (she was also convicted of lying under oath). And a pardon "would only reinforce the idea that this was some kind of corrupt bargain".

Trump doesn't "dispense pardons liberally", said MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos, and, when he has, he's "got a lot in return, politically", as with the mass pardons for the Jan 6 Capitol Hill rioters. Right now, Trump is "trying to distance himself from Epstein", and a Maxwell pardon is probably "too radioactive".

'A betrayal' of Maga

Maxwell was also interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over two days last week. If she said something to clearly distance Trump from any involvement in Epstein's crimes, that might be a way for the president to show his reluctance to release the Epstein files is not because they implicate him.

But "the very people" Trump "wishes to quiet down will certainly raise another ruckus if he pardons her", said USA Today's Brennan.

In fact, pardoning Maxwell would break Maga, said Oliver Bateman in Unherd. While some Trump allies are suggesting a view of Maxwell as Epstein's scapegoated victim, others, including Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, are "openly suspicious" that Maxwell's co-operation is only motivated by self-interest. This "hits at the core contradiction" of Maga: it's a movement "built on the promise of exposing elite corruption" so, if "their champion" now pardons Epstein's co-conspirator, "that could be a betrayal too far".

And a reason to stay home at the next election.