(The Hill) – Republican lawmakers are cautioning President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi to be very careful about granting a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein confidante, or commuting her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Republican senators are waving the caution flag after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell in Florida recently to gather more information on what she knows about Epstein’s illicit activities.
The meeting came while Trump and Bondi were under pressure from MAGA-aligned activists to order the Justice Department to release all of its files related to Epstein.
GOP lawmakers say that Trump and Bondi need to proceed carefully on any decision to pardon Maxwell or lighten her sentence for sexually exploiting teenage girls.
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They worry it could be seen as rewarding her for making statements to distance the president from Epstein’s activities, or further fuel conspiracy theories about a government cover-up to protect powerful people who were in Epstein’s orbit.
“It’s ridiculous that he would consider shortening a sentence for somebody who aided and abetted sexual trafficking as she did,” said a Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on the sensitive topic.
“She’s trafficking underage children. I can’t imagine anything she could say could nullify her heinous crimes,” the senator added.
The senator said Maxwell has incentive to “lie” to reduce her sentence.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that Maxwell has lied under oath before, citing the perjury charge that was filed against her for making false statements during a civil deposition in 2016.
“They ended up dropping the perjury charge against her but we know she’s a liar because even though they dropped that charge — because it was a lesser charge — she demonstrated that she lied,” he said. “What will a demonstrated liar do if they know that they can get a break? Lie more?”
“I don’t think that her testimony is worth the paper it’s written on because she’s a liar,” he said. “She also exploited young girls.”
“I think she’s not a trustworthy witness,” he added. “She has a vested interest in lying so she can get relieved of some amount of her 20-year sentence.”
Blanche, the No. 2-ranking official at the Justice Department, met with Maxwell on July 24 and July 25 to discuss Epstein’s crimes and other individuals who may have been involved in them. He wrote on social media that “no one is above the law — and no lead is off limits.”
Maxwell has told House lawmakers that if she were to receive clemency, she would testify “openly and honestly” before Congress about Epstein, according to a letter her attorney David Markus sent to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Markus told ABC News that Maxwell did not ask Blanche for a pardon but confirmed that she is seeking “relief” from her prison sentence.
Maxwell’s attorneys are asking the Supreme Court to overturn her 2021 conviction.
Prison officials confirmed on Friday that they moved Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a lower-security federal prison camp in Texas, where inmates are allowed to move around relatively freely.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she has “no idea what to expect out” of the conversations between Maxwell and the Department of Justice but questioned if she could provide any new evidence that would merit a pardon or a significant reduction of her sentence.
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“Just because she comes and gives testimony doesn’t necessarily mean [she] should be given any kind of a pardon, I don’t think. There’s a lot more that has to be looked at,” she said.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the president and the attorney general would need to come up with a strong explanation for pardoning Maxwell or commuting her sentence.
“I honestly think it would be difficult” to grant Maxwell a pardon or sentence reduction, he said. “But, once again, it’s a prerogative that every president has on a federal crime.”
“If these are federal crimes, the president has the ability” to offer a pardon or approve clemency, he said. “Every executive officer has to make up their own mind and then they have to be able to justify how they did it, and why they did it.”
Rounds, a former governor, said pardons and paroles can be a good thing, but the executive, whether the president or a governor, has “to know the reason why you’re giving a pardon.
If Maxwell gets a lighter sentence, Trump “would have to explain why,” he said.
“On a political basis, you just simply have to explain your actions and justify your actions,” he added.
Rounds observed the difficulty of justifying leniency toward Maxwell is “probably one of the reasons it would be difficult to do in the first place.”
Trump told Newsmax on Friday that he hasn’t been asked to grant Maxwell a pardon, but he noted he has the power to do so.
“I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asked me to do it,” he said. “I know nothing about the case.”
Trump said he thought that Blanche, his former defense attorney, was meeting with Maxwell “to make sure that innocent people aren’t hurt” if the Justice Department releases the Epstein files.
The president has faced backlash from activists in his MAGA base after the Justice Department and the FBI announced in an unsigned memo last month that it would not release additional information and denied the existence of an Epstein client list, even though Bondi said in February that the list was sitting on her desk.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that Bondi and her deputy told Trump in May that his name was in the Epstein files.
Democrats have sought to use the Epstein controversy against Republicans and Trump.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) has demanded an all-senators briefing on the Epstein files and criticized Blanche for meeting with Maxwell.
“There is every reason to fear that Donald Trump could offer Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon in exchange for silence, or even worse, phony exoneration,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“Let me be clear: Trump is sending his personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to try and execute a corrupt cover-up, potentially offering leniency to a woman who also abused the victims,” he said. “Enough. Enough. Enough with the hiding. Enough with the excuses. And enough with the cover-up.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) last week expressed skepticism that a pardon for Maxwell is on the table.
Asked if Trump should rule out pardon, Thune said, “That’s up to him but it looks to me like she’s going to spend a good, long time in jail.”
