Guilain Maxwell appears, as predicted,
to have done Donald Trump a favor by
saying only nice things about him when
she was interviewed for two days last
month by America's deputy attorney
general. Maxwell, who of course is
serving a 20-year jail sentence for her
role in the sexual abuse and
exploitation of minors on behalf of her
boyfriend, Fancia Jeffrey Epstein, is
seeking a pardon from President Trump,
and to the surprise of nobody,
exonerated him of any wrongdoing.
>> 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.
>> As to her own plight, here's how she
characterized the societal storm
following Jeffrey Epstein's death and
her own criminal convictions.
>> But basically, this is like a Salem
witch trial. People go and lost their
minds for this thing. I understand that.
But the issue is, how do you satisfy a
mob who can't understand the lifestyle?
Cuz it's like P. diddy in Redux on TV
with
Clintons and Trump. I mean, it's it's
bananas.
>> She said she does not believe Jeffrey
Epstein killed himself. And it's worth
making the point that Donald Trump is
not the only powerful figure she
exonerates. She says she never saw any
untoward behavior by former President
Bill Clinton either. Joining me now is
Harriet Alexander, features reporter for
the Daily Mail based in New York.
Harriet, thanks so much for coming on
the program. uh this Saturday. Uh what
did you make of what we learned
yesterday from the release of those
transcripts uh of the Gilain Maxwell
interview and particularly of the claim
that this is like the Salem witch trial.
>> Yeah, I think you you set that up very
well there, Simon, when you said, you
know, this is the woman who wants a
pardon from Donald Trump. So, not only
did she stress repeatedly that Donald
Trump did nothing wrong, um at the end
of her first day of testimony, it took
place over two days, she said, "I just
want to state for the record that I
really feel that it's terrible that
Donald Trump has been dragged into all
of this essentially by people who want
to do him harm." Um, so she was really
bending over backwards to say that
Donald Trump was a fabulous person uh
and that she did nothing wrong. And
this, of course, is all part of her her
her aim to uh get rid of this 20-year
sentence that she's been handed.
>> But there is still a huge problem uh
that the Trump administration has to
contend with, Harrier. I mean, not just
the the frothing nature uh of those
people within Donald Trump's Make
America Great Again base that uh firmly
appear to think that there's a cover up
underway at the White House. Uh but the
fact that Gileain Maxwell told the
deputy attorney general there is no
Epstein client list and yet it was the
attorney general Pam Bondi who just a
few weeks ago said that the client list
was sitting on her desk for personal
review ahead of it being released to the
to the country and uh publicly which of
course never happened because the
Department of Justice weeks later said
actually the client list doesn't exist.
That's still a rhetorical problem for
the for the Trump administration.
>> Yes, it really is. And and it's worth
remembering that it's caused huge rifts
within the Trump administration itself.
Um Pam Bondi back in February said the
client list is on my desk. Um and then
she herself had to sort of backpedal and
say, "No, what I meant was just the
complete dossier of documents uh
relating to this case." Um and that you
know that caused real anger with Cash
Patel, the FBI director and his deputy
Dan Bonino. Um from reporting within,
you know, within DC, we we are led to
believe that there was blazing rows in
the White House uh among these three
over the way that it was handled because
the problem that they really have,
Simon, is that that these are some of
the people who are the absolute
champions of these conspiracy theories.
It it fed into everything that their
base loved and they had podcasts and and
they would talk at length about the deep
state conspiracy that was behind all of
this. But now, of course, they have
access to all of these files. So, these
same people that said there's a huge
conspiracy are now the ones saying
nothing to see here. Move on. And it's
just not really flying.
Harriet, it seems pretty clear that
Guileain Maxwell is on track to some
kind of presidential action of leniency,
whether it's a full pardon or a
commutation of the sentence or clemency.
What I don't understand is what Donald
Trump gets out of that. How's he going
to sell that to members of his
grassroots base who already think
there's a cover up taking place?
>> Yeah, I agree with you entirely. I mean,
I don't know what what sort of
mindbending Jedi trick he's going to try
and do on his base to justify that
because she is a convicted sex
trafficker. Um, not just that, but it
was children who was were involved. I
mean, of course, in the transcripts, she
disputes this. She says, you know, she
says that none of the none of the girls
ever looked upset, which is quite
interesting. And she says that she
didn't know any of them were underage.
Um but why Trump would do this uh he
he's certainly lent that that way before
towards having sympathy for her. There
was an interview um a while ago and he
was pressed about his relationship with
Gileain Maxwell and he said, "I wish her
well." And the interviewer, Jonathan
Swan, said, "She's a convicted child sex
trafficker." And he said, "Yes, I wish
her well. Her boyfriend died in prison.
I wish her well." which was, you know,
quite an interesting remark. Um, and
Gileain has already been moved from
prison in Florida in Tallahassee, which
is where she did these interviews, um,
to a much more lenient prison in Texas.
So, it's already paid off for her, but
yeah, we wait to see whether she will be
pardoned. That of course is what her
family wants, what she and her legal
team want, but a very hard one to sell
to his base.
There is though I think an inexraable
process taking place here. Harriet,
thank you so much indeed for coming on
the program this afternoon. Harriet
Alexander, features reporter for the
Daily Mail, based in New