DOJ Interview of Ghislaine Maxwell Torched as 'Softball' — as More Questions Are Raised Why Epstein's Madam Wasn't Pressed for Names After Hinting at Pedo's Ties to Trump Officials
Federal prosecutors have been slammed over going too easy on Maxwell during her two days of questioning.
Sept. 2 2025, Published 2:00 p.m. ET
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has been slammed for his "softball" questioning of Ghislaine Maxwell after no bombshells were revealed in the transcripts from his two days of interviewing the convicted sex trafficker, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The accusation comes after Blanche bragged about the "transparency" of his releasing the complete transcript and audio of his sessions with Maxwell, 63, which took place in July at her then-Florida federal prison. The transcripts of their conversations were released on August 22.
Going Too Easy on Maxwell?
Todd Blanche has come under fire for not going harder during his questioning of Maxwell.
When Blanche asked Maxwell about the high-profile men associating with Epstein, she replied that among the "cast of characters" were people “in your cabinet, who you value as your co-workers."
However, the former socialite stressed that there was no way those individuals involved “would be with him if he was a creep or because they wanted sexual favors," referring to Epstein.
Blanche didn't dig further into who in President Donald Trump's cabinet Maxwell might have been referring to and moved on immediately.
Trump's former personal lawyer also backed away from diving into Epstein's alleged ties with Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency.
When Blanche asked if the former financier ever had contact with the agency, Maxwell gave the puzzling response, "Well, not deliberately." After he quipped, "Pardon me?" and re-asked the question, getting the same reply, Blanche didn't ask her to elaborate and left the topic.
'Surface-Level' Questions
Blanche was accused of not drilling down on Maxwell with tough follow-up questions.
"Many of Blanche’s questions were surface-level and didn’t drill down the way lawyers, especially prosecutors, do when they want to catch inconsistencies," Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, complained about his queries of Maxwell.
“She has zero credibility, and I don’t believe for a second that she saw nothing and knows nothing,” Rahmani huffed.
"Perhaps Blanche’s questions were more of the softball variety, but there was no world where Maxwell was going to implicate herself when she has her Supreme Court appeal pending or anyone in the administration when she was trying to get a presidential pardon."
Maxwell appealed her 20-year federal sex trafficking conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court on July 31, arguing she was protected by a plea deal Epstein made with Florida prosecutors in 2007.
Too Deferential to Trump
Maxwell claimed Trump was a 'a gentleman in all respects' whenever she was around him.
Maxwell was accused of being too obliging towards Trump in her meeting with Blanche, going out of her way to praise the president and distance him from any of Epstein's wrongdoings.
"I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way," Maxwell claimed. "The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects."
The former madame raved over Trump, saying how he "was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find -- I -- I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. I like him, and I've always liked him."
Presidential Pardon?
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Trump hasn't officially ruled out pardoning Maxwell.
Trump has played coy about whether or not he intends to pardon Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 of five sex-trafficking-related counts.
"Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody's approached me with it, nobody's asked me about it," he told reporters in late July. "It's in the news about that—that aspect of it, but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it," he said.
The president previously remarked, "It's something I haven't thought about...I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about."
