EXCLUSIVE: Trump Allies Warned Pardon for Jeffrey Epstein's Lover Ghislaine Maxwell Would Spark 'Huge PR Problem' for Prez
Jeffrey Epstein's lover, Ghislaine Maxwell, has begged Donald Trump for a presidential pardon.
June 23 2026, Published 5:24 p.m. ET
Donald Trump's inner circle urged the president not to grant Jeffrey Epstein's former lover Ghislaine Maxwell her much-sought-after pardon, RadarOnline.com can report, for fear the optics of doing so would create a public relations nightmare.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence in prison after being convicted on several charges, including s-- trafficking and conspiracy to traffic a minor.
A PR Nightmare
Maxwell and Epstein were both accused of trafficking minors.
Maxwell has been desperately seeking a full pardon from Trump, and in return, she could be willing to spill her secrets about the financier's hidden criminal empire. But according to the explosive new book, Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, the president's closest confidants have warned him to say no.
"Pardoning Maxwell, a trafficker of young girls, would create a huge PR problem," said White House communications director Steven Cheung.
Authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write that in the wake of a pardon, Epstein accusers "would be fanning out on TV, telling their stories and ripping the administration to shreds."
'Nothing to Offer' Maxwell
The president has reportedly been urged to turn her request down.
Former White House deputy chief of staff James Blair concurred, as the book noted he said, "We can’t offer Ghislaine Maxwell anything.
"A, I don’t know why we would. And B, if we give Ghislaine Maxwell any sort of break whatsoever and then she turns around and says nice things about us, or says nice things about us and we give her a break, it will undermine the entire point of her saying good things."
"That will feed the conspiracy theory, period," he added, according to the tell-all. "If there’s nothing for her to say that hurts us, we shouldn’t have to offer her anything."
Maxwell Wants Out of Prison
Maxwell is currently behind bars in Texas.
Maxwell was sentenced to prison in 2022 on five counts. She has denied wrongdoing and has appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn her convictions.
Her legal team filed a petition last year, arguing that charges filed against her in 2020 violated an agreement Epstein made with federal prosecutors in 2008. In the court filing, Maxwell alleges 25 men reached undisclosed agreements, while four additional co-conspirators were known to investigators but were not charged.
"None of the four named co-conspirators or the 25 men with secret settlements were indicted," the court filing claims.
It's Trump's Decision Now
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Trump's relationship with Epstein remains under public scrutiny.
Maxwell, 64, has argued that the alleged concealment of these deals undermined the fairness of her trial and violated her constitutional rights.
"New evidence reveals that there were 25 men with which the plaintiff lawyers reached secret settlements – that could equally be considered as co-conspirators," the legal document states. "None of these men have been prosecuted, and none has been revealed to Petitioner; she would have called them as witnesses had she known."
Maxwell's final chance at freedom is now up to President Trump, who could pardon the convict if he chooses to, something he has made clear in the past.
When the 80-year-old was asked if he would ever consider a pardon for Maxwell, he told reporters: "Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but I – nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it. It's in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it."
