‘I’m Just Not Buying This’: CNN Legal Analyst Says Something Is off About Maxwell Prison Interview
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is majorly skeptical of the interview that convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell gave to the Department of Justice.
On Friday, the DOJ released the audio and transcript of an interview with Maxwell conducted in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. That meeting came as President Donald Trump was facing an onslaught of questions about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex trafficker and Maxwell associate. The Trump administration announced it would not release its files relating to Epstein, who officials say died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year federal prison sentence and is seeking a pardon from Trump.
During the sit-down, Maxwell told Blanche – who is the president’s former criminal attorney – that she never saw Trump “in any inappropriate setting.”
Honig appeared on Friday’s edition of The Lead, where guest host Phil Mattingly asked, “Based on your experience, your read of the transcripts, at least up to this point, is this a credible interview?”
“Oh my gosh, no, Phil. I’m most of the way through the transcript now,” replied Honig, a former federal prosecutor. “In this transcript, Ghislaine Maxwell provides a simply bizarre worldview wherein almost nobody did anything wrong. She doesn’t even actually implicate Jeffrey Epstein.”
Honig noted that Maxwell maintains her innocence and does not implicate anyone in criminal activity.
“So, if one believes that worldview, fine,” he continued. “Then maybe Ghislaine Maxwell is credible. I certainly do not. I find it impossible to believe her account of things.”
Mattingly asked Honig what to make of the fact that the DOJ released the transcript on a Friday in August.
Honig replied:
So, it tells me they’re gonna do nothing next with respect to actually making criminal cases,” Honig said. “And Phil, I said from the start, the fact that DOJ is even considering releasing this transcript, which they now have done, that in itself is a tell, because if you were planning to ever make new criminal cases based on Ghislaine Maxwell’s information, releasing her transcript like they’ve just done is the last thing you would ever do. It would tip off your potential targets. It would tip off your investigative methods.
And beyond that, Phil, as I just said, I’m actually surprised to see she doesn’t even implicate anybody. I mean, even if a juror was to take everything in this transcript as true, there would be nobody else to charge or convict with anything. Yet another reason why I’m just not buying this.
Mattingly then asked, “Is there a chance that Maxwell could get a reduced sentence because of this?”
“There’s a couple of chances,” he replied. “So first of all, she still has an appeal pending. She’s trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take her case. It’s unlikely, but it’s possible. She also could receive what’s called a Rule 35 letter from the Justice Department. That’s when a prosecutor goes to her judge after sentencing, where we are now, and says, ‘I’d like you to reduce her sentence.’ That’s up to DOJ, whether they want to make that motion. But finally, she could get a pardon or commutation… She’s absolutely playing for that. She goes out of her way to praise Donald Trump.”
Watch above via CNN.
