Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell: 'I Just Wish Her Well'

POTUS was asked about her at coronavirus briefing
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 22, 2020 12:39 AM CDT
Trump Offers Warm Wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell
President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House, Tuesday, July 21, 2020, in Washington.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Trump's onetime relationship with Jeffrey Epstein has been well-known since the disgraced financier's controversial 2008 plea deal. But it's under renewed scrutiny after Trump's first coronavirus briefing in months. "I don’t know," Trump said at the Tuesday presser when asked if he expected Epstein companion Ghislaine Maxwell to reveal the identities of powerful men accused of participating in Epstein's alleged sex trafficking ring. "I haven’t really been following it too much," he continued. "I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is." Fox News notes Trump and his now-wife Melania were years ago photographed with Epstein and Maxwell. The New York Times has a history of the Trump-Epstein connection.

Maxwell is accused of recruiting, transporting, and grooming girls as young as 14, who were then allegedly sexually abused by Epstein and other powerful men. She has pleaded not guilty to federal charges in the case and is being held without bail in a federal jail in Brooklyn. A prosecutor at the Justice Department, noting that Trump didn't mention the recent murder of a federal judge's son, told Politico, "The president has nothing to say about a gun-toting madman who just murdered the son of a federal judge. But he takes time out of his press conference to send well wishes to a woman accused of trafficking teenager girls for sex. That’s gross on its face, and in the aftermath of the [Roger] Stone pardon, it reeks of the president indicating to her that he might reward her if she’ll stay silent about whatever she knows about him." (More Ghislaine Maxwell stories.)

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