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The Justice Department has released a transcript of the interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell told a senior administration official that she never witnessed US President Donald Trump engage in any "inappropriate" behaviour during his years-long friendship with Epstein, The New York Times reported. The transcripts and audio recordings -- spanning two days of discussions in late July between Maxwell and Todd Blanche, a former Trump defence lawyer now serving as the Justice Department's second-in-command -- are likely to prompt as many doubts as clarifications. "I actually never saw the President in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way. The President was never inappropriate with anybody," Maxwell said. "In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects." She suggested a possibility of masseuses from the spa at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort giving private massages to Epstein. However Maxwell emphasised that she never recalled any such incidents, according to CNN. She also clarified that she never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for a private massage for Epstein. The transcript which is 337 pages long and spread across four different files provides deep insight about Epstien business and his relationship with Trump. At one point, Maxwell, who is serving a 20 year sentence, distance herself from Epstien, "I am not here to defend him," Maxwell said. She insisted, however, that she "did not participate in that activity" with underage girls. Speaking about the allegation that Epstein abused underage girls, Maxwell said, "I never saw that with them at all. I'm not saying that Mr. Epstein did not do those things... I don't feel comfortable saying that today, given what I now know to be true." Maxwell expressed admiration for Trump's government. She also suggested that Epstein and Trump were not "close friends." "I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. And I like him, and I've always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him," she said. "I don't know Epstein's - if he had - whatever the nature of the President's friendship, if you will, or however you want to define that with Epstein, I was - never witnessed. I think they were friendly like people are in social settings. I don't think they were close friends," she added. According to the The New York Times, Epstein's victims and their families sharply denounced the interview, accusing Trump of cutting a favourable deal with a convicted sex offender who they say would say anything to protect herself and him. Epstein, a financier with wide-reaching political and social ties, was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges involving minors.He died the same year in a Manhattan jail cell, a death officially ruled as suicide, though the case continues to fuel controversy over the extent of his network and the role of powerful figures. (ANI)
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