𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A senior Justice Department official plans to meet with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and accomplice, on Thursday in Florida, where she is serving time for her role in a scheme to abuse girls, according to a report.

As questions swirled around the handling of the so-called Epstein files, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Tuesday he planned to meet with Maxwell in the “coming days.” That meeting is expected to happen Thursday, ABC News reported. The Independent has asked Maxwell’s lawyers for more information.

Earlier this week, Maxwell’s attorneys confirmed their client was “in discussions” with the government.

The 63-year-old was sentenced to 20 years in 2021 for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse multiple girls with Epstein and is serving time at the Florida Correctional Institution-Tallahassee. Her attorneys have taken an appeal of her conviction to the Supreme Court.

The development comes one day after the Wall Street Journal reported that President Donald Trump was told in May that his name appeared in the files “multiple times.” The president filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the paper and its owners after it published a report claiming that Trump gave Epstein a bawdy birthday card in 2003; he has vehemently denied the claims.

“This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,” White House communications director Steven Cheung told the paper about the claims Trump was named. However, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Trump was told that he is in the files. Being mentioned is not an indication of wrongdoing and officials say hundreds of names appear. Trump has publicly denied that he was named in the files.

Shortly after Blanche’s announcement Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee approved a subpoena for Maxwell. Speaking to reporters at the White House later that day, Trump said that the subpoena for Maxwell “sounds appropriate.”

Last week, Trump requested Attorney General Pam Bondi release “any and all pertinent” grand jury transcripts related to the Epstein case. Bondi then asked the judges overseeing the cases of Epstein and Maxwell; two judges have so far denied these requests.

Trump’s request came as the White House attempted to quell the uproar following the DOJ’s July 6 memo, which stated that no further disclosures were necessary in the Epstein matter and that there was no evidence to support that a “client list” of high-profile associates linked to the sex offender’s trafficking scheme.

Earlier this year, Bondi said she had a “truckload” of files to review from the FBI. In February, she even said the “client list” was sitting on her desk. That month, she also released “Phase 1” of the files, a tranche of documents that included mostly publicly available information.

After the memo was released, the president’s MAGA following erupted, demanding more information.

Democrats as well as prominent members of Trump’s own party, including his former Vice President Mike Pence, joined the calls for increased transparency around the case.

Trump has pushed for the media and his supporters to move on to a different topic.

Days after the memo was released, the president slammed a reporter’s question:“Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years. You’re asking — we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things. And are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.”

Writing on his Truth Social a week later, the president blasted his “past supporters” for buying into “this ‘bulls***,’ hook, line and sinker.” He wrote: “Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats’ work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!”

This week, when a CNN reporter called Trump to ask about unearthed archived photos capturing Epstein at his 1993 wedding to Marla Maples, the president replied: “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The phone call lasted just 30 seconds before Trump hung up, the network reported.