Ghislaine Maxwell denies Jeffrey Epstein client list exists
Ghislaine Maxwell told the Department of Justice in an interview in a Florida prison there is no client list in the Jeffrey Epstein case. (Getty Images; Department of Justice)
The Justice Department released hours of interviews between a top federal prosecutor and Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person convicted of or held civilly liable for a role in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sat down with Maxwell in a federal prison in Tallahassee, where she was being held until recently. In the interview, she denied having trafficked anyone or having witnessed any nonconsensual sexual activity or any sex involving minors.
She said she never witnessed President Donald Trump doing anything "inappropriate with anybody." She shot down claims that former President Bill Clinton had traveled to Epstein's infamous island in the U.S. Virgin Islands and said the Clintons were her friends, not Epstein's.
"I do believe that Epstein did a lot of, not all, but some of what he's accused of, and I'm not here to defend him in any respect whatsoever," Maxwell told Blanche. "I don't want to, and I don't think he requires, nor deserves any type of protection or – from me in any way, to sugarcoat what he did or didn't do"
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WEIGHS RELEASE OF GHISLAINE MAXWELL INTERVIEW
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein's years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
EPSTEIN, MAXWELL GRAND JURIES RELIED ON TWO LAW ENFORCEMENT WITNESSES, DOJ FILING REVEALS
Authorities published hundreds of pages of transcripts as well as audio recordings of the interview on the DOJ website. The terms of the interview granted her limited immunity from further prosecution unless she told lies.
Maxwell denied Epstein had a "client list" and said he did not maintain a stockpile of blackmail material against prominent associates.
This is one man. He's not some – they've made him into this. He's not that interesting. He's a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids.
Maxwell also attempted to explain what she believes is the origin of claims that Epstein kept the "list."
In 2009, she said Epstein had finished a slap-on-the-wrist sentence for child sex trafficking, but civil suits were pouring in, some from the law firm Rothstein Adler. A lawyer there called the FBI to say he had a "piece of evidence" that belonged to Epstein, she said. That was "the list," she said, adding that she believed he became a confidential informant to the FBI.
She said he obtained the list through a sting operation involving Epstein's former butler, who said in a deposition he had "handwritten notes, or a journal, whatever," according to Maxwell.
Ghislaine Maxwell jogs around the track at FCI Tallahassee in Tallahassee, Fla., July 10, 2025. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein. (Matthew Symons for Fox News Digital)
Rothstein Adler was later raided by the FBI. Lawyers at the firm were prosecuted for a number of alleged crimes, including money laundering, fraud, conspiracy and a Ponzi scheme.
"This is one man," Maxwell said. "He's not some – they've made him into this. He's not that interesting. He's a disgusting guy who did terrible things to young kids."
She reiterated past statements that she does not believe he killed himself, and she revealed Epstein told her he had a heart condition that prevented him from having normal sexual intercourse.
She said she met Epstein in the early 1990s and began working for him. She said their own sexual relationship ended in 1999.
File photo of Jeffrey Epstein in New York City Feb. 23, 2011. (David McGlynn)
In one exchange, she told Blanche she had grown to believe that Epstein wasn't very into her.
"There was some indications that he would actively tell other people to lie to me or conceal things from me, and that he never loved me, and I wasn't his type," she said.
In the mid-to-late ‘90s, she said, Epstein began traveling increasingly with "masseuses." According to Epstein’s accusers, he used massages as cover for sex.
"In the early '90s, I don't remember traveling so much with other people," she said. "There would be a masseuse or a yoga person, but now he started to travel with more, always a masseuse."
Prince Andrew allegedly appears in this photograph with his arm around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre. Ghislaine Maxwell is standing to the right. In the interview with Blanche, Maxwell said she believed Epstein had met members of Britain's "high society" but wasn't sure about any members of the royal family. (U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals)
Also around that time, he began a testosterone dosage, she said.
"He started doing testosterone, and that altered his character," she told Blanche. "And I believe that started in the late '90s. And I believe that the FBI has his medical records, and you may see that on his medical records."
Another person she said she never saw act inappropriately was the U.K.'s Prince Andrew, a friend of Epstein's who appears in an image with her and the late Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, 17 at the time, that she said isn't real.
"I believe it's literally a fake photo," she said of the infamous snap, purported to have been taken at her former London townhouse. "I do not know that they met."
Ghislaine Maxwell’s former home in London's Belgravia neighborhood is up for sale Jan. 15, 2025. The home was the location of the infamous photo of Virginia Guifree (nee. Roberts) shot by Jeffrey Epstein with Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell. (News Licensing/Mega)
Giuffre died by suicide earlier this year. She had accused the royal of forcing her into sex inside Maxwell's home in London's ritzy Belgravia neighborhood. The prince was relieved of his royal duties amid fallout from the scandal but has always denied allegations of wrongdoing. He agreed to pay Giuffre an undisclosed settlement in 2022 and to donate to her charity for crime victims.
Maxwell also said she was not responsible for introducing Epstein to Andrew. She said they met at a dinner party in Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
In a statement on Twitter, Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, alleged that she had only been convicted because the DOJ needed a scapegoat after Epstein died in jail before his case went to trial.
"Ghislaine Maxwell is innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted, in this case," Markus wrote. "She never committed or participated in sexual abuse against minors, or anyone else for that matter."
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein smile while onboard a helicopter. This photo was one of many unearthed during Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial in the Southern District of New York, where she was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for working with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. (U.S. Department of Justice/Mega)
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted at trial in 2021 of helping Epstein traffic teen girls.
She has an ongoing appeal and has signaled that she is willing to sit for interviews with both federal prosecutors and Congress.
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Epstein died in a federal jail cell in 2019 before he faced trial himself. His official cause of death has been ruled a suicide, a conclusion rejected by his brother.
The release came with little warning, days after federal judges denied the DOJ's requests to unseal grand jury materials from both Maxwell and Epstein's criminal cases.
This is a breaking news story. Stick with Fox News Digital for updates.
Fox News' Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Jasmine Baehr, Chris Pandolfo and Adam Sabes contributed to this report.
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