There’s Only One Conclusion to Draw From Trump’s Newfound Leniency for Ghislaine Maxwell

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/08/trump-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-friend.html

48 comments

  1. Last month, the Department of Justice’s response to the Jeffrey Epstein saga culminated in an incredibly bizarre move: The Federal Bureau of Prisons transferred a convicted sex offender to a minimum security prison. The special treatment given by the Trump administration to Ghislaine Maxwell is a travesty of justice. It also suggests only one conclusion: A rotten deal between Trump’s DOJ and Epstein’s accomplice to keep quiet in exchange for preferential treatment.

    The treatment is, ultimately, not surprising, given how the Trump administration has handled Maxwell in recent months. From her private meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former Trump defense lawyer, to her abrupt transfer to a cushy minimum-security prison, everything about the Trump administration’s conduct appears designed to shield Trump from fallout in the Epstein sex scandal, which involved more than 1,000 victims.

    This favoritism would have been difficult to imagine even a few years ago. On Dec. 29, 2021, a federal jury found Maxwell guilty of five felony counts, including conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and sex trafficking of a minor. On June 28, 2022, she was sentenced to 20 years in jail and a fine of $750,000.

    For more: [https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/08/trump-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-friend.html](https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/08/trump-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-friend.html)

  2. didn’t read but I assume the conclusion is Trump raped kids?

  3.  Trump said “I just wish her well, frankly.” after she had been convicted 5 felony accounts of sex crimes against underage girls.

  4. Is it that Trump likes people who help him rape children?

    And likes ’em even more if they agree to perjure themselves for him?

  5. This was so transparent from the beginning. Anyone paying attention knew exactly what he was doing.

    Congrats MAGA, you support a pedophile. Actually, quite a few of them if you go down the roster of all the “conservatives” and right wing people who’ve been locked up for such

    All that performative bs the last decade. Going after secret pizza parlors, the world is laughing at you. Where’s “Q” these days?

  6. She knows a lot , and she got a deal to keep it quiet. that is what it confirmed

  7. Calling it now: She somehow mysteriously riles up another inmate in the new prison and dies in a “tragic and unforeseeable” accident after she says in an interview that Trump is definitely innocent of ever being involved with Epstein. This just so she can’t recant.

  8. I suppose this is exactly what it looks like. He’s buying her silence. My question is, if she had information that would have spared her a 20 year sentence wouldn’t she have spilled it years ago? And what could she possibly have anyway? Her testimony would be completely worthless. And if there’s some kind of physical evidence, wouldn’t the FBI have already discovered that years ago?

  9. Has the DOJ given ANY official reason for doing all this?!

  10. Ooh, cool! Are the media and the right wing finally catching up to 2015?

  11. What can you expect from the POTUS – Pedo of the United States or the Pedo-In-Chief?

    Release the files, not the philes.

  12. Is it “Trump diddles kids”? It’s “Trump is a child rapist”, isn’t it?

  13. She should avoid multistory buildings and just any window really.

  14. Everything he does or says in regard to his long close friendship with Epstein shouts he is a twisted pedo.

  15. I believe she actually has info on Trump and he put her in Texas to keep her from talking

  16. She knows what he did and she is cutting a deal. If he was innocent he would have left her to rot and turned over all information. Pedophile trump
    He is going to pardon her.

  17. This should be flaired Soft Paywall.

    Thanks for nothing as always, Slate.

  18. Uh that the tRump had made many wire transfers to Epstein. Or maybe tRump is in the files thousands of times. Known pedos are protecting known sex offender tRump.

  20. Trump fucks kids? The Republican Party is a kid fucking death cult?

  21. he raped children. and he should pay dearly for that using strict punishment.

  23. I saw this coming with the “interview” with his henchman. Then she was moved shortly after to a country club facility. And the latest thing (if true) is that she’s on a work release program.

    The next move is for her to “go missing”. The corruption is so fucking blatant. Quid Pro Quo.

  24. Trump is buying her silence on anything incriminating him.

  27. Are we forced to assume that the known rapist with a decades long friendship with a pedophile and who bragged about groping women and spying on underage girls in their changing room isn’t a good guy?

  29. Silence. He bought her silence.

    Until he is out of office. Then… the book comes out.

  32. Republicans would offer up their 12 yo daughters for Trump.

  34. Trump is playing whackamole with the Epstein scandal. He suppresses the story in one place only to have it pop up in another. Maxwell is only one of the sources of information. He doesn’t know when the one that will cast the final blow will pop up. All he knows is that his time is running out and his flimsy diversions aren’t working anymore.

  35. “Some victims as young as 14” makes sense why they’re floating that very specific number to be the new age of adulthood

  36. If I was Obama, after all that birther nonsense, I would be dragging Trump every chance I had over this. Unfortunately, Obama isn’t a petty bitch like me.

  37. Every time I think MAGA can’t get anymore pathetic, they sink to new lows. After going off about pedophile conspiracy theories since 2016 they are now in support of letting a sexual trafficker of young girls go free. And why? Who knows what they tell themselves. It’s obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than room temperature it’s a quod pro quo to try and clear his rapist ass.

  42. That he’s a pedophile and child rapist who trafficked children with Epstein and Maxwell? That’s the only conclusion.

  43. Trump is guilty. Guilty of sex with under aged girls. Rapist. Insurrectionist. Pedophile.

    Release the Epstein Files.

  45. Does it really matter what this convicted sex trafficker says about Trump? Any leniency showed just implicates him more.

  46. Assuming neither the statute of limitations or some other prohibition would prevent it, what would prevent a state prosecution of Maxwell. I would assume that her activities would also violate state criminal laws and a conviction would be outside any presidential right to pardon. There is precedent for both state and federal prosecutions arising out of the same criminal activities. I’m sure Letitia James has thought about this and I wonder why it hasn’t happened yet.

  48. Trump is a Pedophile. Hence the “P” tapes Putin has on him.

    What a disgusting person.

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