CNN’s Maggie Haberman warned that President Donald Trump’s talk about possibly pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted child sex trafficker associate, could seriously backfire on him.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in trafficking minors. Recently, Todd Blanche, Trump’s former lawyer and now Deputy Attorney General, spent nine hours interviewing Maxwell. She was Epstein’s close partner, and Epstein was once a friend of Trump’s—before his crimes came to light.
On Friday, Trump didn’t rule out giving Maxwell clemency, saying, “I’m allowed to do it.” Later that day, Fox News reported Maxwell is asking for a pardon from Trump.
This comes after the Department of Justice said Epstein didn’t have the secret client list many suspected. The DOJ also refuses to release certain Epstein-related documents, which has upset some Trump supporters.
On CNN’s The Source, Kaitlan Collins asked Haberman if pardoning Maxwell would anger Trump’s base.
Haberman replied, “It’s quite a line to walk. If he pardons her, if he commutes her sentence, there’s a range. There are two options here. There’s a clemency grant that could happen. She’s facing, I think it’s 20 years in prison, right? Or 20 20-year’ prison sentence, a couple of years of which she served already. You know, he has made a huge claim that there that sex trafficking is bad, that Democrats are behind this. He has thrown out Bill Clinton’s name.”
She also warned that people close to Trump might start painting Maxwell as a victim caught up in Epstein’s crimes.
“The reason I think that is that people close to the administration have started describing her as a victim,” Haberman said. She pointed to pro-Trump media figures like Charlie Kirk and Newsmax host Greg Kelly, who has suggested Maxwell might be innocent.
Watch the exchange below via CNN.
