CNN was halted for a breaking news report about US President Donald Trump in a major update about Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Erin Burnett welcome viewers to the show as she immediately launched into the news, as she said: “Good evening, tonight we begin with the breaking news that We are just learning in this hour that Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was granted limited immunity in order to talk with Trump’s personal attorney turned deputy attorney general Todd Blanche.”
She continued: “What does this mean, this limited immunity? Well, it allowed Maxwell to provide information without any fear that anything she said that is truthful can be used against her in the future.” Blanche has confirmed he and Maxwell met in Tallahassee, Florida, on Thursday, at the federal prosecutor’s office within the federal courthouse in the state capital, before meeting again on Friday.
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, told reporters as he left the courthouse in downtown Tallahassee: “We started this morning right around 9 o’clock, and went to now lunchtime, and we’re finished after all day, yesterday and today. Ghislaine answered every single question asked of her over the last day and a half. She answered those questions honestly, truthfully, to the best of her ability. She never invoked a privilege. She never refused to answer a question.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee, after a jury convicted her of sex trafficking in 2021.
Donald Trump is facing backlash, with calls intensifying for the release of all details of the federal investigation into Epstein.
Trump’s name, along with many other high-profile individuals, appeared multiple times on flight logs for Epstein’s private plane in the 1990s.
While travelling to Scotland, Trump was questioned about Maxwell and Epstein when he raised the possibility of pardoning Maxwell for her crimes.
He said: “Well, I don’t want to talk about that,” before adding “It’s something I haven’t thought about,” while conspicuously adding, “I’m allowed to do it.”