Jonathan Turley Shares What One Thing Public Must Consider When Gauging Maxwell’s Credibility

(DCNF)—GWU law professor Jonathan Turley said on Fox News Friday that the public must weigh Ghislaine Maxwell’s motivations when judging her credibility.

The Justice Department on Friday released its interview with Maxwell, which Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to conduct in July about Jeffrey Epstein. During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” host Jesse Watters asked whether Turley believes Maxwell. Turley pointed to his decades as a defense attorney.

“I’ve been a criminal defense attorney my whole life, and I have learned that even the most untruthful witnesses usually have some truth in what they say. You have to be skeptical. You have to consider their motivations,” Turley said. “That’s what lawyers tell jurors to do. And in this case, she’s saying that there wasn’t any blackmail operation here. That’s a real possibility.”

Turley acknowledged rumors that Epstein wired his New York mansion, but he said Maxwell’s interview will not resolve that question.

“Epstein was a pedophile, and he did attract rather seedy friends by offering them young girls. That’s bad enough. Did he want to create an insurance system? Some people say yes. They say that his house in New York was wired. And why do you do that unless you have some type of tapes? But clearly we’re not going to find that through Maxwell,” Turley added.

Turley called the Justice Department’s release of Ghislaine Maxwell’s interview extraordinary, noting that such disclosures are rare.

“It’s an extraordinary release. You obviously don’t normally see this type of interview even occur, let alone see the transcript or get the tapes. This is an effort to be absolutely transparent. You could sense the palpable disappointment in this city when she said there is no list,” Turley said. “And I actually think I know where that rumor came from, and what happened was she was immediately denounced as a liar, that there has to be a list and that she was protecting the president.”

Turley said Maxwell’s denial of a “list” may be genuine, but he said that her record as a convicted trafficker and her push for a commutation make her motives suspect.

“There is another possibility, and that is she didn’t have anything on the president, and perhaps there isn’t a list. But what is clear is that this release didn’t satisfy the beltway. Now is she gaming the system? Probably. I mean, this is not someone who was put into jail for no reason at all. She’s a tragic figure and a rather infamous one in her own right,” Turley added. “She facilitated human trafficking. She facilitated the abuse of girls in this longstanding conspiracy. So she doesn’t cut a very sympathetic figure. She clearly also does want something from President Trump. She wants a commutation. That might not come until the end of the term, but she’s clearly angling for it.”

In the interview, Maxwell described President Donald Trump as “a gentleman in all respects” and said she never observed him in any compromising situation. She told Blanche that Trump never acted improperly with anyone and rejected claims that former President Bill Clinton received a massage aboard Epstein’s jet.

Maxwell also said she did not recall Trump sending Epstein a birthday card in 2003 and added she never saw such a document among the case materials presented at her trial in New York. Trump filed a lawsuit in July against the Wall Street Journal for reporting that he once sent Epstein a lewd birthday note. On the same day, the House Oversight Committee said that the Justice Department had begun releasing Epstein-related records.

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