“Sham”: Trump Just Made Epstein Fiasco Even More Humiliating for MAGA

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump is now suggesting he may pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein who’s serving time for sex trafficking. Trump told reporters: “I’m allowed to do it.” He dispatched Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to solicit testimony from Maxwell, ostensibly to gain new insight into Epstein’s activities. But in today’s episode, lawyer Philip Rotner, author of a new piece for The Bulwark on the Maxwell angle, suggests that the move by Blanche—previously Trump’s personal lawyer—is itself extremely dodgy and appears motivated by a desire to protect Trump. Rotner explains why it’s plausible Blanche hopes to get Maxwell to exonerate Trump, which Trump could then reward with a pardon. It’s hard to overstate how humiliating all this is for MAGA: After demanding the “Epstein files” for years, they got their people in at the Justice Department—and now they’re taking new steps to cover it all up. While some in MAGA are telling themselves that Maxwell will finally reveal the whole truth, that only makes them look even more absurd. Rotner unpacks the latest developments and explains why it’s all a “sham.” Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:30.5	The Jeffrey Epstein scandal keeps taking new twists and turns.
0:36.3	As of this recording, Gieland Maxwell, the former partner of Epstein, who is serving 20 years for sex trafficking,
0:38.5	has been in talks with the Justice Department, supposedly divulging what she knows about his
0:43.4	activities.
0:45.4	Maxwell's attorney has just confirmed that she is seeking a pardon from President Trump,
0:50.5	which raises the possibility that she will exonerate him in exchange for that pardon.
0:55.5	But we've been wondering, isn't it highly likely that we will, in fact, sooner or later know what's in the Epstein files?
1:02.3	We think yes, because there are all sorts of ways more information can come out.
1:07.3	And once we do know that information, what happens then?
1:11.6	Philip Rotner, a lawyer, just wrote a good piece for the bulwark pulling on a lot of these different threads.
1:17.0	So we're talking to him about all this today.
1:19.7	Thanks for coming on, Philip.
1:21.6	Thanks for having me, Greg. I appreciate it.
1:24.2	So Maga spent years screaming for the release of information collected in the course of
1:28.8	investigating Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested for sex trafficking in 2019. They thought that
1:35.3	these files, as they're being called, would reveal extensive evidence of democratic
1:40.1	pedophilia and so forth. But once Trump took over, his top officials looked at that
1:45.2	information and decided not to release it. Now, Gieland Maxwell has entered the story. She met with
1:51.9	Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche twice, and Blanche just happens to be Trump's former
1:56.5	personal attorney. Phil, can you very briefly tell us who Gilin Maxwell is and bring us up to the
	...

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