by The arrest of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell has left former President Donald Trump wary of naming him to investigators or the press, according to a new book New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman who The independent received before Tuesday’s release date.
In Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, Haberman writes that the then-president’s mind was occupied by a July 2020 story in New York Post regarding Maxwell’s arrest on sex trafficking charges.
The Position The report, written by Page Six gossip columnist Emily Smith, said an associate of Epstein’s (who was hanged in federal custody in 2011) described Maxwell as believing she was “protected by the intelligence communities that she and [Epstein] helped with information … from Prince Andrew, President Clinton and even President Trump,” whom Epstein’s associate described as “known to be an acquaintance of hers and Epstein’s.”
According to Haberman, Trump asked his advisers about it Position story during an Oval Office meeting, asking, “See that article in the Post today that mentioned me?”
After his aides reacted with silence, Mr. Trump pressed them more about Maxwell, who at the time was a prisoner at the Justice Department.
“Does it say anything about me?” asked.
The disgraced socialite, whose late father was press baron and one-time Labor MP Robert Maxwell, was jailed for 20 years after being convicted of five counts of sex trafficking following a trial in December 2021. She remains in federal custody and has never offered no cooperation with prosecutors, nor did she mention Mr. Trump’s name in her defense.
The former president was a longtime associate of Epstein and Maxwell and was famously filmed at a party discussing the appearance of young girls present during a conversation with the late pedophile.
Despite the severity of the accusations against her by the administration he led at the time, Mr. Trump may have retained some sympathy for Maxwell, who was at his Mar-a-Lago club often enough to recruit young girls for his Epstein (accusation made against her by one of his victims).
At a White House news conference after her arrest, Mr. Trump was asked about the case against her.
The then-president stunned reporters by replying: “I didn’t really watch it very much. I only wish her well, honestly.”
“I’ve run into her many times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess [Maxwell and Epstein] he lived in Palm Beach,” he said. “But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
In an interview with New York In the magazine, Trump called Epstein, the notorious abuser of young girls, a “wonderful guy” who was “a lot of fun to be around.”
“He’s even said to like beautiful women as much as I do, and a lot of them are on the younger side,” Trump said.
