Adam Klasfeld writes:

For two days of meandering questioning in Tallahassee, Fla., Donald Trump’s former criminal defense attorney turned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche gave convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell ample opportunity to rehabilitate herself at the expense of victims like Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre’s lawyer Sigrid McCawley, who represents hundreds of Jeffrey Epstein survivors, said that Maxwell “repeatedly and brazenly lied on the record to the government” in these transcripts.

“Maxwell ruined countless young lives with impunity for too long,” McCawley said in a statement. “Her effort to recreate history and distance herself from Epstein should not and will not be tolerated. The documents don’t lie, the multiple witnesses that testified against her at trial didn’t lie — the only person lying is Maxwell.”

Blanche’s approach took a dramatically different turn on a topic that affects his boss — like the letters to Jeffrey Epstein at the heart of Trump’s litigation against the Wall Street Journal.

On her first day of questioning, Maxwell asserted that she “never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago” to give massages to Epstein. Blanche did not follow up with any questions about the public record contradicting that denial. Giuffre testified in a deposition that Maxwell recruited her from Mar-a-Lago when she worked there, and Epstein’s house manager Juan Alessi told a jury at Maxwell’s trial that he met Giuffre at that private Trump club.

Maxwell revised her claim on the second day of questioning to say it was “not impossible” that she did recruit someone from Mar-a-Lago, without any prompting from Blanche.

That was far from the only swipe at Giuffre, who, having died by suicide earlier this year, was unable to respond.

In another exchange, Maxwell had carte blanche to ridicule what she described as Giuffre’s “bulls***” allegations against Prince Andrew, including a lengthy monologue disputing the authenticity of the infamous photograph of the royal and the then-teenager.

Calling the picture a “fake,” Maxwell gleefully described herself as “beyond excited” to discuss the topic: “I believe that this whole thing was manufactured, and I can point you to some potentially corroborating evidence of this.”

Maxwell claimed, without interruption or challenge by Blanche, that her London apartment was “the size of a nut,” the “old Victorian bath” where the sexual contact allegedly took place was too cramped, and the mirrored bathroom’s design would make it appear that “she was having sex with 5,000 generations of the Royal Family.”

Despite claiming on BBC Newsnight that the photograph may have been doctored, Andrew notably stopped short of making that claim in response to Giuffre’s sex-abuse lawsuit, which the royal settled for millions of dollars. In his answer to Giuffre’s complaint, Andrew’s legal team said he “lacks sufficient information to admit or deny” the photograph exists.

Blanche never pressed Maxwell on the disconnect.

A representative for Giuffre’s family did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

Maxwell’s bitter and mocking swipes at Giuffre have a history. Giuffre’s defamation suit against Maxwell arguably sparked the series of events resulting in her convictions. The litigation created a vast public record mined by journalists about Maxwell’s relationship with Epstein, and prosecutors charged Maxwell with perjury based on her depositions in that case.

In a statement for Maxwell’s sentencing, Giuffre told her: “For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell.” [Continue reading…]