DOJ Won’t Recommend Pardon of Epstein Accomplice Maxwell, Blanche Says

The acting attorney general appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference about the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, at the Justice Department in Washington on April 27, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) will not recommend a pardon for convicted Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term for her part in a sex trafficking scheme that prosecutors say involved Epstein, who died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

During remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee under questioning from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Blanche was asked whether the DOJ would commit to not recommending a pardon for Maxwell. He responded: “Yes. I can commit to that, of course.”

Initially, Van Hollen asked Blanche whether the DOJ would recommend a pardon for anyone named in the Epstein-related files released by the Justice Department in recent months. Blanche said that the files include the names of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people.

Van Hollen then narrowed his line of questioning to ask whether the DOJ would recommend not pardoning Maxwell.

Also in the hearing, Blanche said that he met with “many of the lawyers” of alleged victims of Epstein, responding to a statement from Van Hollen that the acting attorney general did not meet with them.

Maxwell has attempted a series of appeals to overturn her conviction. In October 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, a convicted sex offender, whose 2019 death was ruled a suicide.

Starting late last year, under the Epstein Files Transparency Act enacted by Congress, the DOJ released hundreds of thousands of files, photos, and documents relating to the Epstein and Maxwell cases. According to a DOJ news release, around 3.5 million pages were produced in compliance with the act.

Before he was named acting attorney general, Blanche was heavily involved in the release of the files and often pushed back against claims that the DOJ was slow-walking the dissemination of those documents. Last year, he confirmed that he interviewed Maxwell in July, releasing transcripts in August.

Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime associate of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, speaks at a news conference at the United Nations in New York on June 25, 2013. (UNTV via Reuters)In April, Blanche was tapped by Trump to be his acting attorney general after the departure of then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Before he joined the administration, Blanche was Trump’s personal attorney, defending him in several high-profile criminal cases before his reelection.

Blanche’s comment comes more than a week after a federal judge released a purported suicide note that was allegedly penned by Epstein.

“They investigated me for month—found nothing!!!” the purported suicide note reads, which includes undecipherable writing in some places. “It is a treat to be able to choose” the “time to say goodbye,” it also reads. “Watcha want me to do—Bust out cryin!!”