Ian Maxwell, the brother of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s charged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, said he was “grateful” for the “positive” statement President Trump made about his sister in 2020.
He was first asked on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” if Maxwell, who was arrested in 2020 and convicted on sex trafficking charges in 2022 and sentenced to 20 years in prison, “pulled the wool over your eyes” related to her involvement in Epstein’s alleged crimes.
“No, I believe my sister. I’ve known her 60 years, Piers. You know, I’m not going to suddenly say she started pulling the wool. I don’t think so,” he told host Piers Morgan on Tuesday. “I don’t believe so. Not for a second.”
Ian Maxwell in his remarks said Trump showed “humanity” after offering the “positive” statement about his sister.
“And I don’t think that anyone else showed the slightest piece of humanity, not anybody at that time, and yet he did. He didn’t need to. He’s the president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world,” Maxwell said on Tuesday. “He could’ve just sloughed it off. He didn’t. He made a positive statement. I am very grateful to that and I know Ghislaine was too.”
Trump was asked during a press briefing about the embattled socialite in July 2020, who was at the time awaiting trial, if she is “going to turn in powerful men.”
“I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach. And I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well,” Trump said at the time.
The Trump administration is working to tamp down the controversy around the Epstein case, particularly after the FBI and the Justice Department (DOJ) said in a joint, unsigned memo that the disgraced financier did not keep the so-called “client list” and that he died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019.
DOJ, after being ordered by Trump, asked the federal courrt last week to unseal grand jury testimony from prosecutions of both Epstein and Maxwell. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “communicated” with Maxwell’s attorney to figure out if she would be willing to talk to DOJ prosecutors.
A House Oversight subcommittee on Tuesday also moved to subpoena Maxwell as pressure for the Trump administration to be more transparency intensifies.
