Ghislaine Maxwell’s 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking is “a pittance,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker’ Sunday. “I think she should have a life sentence at least.”
The Trump administration’s Justice Department recently granted Maxwell limited immunity during a series of recent interviews, allowing her to answer questions without her responses being held against her. Maxwell has made clear she wants her sentence thrown out or reduced; President Trump wished her “well” in an interview and said a pardon is something he’s “allowed to do.”
In a firestorm of controversy over the administration’s whipsaws around the Jeffrey Epstein matter, the Republican speaker has stood firm.
“I mean, think of all these unspeakable crimes, and as you noted earlier, probably 1,000 victims,” Johnson continued. “I mean, you know, this, this is, it’s, it’s hard to put into words how evil this was, and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it, at least under the criminal sanction, I think is an unforgivable thing. So again, not my decision, but I have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would.”
In 2021 Maxwell was convicted on five of six charges stemming from her years working with Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
Welker also asked Johnson if Maxwell “can be trusted” following two days of interviews with Deputy Attorney General Tom Blanche. “I hope so. I hope that she would want to come clean. We certainly are interested in knowing everything that she knows,” he answered.
“And as you’ll note, in our House Republican majority, we’re working towards that. Chairman Comer and our oversight committee has already issued their own subpoena. They, they want to bring in Ghislaine Maxwell as well. I hope she’s telling the truth. She is convicted. She is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, and so her character is in some question. But if she wants to come clean now, that would be a great service to the country, and we’d like to know every single bit of information that she has. I certainly hope she’s telling the truth.”
Blanche has yet to make a public statement about his conversations with Maxwell. That the department’s second in command is interviewing a witness personally is “highly unusual,” former prosecutors told NBC News.
Attorney Jack Scarola, who represented approximately 20 of Epstein’s victims, was denied a request to attend Maxwell’s interview.
Catherine Christian, a former Manhattan assistant district attorney and an NBC News legal analyst, also told the news outlet the interviews could be part of a larger plan to distract from Donald Trump’s ties to Maxwell and Epstein. The president is fending off rising inquiries into the exact nature of those relationships, including calls for clarification from within his MAGA base.
