UPDATE: Miami lawyer offers deal: If Trump gives Maxwell 'clemency,' she'll clear his name
Update:
In an extraordinary statement to Congress, Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer said that if only President Donald Trump would give her clemency, she would be more than happy to clear his name in the Epstein scandal.
David Oscar Markus, the Miami criminal-defense lawyer who has served as lead counsel for Maxwell, sex predator Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted pimp, made the offer after advising Maxwell to take the Fifth this morning and not testify during her virtual appearance before the House Oversight Committee.
“If this Committee and the American public truly want to hear the unfiltered truth about what happened, there is a straightforward path,” Markus said on social media, recounting his statement to the committee.
“Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.
“Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters. For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”
While the offer was delivered to Congress, it is clear that the real recipient was Trump.
The message could not be clearer: It’s a quid pro quo offer from Maxwell to Trump. You do for me, I do for you.
What “clemency” would mean is unclear. A president can issue a pardon—a get-out-of-jail card and a cancellation of all charges. He could, alternatively, reduce criminal sentences to, for instance, time served without canceling the underlying conviction. Presumably, this would be the subject of negotiation if considered at all.
Members of the House committee, both Democrats and Republicans, were unhappy with Maxwell’s refusal to testify, although her lawyers told everyone that was what would happen.
CBS News reported that Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, a Democrat from Virginia, said Maxwell’s offer to speak on the record to absolve Mr. Trump and Clinton are part of an effort to drum up support from both parties for clemency.
“This is all strategy for her to try to get a pardon from President Trump, and she’s never shown any remorse for the victims in this entire case.”
Said U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia:
“Who is she protecting? And we need to know why she’s been given special treatment at a low security prison by the Trump Administration. We are going to end this White House cover up.”
Or maybe not.
Is it now beyond imagination that Trump would take Maxwell up on her offer?
Today’s earlier post:
Jeffrey Epstein’s pimp, Ghislaine Maxwell, will take a break from puppy therapy today to appear virtually before a U.S. House committee, where she is expected to say nothing.
The House Oversight Committee, chaired by Kentucky Republican James Comer, is convening to hear Maxwell assert her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination as the committee continues its investigation into the widening Epstein scandal.
It’s all theater, of course.
But, while her lawyers say Maxwell will take the Fifth today, it should be noted she had no reluctance to spend hours on the record with Trump’s personal attorney and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last year in which not a single unkind word about President Donald Trump escaped her lips.
At the time, she was jailed in a Tallahassee federal prison serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring to sexually abuse minors.
Shortly after her chat with Blanche, she was slipped away to an all-female minimum-security encampment in East Texas where she now enjoys yoga, puppy therapy, special meals and, it seems, high-tech telecommunications links so she can tell Congress from the comfort of her Club Fed digs that she has nothing further to say about anything.
At least, that’s the advance billing on her testimony today.
So far, the DOJ has released more than 3 million documents from the heavily redacted Epstein Files. What have Attorney General Pam Bondi and her minions learned from this? Here’s Blanche’s assessment:
“It isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”
Speaking of Bondi, she’s also on tap to testify this week before a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing chaired by Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, who columnist Joyce Vance notes, “attended law school but never passed the bar exam.”
Bondi, you will recall, was Florida’s attorney general in an earlier life. She was, in fact, AG when Trump was being investigated in New York for defrauding students enrolled in his so-called Trump University. He settled that case for $25 million.
He got off cheaper here in Florida. After a $25,000 campaign donation, Bondi lost any interest in pursuing it.
This week, she’ll get a chance to explain herself in regard to the abject failure of her department to investigate and prosecute the murders at the hands of immigration agents in Minnesota.
Joyce Vance also suggests:
… she should also be challenged on the gross incompetence that has been the hallmark of the Epstein Files release, which is still not in compliance with the Transparency Act Congress passed last year. At a minimum, she should be asked about the sudden removal of certain files after they’ve been uploaded, like a prosecution memo that was on the site yesterday but disappeared today. The Department has also redacted perpetrators’ identities, while victim information has been made public.
There are also obvious omissions in the public release. Virtually none of the communications between Bondi, Blanche, Top FBI leaders, and U.S. Attorney personnel are included, but there has obviously been a great deal of back and forth about items, like the release of the files themselves, that should have been included.
Maybe Bondi will take the Fifth, too.
You can read Joyce Vance’s full article here:
And while I’m offering recommendations on reading material, let me also direct your attention to two other articles posted on the Tropic Press website:
It is time for a new (nonviolent) American Revolution
David Silverberg, founder of the Paradise Progressive, recently delivered remarks at the Greater Naples 28th annual Progressive Voices Speak Out lecture series.
He’s calling for a new American revolution—nonviolent, of course—powered by a pair of new Constitutional amendments that would prevent criminals like Trump from ever holding office again.
Here’s the link to a lightly edited version of his prepared remarks:
As Donald Trump’s numbers sink on almost all fronts including the economy and with GOP midterms looking increasingly dire, it’s time for Trump and his cronies to resurrect the most emotionally charged issue for many MAGA voters. It’s time for “stolen election” to take center stage again!
Pollster Mark Schulman says Republicans are ignoring the cost of living as an issue—it really doesn’t work for them—and are reviving The Big Lie of election fraud as a “proven mantra to mobilize … voters.”
Check it out here:
Super Bowl Update:
Yesterday, I predicted that the Seattle Seahawks would win, and they did. But I got the score wrong. I had guessed it would be Seahawks 24, Patriots 10. The final tally was Seattle 29, New England 13.
And here are the final numbers from the more important matchup of the day, Bad Bunny versus Kid Rock.
Bad Bunny: 135 million viewers.
Kid Rock: 6 million.
J.C. Bruce is the founder of Tropic Press, a Florida online news service dedicated to sharing news and commentary relevant to Florida readers, whether it originates in the Sunshine State or elsewhere. Bruce is an award-winning former newspaper editor, journalist and author living in Florida, his native state.
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Whatever she says MUST be done using a lie detector! She’s a liar just like those she’s protecting.
The only way she
Can try to clear his name is by perjuring herself!!