The imprisoned sex trafficker lauded Trump, unprompted, for becoming the president and described the 34-time convicted felon as "a perfect gentleman"

The Justice Department on Friday released the transcripts of its July interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who is serving a 20-year sentence for perpetrating "heinous crimes against children," including sex trafficking and conspiring to sexually abuse minors.

The move to release the transcripts comes after Maxwell was transferred to a lower-security "country club" prison in Texas earlier this month, which President Donald Trump claimed he knew nothing about. Robert Hood, a former warden of a super-maximum prison in Colorado, told The Washington Post that "someone gave special preference to Maxwell that, to my knowledge, no other inmate currently in the Federal Bureau of Prisons has received."

In the interviews, among other topics, Maxwell played down her relationship with Trump and claimed she never observed him receiving a "massage." She also heaped praise onto him without being prompted, lauding his "extraordinary achievement" in becoming president, and called Trump — who was found liable for sexual abuse of writer E. Jean Carroll and who has been accused of rape, sexual assault or harassment by at least 25 women since the 1970s — "a perfect gentleman." Trump has never been identified as the subject of any criminal investigation or subject to criminal charges based on those accusations.

In releasing the interview transcripts of 1 1/2 days of questioning by DOJ second-in-command Todd Blanche, the Trump administration sought to portray itself as being transparent about the sex-trafficking case.

It had previously refused to disclose a trove of records relating to Epstein and went back on Attorney General Pam Bondi's February statement that a "client list" was on her desk awaiting review. Trump's past relationships with Epstein and Maxwell and his own claims during his 2024 campaign that he would release the client list have placed him at the center of a chaotic reckoning within his MAGA base. His supporters in recent months were forced to choose between loyalty to Trump and their commitment to demanding the release of information relating to the Epstein case.

By making public two days worth of interviews, officials appear to be hoping to at least temporarily keep at bay sustained anger from Trump’s base even as they continue to sit on other evidence they had suggested was being prepared for public release, according to The Associated Press.

"What did you observe, as far as President Trump, and his relationship with you or Mr. Epstein?" Blanche asked Maxwell, according to the transcripts.

"Well, I just want to say for my relationship with President Trump -- relationship's a big word -- but I just want to say that I met him or I believe I may have, because of my father in the '90s," she responded. "So my father liked him very much, and he was loved -- really liked his wife as well, because we were both Czechoslovakian."

"And as far as I'm concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me. And I just want to say that I find -- I -- I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now. And I like him, and I've always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him," she added.

Maxwell said she would agree to testify before Congress on Epstein if he is granted formal immunity, according to her attorney, and asked for a pardon so she can "testify openly and honestly."

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The Epstein saga has consumed the Trump administration over the last month following an abrupt two-page announcement from the FBI and Justice Department that Epstein had killed himself despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, that a “client list” that Attorney General Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist and that no additional documents from the high-profile investigation were suitable to be released.

The announcement produced outrage from conspiracy theorists, online sleuths and Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government coverup, an expectation driven in part by comments from officials including FBI Director Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, who on podcasts before taking their current positions had repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent people were being withheld.

Patel, for instance, said in at least one podcast interview before becoming director that Epstein’s “black book” was under the “direct control of the director of the FBI.”

Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence, she said, that had been handed over by the FBI and raised expectations of forthcoming releases. But after a week-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department said last month that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

Faced with fury from the base, Trump sought to quickly turn the page, shutting down questioning of Bondi about Epstein at a White House Cabinet meeting and deriding as “weaklings” supporters who he said were falling for the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”

Trump has always denied any wrongdoing relating to the Epstein case, has not been accused of any crimes by law enforcement and has never been identified as the subject of any investigation. Maxwell's attorney, David Markus, did not immediately respond to The Mirror US's request for comment on The Washington Post's reporting on Maxwell receiving "special treatment" in her prison transfer.