President Donald Trump is risking another MAGA schism if his administration offers a pardon to convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, according to a report.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the president's former criminal defense lawyer, was meeting with the Jeffrey Epstein accomplice to discuss the case against the late financier, and some of Trump's media allies are seemingly preparing the MAGA base for the possibility of a pardon, reported The Bulwark's Will Sommer.
“Maybe she wants immunity, maybe she wants some sort of protection, I don’t know,” said MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk on his program on Real America's Voice. “But it definitely is something that is worthy of praise, and worthy of our encouragement.”
Maxwell, who is appealing her 20-year sentence, is preparing "new evidence" to present to Blanche, according to Epstein's brother. The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee plans to depose her in prison as the scandal continues to plague the president and his administration.
"The Trump DOJ presumably would not sign off on any agreement if Maxwell were to implicate the president himself," Sommer wrote. "But if she were to leave Trump out of her revelations, it would be seen as a laughably transparent effort to get leniency from the feds. Even Trump’s base would have trouble buying it. Which may explain why right-wing media figures are starting to prepare their fans for the possibility that Trump — the guy they expected to arrest the pedophiles — could soon strike a deal with one of them."
Newsmax anchor Greg Kelly took those preparations a step further and suggested that Maxwell could be a victim of Epstein, despite her conviction three years ago, and he seemingly called the entire case against both of them into question.
"She deserves to be out," Kelly said, "and maybe she never deserved to be in there in the first place."
"Now, how could you say such a thing?" Kelly added. "I mean, these are perverts. These are child molesters. We've heard that from whom? From the media, from prosecutors. Prosecutors prosecuted President Trump over nothing. I don't know, but I'm skeptical of everything and everybody these days, and you should be, too."
But a pardon would be politically fraught, because some of Trump's hardcore supporters are staunchly opposed to cutting a deal with Maxwell, and many don't consider her a credible witness.
"If they have Ghislaine testify and say what she's told, they can reward her with a pardon or reduce her sentence," said conspiracy theorist Whitney Webb. "Her testimony will be hard to trust given the stakes for her and for the Trump administration."
MAGA influencer and Trump whisperer Laura Loomer warned that "lobbyists" would push for a pardon if the Department of Justice doesn't release the Epstein files, but Trump himself has laid the groundwork for a pardon as he seeks to distance himself from the case.
"As calls for the Epstein files to be released have grown, Trump has begun insisting that evidence in the investigation has been irrevocably tainted by assorted villains — from Barack Obama to James Comey," Sommer wrote. "In doing so, he has raised the question of why Maxwell should be in prison at all. It’s a similar pattern to what happened around the January 6th rioters. Having spent years insisting that the 2020 election was stolen, Trump had laid the predicate to ultimately pardon them."
Right-wing influencer Jack Posobiec called the DOJ outreach to Maxwell the plot twist of all plot twists," but he said a deal might be worth it if the Epstein associate could deliver the goods on certain individuals.
“If Ghislaine Maxwell wants anything from the Department of Justice, there needs to be names and there needs to be receipts," Posobiec said.
Posobiec doubted that Trump's name would be among those Maxwell could deliver, but he expects she could implicate other elites.
“He’s been falsely accused of illicit behavior with Epstein time and time again,” Posobiec said. “That’s already been litigated. Who else is out there, Ghislaine?”