The announcement on Monday that top DOJ officials will interview imprisoned Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell led to instant speculation that the Trump administration might be trying to buy off her silence on aspects of the case that could embarrass the president.
But there's another dark element to the whole affair that recontextualizes a development from last week, legal experts on X speculated.
Specifically, suggested independent national security reporter Marcy Wheeler, it adds a new dimension to the DOJ's move to fire career prosecutor Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey, long a target of Trump's fury for his early role in the 2016 Russia investigation.
But the younger Comey also worked on the Epstein case — a connection that was made at the time, and that Wheeler argued in conversation with Never Trump conservative attorney George Conway is more relevant.
"Any meeting between Blanche, DOJ, or any other Trump representative, on the one hand, and Ghislaine Maxwell and her attorneys or other representatives, on the other, should be audiovisually recorded. Full stop," said Conway, echoing the fears of other observers that the DOJ may be engaging in witness tampering.
"They fired Maurene Comey to make sure there was no witness," replied Wheeler.
The DOJ, for its part, argues that the new interest in interviewing Maxwell is simply in the interest of responding to demands from the public about as much information on the Epstein case as possible, with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche posting on X, "Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know? ... No one is above the law — and no lead is off-limits."