A former official who worked with Attorney General Pam Bondi in Florida predicted that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche would strike a "hidden pardon" deal with Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
As Blanche was reportedly meeting with Maxwell on Thursday, Bondi's former border czar, Dave Aronberg, called the move "extraordinary."
"I can't overstate it, Brianna. It's as if the number two executive at CNN was conducting this interview with me instead of you," he told CNN's Brianna Keilar. "Like, what? It never happens. Also, he's not going to be knowledgeable about this case like the line prosecutors who actually handled her case. Like, Maurene Comey, but she was fired."
"But there are others who could do this, which makes me believe this is a lot about perhaps some politics involved, like maybe to protect the president, to get a deal with Ghislaine Maxwell that she would get some immunity now and maybe a hidden pardon in the future, some sort of implication that she would be pardoned in the future if she comes out and says that the president was exonerated, not involved in any criminal activity," he explained.
Aronberg observed that there was no evidence Trump was involved in criminal activity, "but his name appears in the files."
"And Trump doesn't want to be anywhere near this smoke. That's why he's sending his trusted former defense lawyer, the number two person of the Department of Justice, to go see Ghislaine Maxwell herself," he added.
